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Now that Stockholm Design Week has drawn to a close, here’s a look at seven rising Swedish design talents that exhibited at the event.
Stockholm Design Week and the coinciding Stockholm Furniture Fair took place in the Swedish capital from 6 to 12 February at venues all around the city.
The show is often filled with promising design students thanks to Greenhouse, a dedicated exhibition for young designers that is a regular fixture at the fair.
However this year’s event also featured many newly established designers and studios who are starting to make a name for themselves in the furniture and interiors industry.
Here, we have picked out seven of the most exciting prospects:
Mimmi Blomqvist
Mimmi Blomqvist is an artist and designer, and a recent graduate from the ceramics and glass masters course at Stockholm university Konstfack.
She collaborated with historic Swedish interiors retailer Svenskt Tenn on a collection of homeware, which was on show in store throughout the design week.
Named Sirkka, in tribute to the designer’s Finnish grandmother, the collection is made up of various mushroom-shaped objects that include a glass pendant lamp, a wooden stool and a pair of glass bowls.
“I am inspired by homes, both my own and those of others, but also by the organic forms in nature and the soft designs that I encountered while growing up,” said Blomqvist.
Kajsa Melchior
The work of Stockholm-based Kajsa Melchior straddles the border between design and sculpture.
In one of the rooms at new Stockholm Design Week venue Älvsjö Gård, she presented her latest experiments in creating objects that mimic natural erosion processes.
Her design process is based around the concept of exerting pressure on different materials, for instance, she likes using air pressure to shape sand.
“I have an inverted way of understanding form,” she told Dezeen. “I can feel a void and understand the form it creates, but it is not until the sculpture is fully revealed that I can see all the details.”
Gustav Winsth
Having originally trained as a mechanical engineer, Stockholm-based Gustav Winsth creates his off-beat designs by finding hidden potential in manufacturing techniques.
He was the only Swedish designer to be shortlisted for the Rising Star of the Year award at the inaugural Scandinavian Design Awards, thanks to previous projects such as The Dag daybed and Acid Vase.
Although he didn’t take home the prize, Winsth still made a splash by unveiling his bold new creation, the flourescent-painted Inferno cabinet, in an exhibition at Greenhouse.
“I want beautiful objects to have a worthy display that is also a piece of furniture, able to carry itself without objects on top,” he told Dezeen.
Laura Kjær
Colour plays a big role in the work of designer Laura Kjær, who founded her studio in Aarhus, Denmark, after graduating from the product design masters course at Konstfack last year.
Her playfully patterned Super Superficial chair was a star attraction in the Ung Svensk Form exhibition, which formed part of the Greenhouse showcase.
The design, created by combining an old marquetry technique with a modern lasercutter, has won scholarship awards from textile brand Kvadrat and industry association Swedish Wood.
Kjær said the proejct was an attempt to recapture the “joy of creation” that first made her want to become a designer.
Hampus Penttinen
Based in Gothenburg, Hampus Penttinen launched his studio in 2020 after completing a masters degree in furniture design at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts (KADK).
Having previously specialised in wood, Penttinen has developed a utilitarian approach to designing objects.
He presented three new designs in an exhibition at Greenhouse. The highlight was the brightly coloured Fold, a lightweight yet comfortable stacking chair made from just one piece of sheet metal and two steel tubes.
Penttinen described it as “a project about making a chair out of as few materials as possible”.
Frida McDavitt Wallin
Stockholm-based interior architect Frida McDavitt Wallin brings a focus on recycling to her work.
With the project Sandhagen, featured in the Ung Svensk Form exhibition, she created a series of furniture pieces using materials sourced from a now-demolished building in Stockholm’s meatpacking district.
Among the pieces she created was a lamp made from a reclaimed wooden railing and bench created from a salvaged stone window sill.
“The research aims to highlight the importance of reuse, not from the more obvious sustainability point of view, but as something that can be aesthetically motivated,” she said.
Daniel Odentia
Architect and designer Daniel Odentia is founder of the Stockholm-based studio Room Without a Cause.
As the winner of a scholarship award from String, his Faber stool was on show at the Swedish brand’s stand within Stockholm Furniture Fair.
The design is characterised by its bold blocky shape and vibrant blue colour.
“It’s a piece with a directness that can stand alone in many different environments and then be used for various things,” said Odentia.
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