The Dezeen team have been reporting live from Stockholm Design Week in the Swedish capital, where office rollercoasters, cardboard cities and leather alternatives were on the menu on 6 February.
6pm – klart slut
Dezeen’s cocktail at the newly opened Stockholm Stadshotell is underway and our editorial team is raising a glass to the end of a busy few days.
Although the real belle of the ball might be these cut-glass Anne Nilsson vases that attendees (and now Dezeen Live readers) can sneak a first peek at.
The asymmetrical pieces were created specifically for the hotel by the legendary Swedish glass designer and her newly founded glassworks Nybruk – billed as the country’s “first design-driven glassworks to open in 100 years”.
Skål from everyone here in Stockholm! And thanks for following along with our live coverage (klart slut is Swedish for over and out – at least I hope it is).
Discover what’s still happening at Stockholm Design Week on Dezeen Events Guide ›
5.30pm – fun facts about acne
Dezeen’s Jennifer Hahn has snuck off for a quick tour of the Acne Studios headquarters – a hulking brutalist building erected in 1972 by Czech architect Jan Bočan that originally served as the Czech embassy in Stockholm – and filed the below report.
Please enjoy these fun facts I gleaned along the way:
- The Max Lamb stone furniture in the lobby is so heavy it had to be craned in and the building’s floor had to be haphazardly reinforced so it wouldn’t collapse.
- Some of Acne’s mannequins were modelled on the Daniel Silver sculptures you can see nearby.
- All 400 employees working across the building are encouraged to eat in the company’s own canteen, casually arranged around a wooden sculpture created by Helmut Lang a few years after he retired from fashion design (rumour has it he would quite like to buy it back).
- The building’s top floor originally housed the embassy’s living quarters and had tiny windows to prevent Allied Forces from spying on their inhabitants during the Cold War.
For some slightly less fun but much more practical information about the renovation of the building, you can revisit our 2019 story on the project.
5.10pm – dog treats
The team has met two more design pets! Dante and Aston are rescue dogs from Ireland whose humans are design practice All Matters Studio.
The dogs were hanging out at the brand’s Söder flower shop takeover, where it was showing its green-marble table as well as a matching speaker made with Transparent. – Cajsa Carlson
Find out more on Dezeen Events Guide about All Matters Studio flower shop takeover ›
5pm – rugs in windows
Dezeen’s Max Fraser has been to see the window displays of established department store NK on busy Hamngatan, which have been dedicated to the Made in Sweden and Together 2025 project.
Together is an annual initiative by NK Interiors which celebrates the strength of Swedish design. This year, they joined forces with Swedish rug brand Kasthall.
Established designers including Jonas Bohlin, Monica Förster, Lisa Hilland and Pia Wallén have created textile items specifically for the display. Where is the younger talent?
Given pride of place in the window this year is scholarship winner Lukas Carpelan. His textile designs reference the landscape of Haväng in southern Sweden and the soft landscape found there.
Meanwhile, inside the department store, Dezeen Dispatch was spotted displayed atop a Piet Hein Eek table in the interiors department!
Find out more on Dezeen Events Guide ›
4.30pm – life is a rollercoaster
While design week might be an emotional rollercoaster for some, deputy editor Cajsa Carlson took things a step further and went on an actual rollercoaster!
Trying out creative studio The Great Exhibition’s 60-metre-long rollercoaster The Frontal Lobe, Carlson enjoyed feeling the wind in her hair as she took the sharp turns in the chrome, capsule-shaped train.
4.00pm – more lamps and vases
Paola Bjäringer, curator and founder of womxn design collective Misschiefs, has turned her home into a gallery, writes Dezeen design editor Jennifer Hahn.
There, amidst the clutter of her own life, her personal design collection and her son’s action figures, she has displayed work by six Swedish designers based around the theme of upcycling.
In Bjäringer’s bedroom, there’s a lace quilt by textile designer Anna Nordström made from “generations of lace textiles from Paola’s family”.
