The Dezeen team are reporting live from the 10th edition of 3 Days of Design in Copenhagen (7-9 June). Read on for all the coverage from the first day (Wednesday 7 June)
5:30pm The Ukurant exhibition, which was founded by young designers for young designers, chose to showcase its third exhibition at 3 Days of Design in a functioning carpentry workshop on the Refshaleøen peninsula.
Here, works by 18 emerging designers from all over the world mingled with woodwork machines and raw materials.
Each contributor was chosen by Ukurant from around 200 applicants and pieces ranged from lights made from egg protein to Paperwork, an artwork and lighting design made from paper, thread, steel weights and artificial lights that was suspended from the high ceiling – Cajsa Carlson
5:00pm Le Corbusier's Lampe Cabanon and the Lampe de Bureau collection by Charotte Perriand are on show in Nemo Lighting's Copenhagen showroom during 3 Days of Design.
"Le Corbusier and Charlotte Perriand's lamps were conceived as absolute projects, made exclusively for the architectures for which they were designed," Nemo CEO Federico Palazzari told Dezeen.
Read more about Nemo Lighting's "abandoned" Le Corbusier and Charlotte Perriand lamps
4:00pm Zurich-based designer Alfredo Häberli and Max Fraser are being filmed for 3 Days of Design "Walk and Talk" series.
Community is central to the culture of design
Häberli, an established designer of furniture and products, stressed the importance of physical events post-Covid and the need "for human connection again".
He continued "we can't only exist digitally. We need interaction, to discuss and debate, to enjoy some drinks together. Community is central to the culture of design" – Max Fraser
3:30pm Dezeen events guide editor Sophie Chapman has been to see Mater's What a Waste exhibition, which explores the material cycle and presents Mater's furniture alongside how many grams of waste – predominantly coffee shells – are included in the material composition of each one.
The exhibition begins outside of the venue, with visitors invited to follow a path highlighting environmentally-related facts, reminding the visitor of the global impact of consumption.
The brand revealed it uses more than four kilograms of coffee shells in the production of their Eternity Chair model, and almost two kilograms in the Edge shelf.
What a Waste also spotlights the brand's collaboration with Arla and Holmris B8, using surplus plastic from Arla's milk cartons to make its Matek material – Sophie Chapman
2:00pm At the Conversations in Sound exhibition at 3 Days of Design, design duo GamFratesi (Stine Gam and Enrico Fratesi) spoke to Dezeen about their tactile speaker design for Bang & Olufsen and about how the festival has grown since it started a decade ago.
After Milan, 3DD is the second biggest destination for design
"We started this adventure and after ten years, it's becoming probably, after Milan, the second biggest destination for design," Fratesi told Dezeen.
"We have clients and press coming from the US, coming from the Far East; everybody that we met in Milan is basically travelling again to be in Copenhagen," Fratesi continued.
The speaker, Beosound A5, features modular covers made from paper raffia and oak lamellas.
It was presented together with a table from GamFratesi's studio featuring the different materials and components of the speaker and the design process of the project, as well as a room clad entirely in paper raffia – Cajsa Carlson
Read more about the project on Dezeen later this week.
1:00pm Danish furniture brand Fredericia has announced it has just attained B Corp certification, one of only a few furniture companies in Denmark to do so.
B Corp is the good side of capitalism
Owner Thomas Graversen explained "being a family-owned business, you feel more responsibility when you put new products into the world. For us, it was important to express this through our commitment to the stringent environmental and social principles adhered to by B Corp".
Other Danish companies awaiting B Corp certification include lighting brand Astep.
"B Corp is the good side of capitalism," Astep founder Alessandro Sarfatti told Dezeen – Max Fraser
12:00pm French designer Inga Sempé has collaborated with Kvadrat creative director Isa Glink to create a collection of fabrics that translate continuous and rhythmic lines drawn by Sempé into yarn and fabrics.
"It's not a boring grid, as if you were in jail," said Inga Sempé at Kvadrat's showroom when discussing the design of one of the fabrics that forms part of the new collection – James Parkes
11:30am Dezeen editorial director Max Fraser has caught up with 3 Days of Design co-founder Signe Byrdal Terenziani.
