Stockholm 2015: a trio of designers shaped this upholstered chair for Swedish furniture brand Blå Station to be as narrow as possible without losing its functionality.

The tall slender Poppe chair, designed for small spaces, is made from a lacquered steel frame with moulded polyurethane foam upholstered in fabric or leather.

Swedish designers Stefan Borselius and Thomas Bernstrand worked with Blå Station managing director Johan Lindau to experiment with how skinny they could make a seat.

"A designer should ask questions," said Borselius. "I wanted to see how far I could go with dimensions. How narrow can we make an upholstered chair without losing function? Are there limits to our expectations about how a piece of furniture should appear or be?"

"It was important that the armchair should be a real chair to sit in, not an art project or just a perch," he added.

The designers referenced Swedish designer Carl Malmsten's 1950s Farmor armchair, which was nipped in at the waist so that grandmothers could sit and knit without restricting their elbows.

Measuring just 33 centimetres at its widest point, the chair is lightweight enough to be easily moved around a room.

There are two options for the base of the chair – one with four legs in lacquered steel and another with a swivel-base in chrome or a lacquered finish.

The lacquered finish is available in blue, aubergine, dark green, red-orange, black and the upholstery comes in a wide variety of fabric and leather options.

Poppe was launched at this week's Stockholm Furniture Fair and was the result of a competition called Experiment 2015, in which designers were asked to create a chair that could become a classic.

Borselius also presented a globe-shaped outdoor light for streets and parks during the event, which concluded yesterday.

Photography is by Erik Karlsson.