Jim Sessel

Claesson Koivisto Rune is a Swedish architectural partnership, founded in Stockholm, in 1995, by Mårten Claesson, Eero Koivisto and Ola Rune. Begun as an architectural firm, it is now an internationally acclaimed, multi-disciplinary office with an equal emphasis on both architecture and design. As the first Swedish office to have exhibited in the international section at the Venice Architecture Biennale, in 2004, they are also responsible for a wide range of award-winning projects such as K5 Tokyo, Grand Hotel Terminus, Villa Terminus, Zander K and Bergen Børs hotels in Bergen, Norway, Inde/Jacobs gallery building in Marfa, Texas, Sfera Building culture house in Kyoto, the Tind Prefab house collection for Fiskarhedenvillan, Widlund House private villa on Öland, Örsta Gallery building in Kumla, Nobis Hotel and Hotel Skeppsholmen in Stockholm. They design for such international companies as Arflex, Artifort, Asplund, Boffi, Capdell, Cappellini, David design, Dux, Fontana Arte, Kasthall, Living Divani, Modus, Muuto, Nikari, Offecct, Paola Lenti, Smaller Objects, Studio TK, Tacchini, Wästberg, among others. Claesson Koivisto Rune has received an array of international awards and recognitions, amongst them ten American Good Design Awards 2009 - 18, the Designpreis Deutschland (Gold and Silver) 2011 by the Federal Republic of Germany, Designer of the Year 2011 and Furniture of the Year 2012 by Elle Deco Sweden, both Designer of the Year and Best Seating 2014 by Elle Decor Italia, and the Red Dot Design Award – Best of the Best 2014, making them the first office to hold the prestigious Red Dot in five different product categories, architecture included. In 2015, they also received the prestigious Bruno Mathsson award, the highest honour in furniture design in Sweden and the Scandinavian region. Quotes on Claesson Koivisto Rune “When they unveiled the plans for us we were simply bowled over by the amazing design.” Vilis Inde, Art gallerist and author, Marfa, Texas, USA (From the book ”Claesson Koivisto Rune in Marfa The inde/jacobs gallery”, 2015, ISBN 978-91-877733-02-4) “In my time working as an observer to the design industry, it is rare to see a trio of men working so consistently well together.” Max Fraser, Design author and commentator, London, UK (From the book ”Claesson Koivisto Rune On Yellow”, 2011, ISBN 9789197655743) ”Claesson Koivisto Rune is a prime example of the power of contemporary design. Architecture and design are not only one profession, but they also lose the scale difference that allowed them to be kept separate.” Paola Antonelli, Curator of Architecture and Design, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, USA (From the book “Claesson Koivisto Rune Architecture/Design”, Birkhäuser 2007, ISBN: 978-3-7643-7948-3) ”The architecture and furniture designs by Claesson Koivisto Rune are the most evident example of the way inventiveness, humour and the reversals of stock forms can produce new panoramas for our minds, and these panoramas can be expressed with an instinctive simplicity, not with a reductive and faint-hearted minimalism.” Italo Lupi, Editor and Art Director of Abitare magazine, Italy (From the book ”Nine Houses Claesson Koivisto Rune”, 2003, ISBN 4-9901483-0-4 C0052)