“When Paola asked me to work with her family’s lace archive I was excited but a little scared,” Nordström said. “It wasn’t going to be the first time I have cut and stabbed into a collection of textile heirlooms, but this was the first time it was not my own family’s belongings.”
“If we don’t use our archives, what’s the point? All those untouched boxes in the attic.”
Meanwhile, Kajsa Willner‘s Craft Punk Vases and Sara Szyber‘s Reclaim armchairs in the living room are both made from reclaimed waste wood.
“Do we really need more lamps or vases?” Bjäringer questioned. “What we need are spaces that encourage conversations about the state of the world.”
Find out more on Dezeen Events Guide ›
3.30pm – material innovation
Following on from the amadou entry below (2.30pm), Amy Frearson has zoomed out for this report on how a wave of radical designers in Sweden are experimenting with digital technology and alternative materials to invent new ways of making furniture.
3.00pm – going once, going twice
A 1950s cabinet by mid-century Danish designer Hans J Wegner – retailing for a cool €2.4 million – is among the pieces that architects Claesson Koivisto Rune have pulled from the Jackson Design archives for Stockholm Design Week.
Their Aiiro exhibition brings together lesser-known products created by some of the most important designers of the 20th century, including a one-off table that Poul Henningsen – designer of the PH lamp – created for a friend (which at €1.6 million looks downright affordable next to the Wegner). – Jennifer Hahn
“Usually, you as journalists and other people who come here, you see a lot of contemporary design,” said CKR co-founder Eero Koivisto. “So we thought, wouldn’t it be nice to see 35-40 pieces that you will never see again?”
“These projects will probably be sold to people around the world. So this is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to see them all in one room.”
Find out more on Dezeen Events Guide ›
2.30pm – amadou you know about me?
Over the past few years, a slew of materials companies have used highly engineered, complicated processes to coax mycelium and bacterial cellulose into something resembling leather.
Finnish designer Mari Koppanen has gone in the opposite direction and looked to the past for answers – which she found in amadou, a suede-like material derived from tinder fungus that has been used to make clothes and hats for hundreds of years.
“In the small mountain village of Corund in Romania, which used to have the largest community of amadou artisans, only a few people now still have the skills to work with the material,” Koppanen said.
Her Kääpä exhibition at Nordiska Museet hopes to revive the craft by adapting it to create a range of modern design objects ranging from bowls and mushroom-shaped seats to lamps made from a composite of amadou offcuts that resembles cork and is held together by natural cellulose glue. – Jennifer Hahn
1.45pm – Jenny Nordberg for Soeco
Amy Frearson has written up her visit to Älvsjö Gård – the section of Stockholm Furniture Fair dedicated to limited-edition design and gallery pieces – where she focussed on a collection of office furniture by Swedish designer Jenny Nordberg with Soeco.
1.30pm – truth zeekr
Earlier today in the Stockholm showroom of electric car brand Zeekr, Dezeen deputy editor Cajsa Carlson conducted a conversation with Chris Martin of Massproductions and Delphine Macé, Zeekr’s chief interior designer.
They explored the influence of domestic furniture in the design of car interiors, something the brand has developed for its Zeekr Mix vehicle.
The car, not yet available in Europe, is on display and explores the concept of a mobile living room, where the front seats swivel to face the back seats and “homely comfort” is prioritised.
Massproductions have a display for their new Astro chair as part of an installation called “sculptures from the factory”. – Max Fraser
1.20pm – on the hoof
I’ve taken my noble steed (Lime scooter) to Djurgården island, where Finnish designer Mari Koppanen is exhibiting at Nordiska Museet. More on that in a bit! – Jennifer Hahn
Find out more on Dezeen Events Guide in the meantime ›
1.00pm – lunch break
It’s lunch time for deputy editor Cajsa Carlson, who chose to work from one of her favourite places in Stockholm this morning: Kungliga Biblioteket, Sweden‘s national library, which is open to the public and located in a 19th-century building in the fancy Östermalm part of town. It’s a great quiet place to work or study.
It also has an excellent and well-priced restaurant in its basement where you can get the lunch of the day. Today, Carlson chose the Danish-style fried cod with remoulade sauce – the Scandinavian equivalent of tartar sauce – which provided a much-needed energy boost for day four of design week.
