Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair & Design Week

Stockholmsmässan, which is Scandinavia’s largest exhibition and congress center, organized its first furniture fair in 1951. Since then the fair has grown into what is generally considered as one of the two top-notch furniture fairs in Europe – the other one being Salone del Mobile in Milan. Today the fair attracts around 40,000 visitors from more than 60 countries and over 1,100 media representatives every year, and around 750 companies exhibit their furniture, lighting and textile products. The largest exhibitor nations, apart from Sweden, are Denmark, Finland and Norway, and usually around 80 percent of all exhibitors come from Scandinavia.

During Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair, Stockholmsmässan’s 70,000 square meters are full to bursting point with the latest innovations within interior design and lighting for both homes and public spaces. New products, new materials, new knowledge, new trends, new business, new contacts and new environmental and technological solutions are displayed in a both informative and inspirational manner. The exhibitions are of the highest rate and the seminar program is extensive. The first days of the fair are restricted to professional visitors while the concluding Saturday also is open to the general public.

One of the highlights at the fair is the Guest of Honour, a highly respected international designer who is asked to create a lounge in Stockholmsmässan’s entrance hall during the fair. This time the task has fallen to Danish-Italian GamFratesi, a design studio enjoying a meteoric career and now in demand all over the world.

GamFratesi Design Studio was established in 2006 and embodies the fusion of Danish and Italian design. It consists of Stine Gam, born in Denmark in 1975, and Enrico Fratesi, born in 1978 in Italy. The Danish design tradition of attention to detail and minimalism is blended with quirkiness and the desire to tell a story. Contrasts frequently act as the key to GamFratesi’s inspiration, with their design flowing from everyday situations in their native cultures, and an authentic fusion of technology, poetry and tradition.

Previous Guests of Honour at Stockholm Furniture Fair have been Patricia Urquiola, Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, Naoto Fukasawa, Konstantin Grcic, Giulio Cappellini, Ineke Hans, Paul Smith, Arik Levy, Inga Sempé and Oki Sato/Nendo.

Another fair highlight is the Greenhouse, where new talents are given the chance to show their prototypes and meet manufacturers from the furniture industry. At the 2013 exhibition, 36 independent designers and 38 design schools exhibited their work. Greenhouse serves as a springboard in the careers of young designers, and is also a great place for furniture manufacturers to find new young talents to cooperate with. Independent designers and design schools from around the world are invited to apply, and several of the leading designers and design groups of our time have had their breakthrough thanks to their participation in Greenhouse. This year’s edition will be the eleventh in a row.

If your feet are getting tired after a few hours at the fair, you are welcome to sit down in the Design Bar. Each year a new Nordic designer or design team creates this waterhole for all visitors at the fair in a combined exhibition and bar, which this time is being transformed into a top-class restaurant. This is thanks to the combined talents of designer Jens Fager and chef Tommy Myllymäki, Sweden’s representative at the prestigious culinary competition Bocuse d’Or Europe 2014.

Restaurant Fager/Myllymäki’s theme is classic Swedish dishes, with produce sourced from forests, seas, lakes or mountains. The theme will also influence restaurant design. Just as the food is based on Swedish produce, the materials will be selected from a Swedish perspective. Interior design and food interact at multiple levels. There will be simplicity in both food and interior design, but with a highly refined elegance. The food should appeal to international visitors and Swedish visitors alike.

Visitors to the fair will get a chance to see Japanese materials and furniture-making techniques never before shown in Sweden in the ‘Material attraction - Scandinavia likes Japan’ exhibition. It is a joint production between the Materials Library at Stockholmsmässan and Japanese designer Naoto Nakamura. The exhibition showcases a selection of Japanese materials and manufacturing techniques that will inspire and create synergies between Scandinavia and Japan.

These two design cultures have many points of contact, as they hold similar views on ascetic and pared-down design and architecture. Scandinavian and Japanese designers frequently find angles where materials and construction are illustrated in design and function, while they like to preserve a certain sense of tradition and craftsmanship.

The same week as Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair, Stockholmsmässan also organizes Stockholm Design Week, presenting more than seventy high-profile design events at various venues around the city. The design week serves as a meeting place for promoting the furniture and lighting design industry in Scandinavia that extends well beyond Stockholmsmässan’s walls. Business and deals are done during the day, while the evenings are intended for mingling and parties in the city. Examples of events during previous design weeks include receptions, dinner parties, “after fair” meetings, vernissage cocktails and open houses at a wide variety of showrooms, design schools, restaurants and studios.

All in all, Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair and the whole Stockholm Design Week have developed into a melting pot where just about everyone in any way connected to or interested in Scandinavian design meet and thrive, bringing home new impulses, contacts and inspiration.