Brave new world

A fashion stylist and an artist founded Amaze Sthlm, a new platform for Swedish fashion. Nicole Walker and Cornelia Blom share their views on political style and their addiction to Tumblr.

€?A small object with lots of added value”, was how the jury put it. At this year’s furniture fair in Stockholm, the brilliant designer Inga Sempé received the Form +1 award from last year’s winners, Färg & Blanche.

The furniture world is in flux. The office is becoming cosy and home-like, while the home is turned into a workspace. Salka Hallström Bornold explains how the flexible office is the result of an increasingly unstable job market.

Fake business cards, retromodern textiles, a chair with the winning name Form, lamps inspired by etched glass bottles, an oversized tea set in high-red red clay, a three metre high bookshelf in the shape of a man carrying a polar bear on his shoulders. Those are just some of the Scandinavian contributions to this year’s Furniture Week in Milan, April 14–19.

Outside of the fair

They flock near the Swiss border – the family dynasties who never seem to tire of making designer chairs and luxury kitchens. Form has mapped out the families behind Italy’s post-war furniture success.

Thanks to Scandinavian producers such as Hay, Muuto and &Tradition, accessories are bigger than ever. Now, the trend is spreading to individual designers, who are starting to produce their own lines of small objects. ”It’s a revolution”, says designer Eero Koivisto.

Jasper Morrison is to British design what Damon Albarn is to pop music – a nineties legend who is still inquisitive and inventive. Bo Madestrand met up with him for a talk about super normal design, books and the courage to admit one’s mistakes.

As a partner of Rem Koolhaas’ office OMA, Reinier de Graaf leads projects all over the world. Salka Hallström Bornold visited him in Rotterdam for a conversation about architecture’s social importance and the construction of the new twin towers in Stockholm.

Artists and designers give new life to industrialism’s abandoned buildings. Karin Faxén Sporrong visits an old paper mill in the Swedish countryside and discovers a creative factory.

Architects and artists such as Peter Zumthor and Louise Bourgeois have contributed to the scenic tourist route in northern Norway. Julie Cirelli and Martina Hoogland Ivanow travelled to Barents Sea to see how architecture relates to nature in the Arctic wilderness.

As the architecture and design curator of M + in Hong Kong, Aric Chen sits on one of the museum world’s fattest wallets. How will he manage these assets? Salka Hallström Bornold met him in Dubai.

Bright colours, kitsch and unconventional materials. No design week would be complete without a touch of inspiration from the Memphis group, the Italian rebel movement of the eighties. This year, the Memphis ghost appeared quite a lot in Stockholm.

They’re talking about AI and the intelligence explosion, better known as the apocalypse. Salka Hallström Bornold doesn’t think that we’ve talked enough about biological intelligence yet.

It’s all about bare wood, craft and delicate structures. Form picks out a number of new furniture delights.

Little Tellus in Stockholm is a ”creative neighbourhood” before construction has even begun. With pop cultural references, the developers are trying to attract hipsters who in turn will make the area attractive to businesses and institutions. But urbanity can not be created, Po Tidholm writes. It must grow organically.