The Dezeen team are reporting live from Stockholm Design Week in the Swedish capital (5-11 February) . Read on for all the coverage from day two (Tuesday 6 February) – and follow the live feed for today's activity!
5:30pm After a long day at the furniture fair, some of the Dezeen team are relaxing with raspberry cocktails in designer Gustaf Westman's Stockholm studio – skål!
Westman shared stories of how his designs came about, including his stackable circle-shaped coffee mug.
The designer thought of the idea while out on a run and had to draw the design in the mud and then come back to sketch it. – Cajsa Carlson
5:00pm As the opening day at Stockholm Furniture Fair draws to a close, Dezeen's Jane Englefield has made it to see I Inherited a Forest, an exhibition by designer Monica Förster at The Mess on Mäster Samuelsgatan.
After inheriting 130 hectares of forest in Lapland, open to the public to roam by Swedish law, Förster has created a collection of carpets and tapestries informed by the forest with textile brand Ogeborg.
The rugged textiles feature various colours and threads that convey the wildness of the forest and were produced entirely in Europe.
Forster displayed ephemera picked from the forest in an accompanying glass case to "bring out the beauty in the small things".
4:30pm Swedish street furniture brand Nola's stand takes the form of a garden, featuring planters filled with flowers and a patio-like floor made from recycled bricks (set to be recycled again after the show).
The space is framed by two wooden pavilions, a new product from designer Mattias Rubin De Lima, which casts dappled shadows across other new products including the Korg swing sofa designed by Thomas Bernstrand and the Island furniture from Färg & Blanche. – Amy Frearson
4:00pm Students from the University of Gävle collaborated with Swedish lighting brand Fagerhult to reimagine the appearance and function of outdoor lighting.
The resulting products include a luminaire whose purpose is to subtly emit colour to create a distinctive landmark that makes drivers aware of their surroundings at night.
One project is an interactive pole with a built-in speaker. The modular light was designed to be easily installed into existing paving stones. – Jane Englefield
3:15pm Visitors to the Stockholm Furniture Fair were turning their heads today as actor and comedian Will Ferrell was spotted perusing the furniture displays.
Married to Swedish actor and producer Viveca Paulin, Ferrell often visits her homeland. On this occasion, he was at the fair to see Paulin's cousin's new furniture brand Lumberyard Project.
Set up by designer Lars Hofsjö after making a variety of timber furniture items during Covid lockdown, he's exhibiting at the fair to find a producer of his Donald Judd-inspired furniture. – Max Fraser
3:00pm Nick Ross, a Scottish designer based in Stockholm, is exhibiting as part of Älvsjö Gård, Stockholm Furniture Fair's showcase of experimental and limited-edition works.
Ross has created furniture pieces made from different woods, including maple, pine and birch, and cast metals including copper, bronze and aluminium. They all share a formal language of simple linear forms.
"The concept was based around working with standard formats of wood and basic metal casting techniques, and arranging the pieces in different ways,” he told Dezeen editor-at-large Amy Frearson. "They are inspired by very simple, almost Stone Age constructions."
2:30pm Jordens Arkitekter created a hemp pavilion, which is on display as part of the studio's Framing Architects presentation.
The exhibition includes plans for a living model informed by blue zones – places around the world where people are known to live longer lives. – Jane Englefield
1:00pm Stockholm Furniture Fair got a playful addition from design studio Lab La Bla, which has designed the Surface Club – a mini golf course that visitors can try out themselves.
While it looks traditional, the course features furniture that has upholstery made from iron ore and flooring that has been made with spray-on denim fibres.
"These commercial fairs can sometimes come across as controlled and unsentimental places, so we're bringing a bit of chaos and nostalgia into the mix," designers Victor Isaksson Pirtti and Axel Landström told Dezeen. – Cajsa Carlson
12:00pm Following their relaunch last night (see 10:15am entry below) Dezeen's Cajsa Carlson has interviewed Iittala's creative director Janni Vepsäläinen.
How do I inject newness into the brand while still keeping the core alive?
The reinvention of the Finnish brand, traditionally known for its glassware, aims to build on its founding identity of "experimental, boundary-pushing" design, Vepsäläinen told Dezeen.
Finnish designer Janni Vepsäläinen, who joined Iittala last year from fashion brand JW Anderson, aims to make sure the brand stays relevant and innovative, something she believes is in its DNA.
"My challenge is how do I inject newness into the brand while still keeping the core alive and interesting and bring a bit of novelty into that?" she said.
