Stockholm Creative Edition hopes to wake up Sweden's sleepy design industry

Folded paper lights and a chair woven from a single piece of rope are among the projects from emerging Swedish designers that are on show as part of the main exhibition at Stockholm Creative Edition this week.

Set in a former sewing factory, the show forms the heart of the design festival, which was pulled forward from it usual time in May to fill the void left behind by the Stockholm Furniture Fair and its associated design week after they were cancelled for this year.

"We saw an opportunity to do something in the city," said Stockholm Creative Edition co-founder Ulrika Kjellström Attar.

"To show what we can do here in Stockholm, even in February, and also to engage the community in a different way, perhaps, than we're used to"

"We always have a really nice following with the creative set here in Stockholm, and also people who are not, perhaps, in the design industry, but are interested in the creative side," she added.

"What I would like this time around is more for the industry to start noticing what's really happening within design in Sweden, because they have been a little bit sleepy the last years."

The exhibition features work from more than 30 designers and brands – most of them emerging – ranging from recent graduates to slightly more established studios like Interesting Times Gang, Sloyd Lab and Scherlin Form.

In this way, it was conceived to as a sort of state of the union for young Swedish design.

"It's a very wide spectrum today, perhaps wider than it has ever been," Kjellström Attar told Dezeen.

"I would say 20 years ago, it was much more homogeneous," she added. "People are more experimental in a way. It's not all wood, people are exploring different materials."

Among these explorations is a cabinet by designer and florist Anna Ländle, which is panelled in a biomaterial made from roadside grass and wildflowers, and an updated version of Interesting Times Gang's Kelp Chair, covered in a shimmering, iridescent coating made from wood instead of plastic.

Several designers experimented with making structural, load-bearing objects out of otherwise flimsy materials, with Studio Kryss creating chairs and shelves from a single piece of rope and Svensk Form-winner Harry Parr-Young perching slabs of stone on top of reed bundles to demonstrate the surprising strength of this overlooked material.

Similarly, Josefin Antus recreated the shape of a traditional table lamp using only paper, which she folded and sewed together using colourful, contrasting thread.

Carl Lindström and Ragnar Peterson Brodow focused on using building waste from their communities, respectively creating furniture using doors left over from the renovation of a local library and reclaimed pine from Ekeskog's 800-year-old church tower.

Kjellström Attar, who curated the show alongside her co-founder Philippe Attar and Annika Berner, also found an increasing tendency towards more ornaments and fluid, organic shapes than are traditionally associated with Swedish design.

"Modernism doesn't have that tight of a grip on designers right now," she said.

This can be seen in the wooden furniture of Niklas Runesson – a self-taught carpenter from a toy-making family (top image) – and Sloyd Lab's Matilda Hunyadi, who is also showing a series of playfully ruffled glassware.

Another playful take on a classic furniture piece comes from local firm Public Studio, which is presenting a marble table with a cartoonish fish and giant cutlery shapes cut out of the surface to create a kind of permanent table setting.

Nearby, Jenna Gillinger is more focused on exploring new functions for furniture.

As part of Stockholm Creative Edition, the furniture designer is showcasing a modular stool for toddlers that turns into a step stool and coffee table, as well as a chair she designed for the waiting areas outside court rooms, which offers a protective, reassuring presence in these high pressure settings.

Reflecting on the general state of the Stockholm design scene, Kjellström Attar bemoaned a lack of adventurousness from Sweden's heritage furniture brands.

"I think we have a lot of really good designers, and there's a lot of stuff going on, but I think it has been hard the couple of last years to for them to have platforms," she said. "Also, I think the companies have been really reluctant to develop new products."

"A lot of Swedish companies right now are lacking sort of a point of view or a vision," she continued. "And they have to start doing their basic job about getting a vision for their brands."

"There are very good companies, but then there is a big bulk that are not evolving that much as you have to," she added. "It's very competitive in the design industry, in the furnishing industry right now."

Elsewhere in the city, more than 200 brands and designers are showcasing work as part of the wider Stockholm Design Days programme this week while they wait to see whether the city's furniture fair will return as planned next year.

The photography is by Andy Liffner.

Stockholm Design Days and Stockholm Creative Edition are taking place at various locations across the Swedish capital this week. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

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