We are here to celebrate passionate designers, to share ideas, and explore new things
She reflected on ten years of the citywide event. "Now more and more people know and have experienced 3 Days of Design but the concept remains the same ten years on: we are here to celebrate passionate designers, to share ideas, and explore new things."
"It's not just a regular fair where you have to sell, sell, sell. The fact that you can easily walk from showroom to showroom in Copenhagen makes a difference to the experience. You wouldn't experience that in a fairground," Byrdal Terenziani continued.
11:00am Dezeen reporter James Parkes has been to see Spanish artist and designer Jaime Hayon's installation at &Tradition's headquarters-turned showroom for the launch of its Momento and Fomakami collection.
The installation comprises two spaces including a "cabinet of curiosities" and a decorative vignette (pictured above), which serves as the backdrop for the product launches.
10:30am Dezeen deputy editor Cajsa Carlson has had a sneak peak of Finnish pine furniture brand Vaarnii's exhibition at Tableau and spoke with the brand's founder.
The way that we consume stuff is broken
Vaarnii founder Antti Hirvonen told Dezeen "we originally started the brand with the idea that the way that we consume stuff is broken".
"We wanted to do things that actually last a hundred years."
Vaarnii’s "brutal and sophisticated" furniture is juxtaposed against sculptural pieces by other artists and designers that are part of the display at multidisciplinary studio Tableau's gallery space in Copenhagen during 3 Days of Design.
The exhibition at Store Kongensgade 50 is on view from 7 to 9 June.
10:00am Also from yesterday, Dezeen editor-at-large Amy Frearson was the first journalist to see an exhibition by glassware design studio Helle Mardahl Studio for The Sensory Society and spoke to the designer.
I love being an artist as well as a designer – it's a playground and there are no limits
Mardahl's work spans lighting and homeware. Her designs are all mouth-blown glass objects and typically have a candy-like aesthetic, with bold colours and round shapes.
For 3 Days of Design Mardahl is presenting in her studio's apartment showroom. Each room has a different installation, including one designed to look like a grand dressing room, and another set up with an incredible circular bar counter.
Across the rooms new and recent products are displayed, including her Candy Series One collection, which launches today (7 June). The new products include wine glasses and her take on the perfect bowl.
In a presentation to a room of special preview guests – mostly interior designers – she said "I love mixing art and functionality; I love being an artist as well as a designer. To me, it's a playground and there are no limits".
"This year we named the exhibition The Sensory Society. We transformed this old amazing apartment into a world of imagination.
I was inspired by Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel when I implemented the colours from our newest additions to the Candy Collection, such as grapefruit, blue jelly and champagne – absolutely yummy.
9:30am Ahead of the official launch later this morning, yesterday afternoon Dezeen reporter James Parkes attended the unveiling of House of Finn Juhl's latest project, the 77 chair.
Founder Ivan Hansen (pictured above, left) described the new chair as "a piece of Lego" and named it "perhaps the brand's least iconic chair".
"You won't believe how difficult it is to make something this simple," he said.
The 77 chair is available in textile or leather upholstery (pictured) with burnished steel legs and wooden toes in oak or walnut.
9:00am Dezeen's editorial director Max Fraser, editor-at-large Amy Frearson, deputy editor Cajsa Carlson, events guide editor Sophie Chapman and junior reporter James Parkes are on the ground in Copenhagen reporting from the 10th edition of 3 Days of Design.
Dezeen Events Guide has created a 3 Days of Design guide, highlighting the key events at the festival this year.
As the 2023 event gets under way, look back at of some of our coverage from last year – including architects Frank Maali and Gemma Lalanda's "sacral feeling" steel-clad 1950s garage event space for Vipp and a translucent pavilion by Henning Larsen Architects for Fritz Hansen's 150th anniversary.
To stay up to date, follow Dezeen live: 3 Days of Design in Copenhagen, taking place from 7 to 9 June 2023. Dezeen Events Guide has created a 3 Days of Design guide, highlighting the key events at the festival. See Dezeen Events Guide for all the latest information you need to know to attend the event, as well as a list of other architecture and design events taking place around the world.
All times are Copenhagen time.
The lead image is by Cajsa Carlson.