Stockholm Furniture Fair 2019 — What’s in store for peak Scandinavian design?

3 min readFeb 27, 2019

Stockholm hosted the largest and most renowned furniture exhibition from Tuesday 5th February to Saturday 9thFebruary, 2019. The most important week of the year for Scandinavian design included contemporary Scandinavian design solutions combined with the more classic traditional. It is easy to say Scandinavia has always paved the way for fresh, no-nonsense, and absolutely stunning design solutions in all areas, so the fair was certainly appealing to those with an eye for slick design and the thoughtful use of space.

So… What’s on offer in 2019 at this huge design event?

This year’s Guest of Honour — Award-winning Chinese design and architecture office Neri & Hu.

Focusing less on furniture and design as the main focus, Neri & Hu offered an installation piece, as a commentary on the social issues in China. The rapidly disappearing traditional Chinese village acts as a slick and poignant symbol of China’s heritage. “The social issues concerning China’s culture and heritage greatly impact the traditional notion of community, family and cultural roots. Since many of our products revolve around and are inspired by perceptions of nostalgia, the home, the family and the individual’s relationship to others in a collective, we wanted to create an exhibition that represents and captures the essence of the traditional Chinese village” told us Lyndon Neri and Rossana Hu.

The installation is named The Unfolding Village and it is based on the narrow alleyways found in Chinese villages

The Design Bar — Where restaurant meets contemporary design

It is a tradition for Stockholm Furniture Fair to offer a new, contemporary dining space with a top-class menu at their yearly exhibit. This is another chance to offer an insight into effective and relevant design, whilst creating a space for people to absorb the essence of the fair. This year’s design bar took inspiration from Scandinavian Atriums and Japanese Aesthetics and was designed by Andersen & Vall. “We want to create a peaceful oasis, a calm, quiet place where we can absorb all of the impressions ” says Torbjørn Anderssen och Espen Voll.

Guest Exhibitor — Carl Malmsten

His furniture is known for contributing to the Swedish term: “folkhemmet”, or “people’s home” with his focus on the dedication of Swedish craftsmanship as opposed to mere functionality. He remains a true icon in furniture and home design. This exhibit honors Malmsten’s fresh inspiration, classically featuring more than 20,000 work sketches, photographs, and samples of textile, cozy chairs, contemporary mosaic design, tile tables, and wallpaper patterns, all of which are built true to the designer’s original sketches.