400 exhibitors from 31 countries: the numbers sum up the 71st edition of the Stockholm Furniture Fair (7-11 February), the most important design fair in the Scandinavian area, and the first organized in physical presence since the lockdown. There are many new developments, including two new exhibition areas: The Gallery Edition, with a selection of projects on view in the city, as part of Stockholm Design Week (6-12 February and 5-9 September), curated by Sophia Bratt, and The Nude Edition, with stands of 15 square meters to demonstrate a return to the essence, focusing on recycled materials for easy disassembly and reuse.
The second novelty is Älvsjö gård, a new platform for design research and collectibles located in the 13 spaces of one of the city’s oldest castles, dating back to the 1600s, with a selection of independent galleries and designers. Participants include: the Danish studio Tableau, the multidisciplinary firm Navet based in Stockholm, the Norwegian galleries Pyton and Kiosken, and the Swedish galleries Stockholm Modern and Coulisse.
Inside the fair pavilion, the Greenhouse space is for new design talents: this year there will be 32 designers and 30 design schools from 18 countries. And Hall B hosts the projects selected for the Scandinavian Design Awards, in their first edition, promoting design and interiors from Sweden, Finland, Norway and Denmark.
As usual, the program makes plenty of room for talks, organized in three locations: the main stage of Victoria Hall, the Ung Svenskt venue and the stand Swedish Design Movement: topics include sustainability, also in cultural terms, the circular economy, the new meaning of post-pandemic living and narrations of experimental projects.
The speakers include the Ukrainian architect Slava Balbek, the Canadian designer Philippe Malouin, Nicolas Bellavance-Lecompte and Giorgio Pace, founders of the collectible design fair Nomad, the American designer Stephen Burks, Sabine Marcelis, Yael Mer and Shay Alkalay (Raw Edges), Ilse Crawford, Anders Lendagar and Victoria Millentrup of the studio BIG.
The guest of honor at this iteration is the studio Front, based in Stockholm and formed by Sofia Lagerkvist and Anna Lindgren, the first Swedish firm to receive this honor. The entry hall of the fair will host an installation created by the two designers and made with the Pebble Rubble furnishings produced by Moroso: a series of organic seats in the form of stones, suggesting the natural, uncontaminated spaces of Sweden, in a reflection on environmental but also cultural and psychological issues, such as the benefits of nature for people’s physical and mental health.
The many installations inside and outside the fair include Now or never – 1kg CO2, which addresses the climate impact of furniture, created by the designer Emma Olbers with the agency EY Doberman, and the participation of Form us with Love, Polestar, Doconomy and Nrep; and Closing the loop, produced by Solaris Community, where the furnishings and complements are made with plastic recovered from the oceans, by various creative talents and companies (a few names: Karim Rashid, Pierre Balmain, Swarovski and Julia Koerner).
Environmental awareness is also the theme of initiatives such as the Underbar, hosted in Hall B, designed by Jonas Bohlin, who for thirty years has designed the most important Swedish restaurants, together with Christine Ingridsdotter: at the end of the event, the materials and furnishings will be reutilized in other locations.