Read the full interview here ›
11:00am On their large open stand at Stockholm Furniture Fair, Swedish brand HEM presented their own new furniture designs as well as projects in collaboration with Soft Baroque, Marco Campardo and Faye Toogood.
We have to kill modernism
Speaking to Dezeen's Max Fraser, HEM CEO Petrus Palmér proclaimed "we have to kill modernism. It's not relevant anymore. So much today is a race to the bottom and we can't do it anymore. We need a new appreciation of craftsmanship and to let go of the idea of mass producing everything at the cheapest price for everyone."
"We stopped working with industrial designers because they design to optimise. It's too rational. We need to invest in people with ideas and culture at their core. Maybe that's not logical but that's what drives our agenda," Palmér continued.
10:30am Launching today at Stockholm Furniture Fair, the Patch sofa system from Swedish brand Massproductions is designed to offer "just the right amount of character" to a room.
The standout detail is the corner, where the roundness of the modular cushions is emphasised.
Speaking to Dezeen editor-at-large Amy Frearson, the brand's co-founder and designer-in-chief Chris Martin said their challenge was to "design something with enough charisma to make it new and interesting, but not so much design that it becomes overwhelming for something you live with every day".
"The design uses pocket springs, rather than big blocks of foam," Martin said, explaining that this provides a high level of comfort and reduces the amount of oil-based materials used in the production.
10:15am Other reports from last night's festivities across Stockholm continue to trickle in. Finnish brand Iittala presented its relaunch in the most unusual venue of the week so far (and perhaps overall!) – the KTH Reactor Hall.
The space, which once housed Sweden's first nuclear reactor, was transformed for a performance by sound artist Damsel Elysium.
Beneath the bunker's concrete ceiling – marked with numbers to convey different levels of radiation – Elysium performed on glass instruments, which they had designed with Iittala.
Iittala creative director Janni Vepsäläinen aims to create these kind of unusual events and collaborations to make sure the brand remains culturally relevant, she told Dezeen deputy editor Cajsa Carlson.
9:45am International journalists gathered for a light press breakfast and the official opening of the Stockholm Furniture Fair by the fair's director Hanna Nova Beatrice.
A testbed for new ideas
The assembled press were briefed on what to expect from the week, including a series of talks from a range of exhibitors – and "more bars, more parties".
Studio Färg & Blanche's The Thread sofa for Johanson Design (see the 6:00pm entry from Day One at Stockholm Design Week) took centre stage with Nova Beatrice. – Jane Englefield
9:30am The Formafantasma design duo was invited to create an installation for Stockholm Design Week.
The result is a large-scale "reading room" cloaked in a Maharam pink curtain. The duo filled the space with iconic Artek stools and thin Flos lighting, which illuminates a series of books on ecology and design spread across timber tables.
All of the installation components will be reused at various locations after the event.
The room is "somewhere to sit down" and reflect, according to designer Andrea Trimarchi. At a design fair, "you need it!"
Two books in the display that Andrea Trimarchi suggested everyone should read were The Life of Plants: A Metaphysics of Mixture by Emanuele Coccia and Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene by Donna Haraway. – Jane Englefield
9:15am Last night, ahead of the fair's opening today (6 February) Dezeen's Max Fraser attended a dinner to celebrate Stockholm Furniture Fair's guest of honour, Formafantasma
Alongside Formafantasma co-founder Andrea Trimarchi (his partner Simone Farresin stayed in Milan with Covid), the dinner brought together many of the design industry's leading designers including Eero Koivisto, Monica Förster, Marco Campardo and Bethan Laura Wood.
The fair's first guest of honour from 2004, and Dezeen Awards 2023 interior designer of the year, Patricia Urquiola was also in attendance.
9:00am God morgon from Sweden! As day two gets underway, catch up on everything that happened on day one of Stockholm Design Week.
Meanwhile, we kick off with the unveiling of a project from design duo Foersom & Hiort-Lorenzen and furniture brand Norman Copenhagen, as part of Stockholm Design Week.
The Mat collection features two plant-based chairs; one is made from hemp – a type of cannabis plant – and the other combines this material with eelgrass, a marine plant similar to seaweed.
These biomaterials were used instead of injection-moulded plastic to create a shell chair, which sits on powder-coated steel legs. – Amy Frearson
Read more about Normann Copenhagen's Mat chairs made from hemp and eelgrass ›
Keep up to date and follow the live coverage from Stockholm Design Week – you can also read about what happened on day one (5 February).
Dezeen Events Guide has created a Stockholm Design Week digital 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 London time.
The lead image is by Max Fraser.