Stockholm Design Week: young Swedish designers Form us With Love held an exhibition called Constructive at Nordiska Kompaniet (NK) department store in Stockholm earlier this month, which explored sustainability.
The designers launched six new products, which are intended to encourage debate about sustainability. The following text and captions are from Form Us With Love:
--
Constructive
Constructive is a form of criticism meant as a peaceful suggestion on how to deal with design in a sustainable way. We wish not to correct others, but to come up with a few humble proposals of our own. An attempt to challenge behavioural patterns and perceptions of what design is supposed to be.
The exhibitions feature six product ideas for the interiors of tomorrow; seating, hanger, room divider, tables and two lamps. The ideas are based on terms like recycling, readymades and DIY as well as productified thoughts on effective production and shipping. At the launch party on Wednesday February 6th, the exhibition space at NK feature a spectacular installation made of energy saving solar reflection screens from Svensson Screens, covering the entire atrium. A brief description of each product follows below.
Above: Construction room divider. Bamboo is nature’s own mass production. New shoots can grow over one meter per day. The material is both lighter and stronger than traditional ones and its cultivation is environmentally friendly. Traditionally used for construction. We chose to use it as a room divider, adding a moulded connection joint.
Above: Button upholstery. The term “Rags to Riches” refers to any situation in which a person rises from poverty to wealth or sometimes from obscurity to fame. This is upholstery seating in various diameters dressed in leftover cloth from the textile industry making it a perfect example.
Above: Prosthes hanger. In medicine, a prosthesis is an artificial extension that replaces a missing body part. In this hanger, the prosthesis are what you have at home, may it be a hockey stick, a broom or a spare branch.
Above: Duplicate tables. The thought of using one detail for several products has always thrilled us. By using one form we can make a series of tables in various heights using the same elements, reducing the number of steps needed in the production process.
Above: Work lamp. One lamp to rule them all. We think that the traditional construction lamp is a brilliant thing. You can hang it, put it on a shelf or on the floor. You can drop it and treat it rough and it uses a minimum of material for a maximum number of functions. It deserved a better appearance.
Above: Night Stick floor lamp. Interactive sculptural floor lamp that magnetically connects LED-fitted tubes. The user decides the size of the lamp by adding or subtracting segments. The exhibition will also feature unique visuals by graphic design studio Daquar.
Photography by Niklas Alm, Retouch by Sofia Cederström