12.45pm – second pour
Trailed in this live coverage yesterday (5.00pm entry), you can now read Jane Englefield‘s full write up of the terrazzo beer taps and their environs at the Bobo showroom – the work of designer Gustav Winsth.
12.30pm – trend for hairy things
Several designers have had hair on the brain this Stockholm Design Week, Dezeen design editor Jennifer Hahn writes, with several projects across the city incorporating synthetic strands.
In the home of collector Paola Bjäringer, Botswana-born artist Ayesha Quraishi exhibited a metal sculpture decorated with hair pieces, while South African designer Nkuli Mlangeni-Berg and Konstfack student Anna Babenko showed an installation made from colourful braids for the Plastic Perspectives exhibition at the Stockholm Furniture Fair.
Nearby, Swedish-Ghanaian designer Ellen Aduofua Bernardsson (who’s among our six emerging designers to watch) exhibited a tapestry woven from hair extensions.
“The ritual of tending to someone’s hair is intimate and caring and takes time, like working with any craft,” she told Dezeen.
12.00pm – burn lace in Södermalm
And in another report from last night, Dezeen’s editor-at-large Amy Frearson writes: Stockholm interiors don’t get much better than the house where I spent the evening.
Locally based design duo Färg & Blanche teamed up brands Vitra and Artek to host a dinner in an ornate residence in Södermalm.
Built in 1889, the striking home has belonged to Emma Marga Blanche’s family for four generations.
Eagle-eyed Dezeeen readers may recognise it as the venue for Färg & Blanche’s 2019 exhibition The Baker’s House.
The showpiece of the evening was Färg & Blanche’s Burn Lace, a tactile lighting collection made from heat-treated polyester felt, although guests were also treated to a spot of piano playing from Fredrick Färg.
11.30am – Dezeen Awards 2025 is go
Last night we celebrated the launch of Dezeen Awards 2025, kicking off with a panel on “design that matters”, followed by Campari spritz paired with Dezeen Dispatch at Nordiska Galleriet.
“I’m tired of talking about dead designers” said Mirkku Kullberg rom Kasthall and Glasshouse Helsinki in the panel discussion about respecting designers legacies whilst making space for newness and innovation.
Moderated by Dezeen’s editorial director Max Fraser, the panel included Kullberg, Front‘s Sofia Lagerkvist, and Johan Oscarson from Elding Oscarson, who were winners of Dezeen Awards 2024 cultural project of the year. – Clara Finnigan
11.00am – cardboard city
How much can you build with cardboard? London-based design studio Hunting & Narud set out to answer that question with its exhibition design for Flokk, the workplace furniture manufacturer and parent company for brands including Offecct, HÅG and Profim.
Dezeen editor-at-large Amy Frearson dropped by the stand at Stockholm Furniture Fair, where she discovered house-shaped meeting rooms, partitions made from cardboard tubes and a bar with a zigzagging backdrop.
10.30am – the trees have eyes
The forest is taking over at surfaces company Cosentino‘s Stockholm showroom!
Designer Monica Förster has created an interior where plants and pine trees are planted into the floor using a synthetic soil made from waste material from Cosentino’s own production.
The result is an unusually eye-catching showroom with a natural vibe, where the green plants create a Scandinavian feel and contrast against Cosentino’s sleek stone surfaces. And where other than in Stockholm would you have a forest-feeling showroom? – Cajsa Carlson
10.00am – wild at heart
The sun has come out in Stockholm! As reports from last night’s festivities trickle in, catch up on everything that happened yesterday.
Dezeen’s Jennifer Hahn took a trip to the Kvadrat showroom, where textile brand Sahaco is presenting its 2025 collection in an installation themed “Wild at Heart”.
The collection was largely informed by the designs of the late Austrian artist Franz West, and includes three upholsteries and seven drapery fabrics.
Check out what happened on Tuesday and Wednesday at Stockholm Design Week.
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 Stockholm time.
The lead image is by Jennifer Hahn.
