Five takeaways: Stockholm Design Week 2024

As the industry continues to grapple with climate change, environmental sustainability was once again woven throughout this year’s Stockholm Design Week and Furniture Fair. The blending of traditional and modern practices was also significant, with many brands pulling from archives and refreshing classic pieces, or celebrating traditional craft methods and materials. From green concerns to reinvention, we’ve highlighted five key themes from another feast of Scandinavian creativity.

Sustainability is still central

Prompting a conversation about what the purpose of a design fair should be, this year’s Guest of Honour was Formafantasma, whose hero installation at the Furniture Fair’s entrance provided visitors with an educational reading room rather than a display of products – featuring literature and media about sustainability and ecology. ‘The Reading Room’ installation was furnished with seating and tables from Artek, lighting from Flos and textiles from Maharam. Formafantasma is currently collaborating with Artek to examine the changing conditions of Finnish forests and how these changes will affect the production of furniture in the future. Now the fair is over, the books will be donated to design schools and the furniture resold as signed pieces.

“Our aim is to make people engage with ecology, not on a product level but on a systemic level, says co-founder Andrea Trimarchi. “When we talk about furniture design we implicitly talk about wood and if we talk about wood, we need to talk about forests. We want people to connect the product to the ecosystem from which it originates and talk about the possibilities in this, but also the problems.”

Set across a 300 sq m exhibition complete with a hemp pavilion and living plants, ‘Farming Architects’ presented five different projects showcasing Swedish studio Jordens Arkitekter’s architectural philosophy. The exhibition featured a testbed of diverse building materials and projects that incorporate farming elements, including a property development that reimagines rural living beyond the ‘garden city’ concept and a senior living concept that builds upon the behaviours and lifestyles of blue zones – regions across the globe where people live longer. Jordens Arkitekter hope to start a dialogue on new sustainable building practices, drawing attention to the ‘synergy between architecture, ecology and the origins of materials.’

Trash to treasure: alternative materials shone

Another significant concept tackled by both the exhibitors at the fair and those in the city was how to progress towards a more circular approach to material sourcing. Waste was everywhere, with brands reimagining scrap to give it new purpose.

At their shared showroom in the city, Gabriel and Ege Carpets hosted the True Trash exhibition, inviting guests to see ‘trash as the beginning.’ The display explored the planet’s overflowing waste streams and opportunities for circular design – showcasing a series of products created from discarded materials.

Also working with recycled waste materials, Tarkett teamed up with Note Design Studio to create The Loop Design Lab – a pop-up displaying the process and research behind IQ Loop, Tarkett’s most circular vinyl collection to date. We’re told 80% of the flooring Tarkett sells is grey, which is equally the predominant colour produced when post-consumer waste is processed – the flooring manufacturer tasking Note to create a collection that celebrates this neutral and versatile tone.

The workplace is changing and so is its design

So-long fixed desks: the meteroric rise of modular workspaces in the last couple of years continues to have a serious impact on the way designers tackle future workspaces. There was an abundance of adaptable and modular furniture and workspace setups throughout this year’s Design Week.

Presenting this way of thinking tied up in a neat bow was the ‘Testing Grounds’ exhibition from Swedish design studio Form Us with Love, which transformed the front of its Stockholm studio into a testbed coworking space. ‘Testing Grounds’ revealed new work in collaboration with Ateljie Lyktan, Forming Function, Savo and Stolab, prompting conversation between visitors with a posed question, ‘to what extent does design shape workspaces of the future?’ A shared characteristic among the collections was their modular design, intended to be customised and arranged by architects and interior designers, and intended to work alone and in harmony with the other products on display. To create a truly future-thinking workspace, FUWL believe in a systems-led approach to design, designing products that are truly versatile.

The future is local

Typical for any Scandinavian design event, wood was rife across the capital. But for some makers it went beyond aesthetics, hoping to initiate a conversation about materials sourcing, production methods and total transparency.

Posing itself ‘as much a messenger as furniture company,’ Verk presented its ‘The Future is Local’ exhibition, displaying new furniture and a new completely Swedish-made textile. The company is passionate about the sustainable benefits of local production and material development down to the smallest screw, only using Swedish wood, surface finishes, leather and wool in its products.

“We want to share our knowledge about manufacturing 100% Swedish-produced products and to show that sustainable production is actually possible,” says Simon Anund, founder of VERK. “Total transparency benefits everyone.”

Similarly, Vaarnii celebrated the beauty of using a single natural raw material, with new ‘brutally Finnish’ collections from Faye Toogood and Ronan Bouroullec. Vaarnii only uses Finnish pine in its designs – typically underexplored as a furniture-making material – which are manufactured entirely in Finland.

Curiosity is key: nurturing the next gen

Greenhouse, the global stage at Stockholm Furniture Fair for emerging designers, has long been a platform for future design luminaries. In 2024, it featured 32 designers and 22 design schools, with notable highlights including the Very Simple Bar by Stamuli architecture studio and the Young Swedish Design exhibition by Svensk Form. Greenhouse continues to showcase the power of supporting the next generation of design talent and creative thinking, with fascinating concepts and a palpable energy at this year’s exhibition. From the University of Gothenburg, Alice Hultqvist, Emelie Sjöberg and Linnea Nilsson’s ‘Chia-chair’ is a knotted and knitted cushion on an ash-wood base, sprinkled with chia seeds and kept wet to foster growth. “Humanity has, in recent centuries, dominated the Earth’s resources at the expense of nature and wildlife,” said the trio. “Chia-Chair requires care if it is to flourish over time, like all living beings. The plant is the primary user of Chia-Chair and humans are only temporary visitors.”

Stay tuned for more highlights from this year’s Stockholm Design Week and Furniture Fair.