Copenhagen has been honoured as the World’s best city for 2022 by Monocle’s annual Quality of life survey. Setting the scene with a bold and playful approach, this year’s visual theme has been designed by Italian designer Luca Nichetto reflecting the overall spirit behind the festival. The artwork features three characters which are a collage of traditional Danish icons, hinting at the experiences a visitor can look forward to, ultimately encouraging people to play. Alongside playfulness, this year’s edition has been the visual representation of Danish heritage with anniversary editions, mixed with a new generation of designers seeing fresh brands debuting on the scene. To connect them all collaborations across disciplines and design talks which ought weighted every other typology of event.
TAKT
Shaking the design scene with high-quality, transparently priced products that consider the entire lifecycle, with sustainability and social responsibility at its core, TAKT launched in 2019. The aim, back then and now, is to reinvent the Danish design tradition for the modern day in a unique balance of cost, craft and carbon reduction making quality products accessible to more people. During this year’s 3DD, TAKT teamed up with Original Coffee, using the roastery’s beautiful location in the heart of Copenhagen as a backdrop for the brand’s products. A show stopper, the lightweight three-seater Spoke Sofa is the first product in collaboration with Norwegian studio Anderssen & Voll. With the brand’s values in mind, making a beautiful yet environmentally responsible product has been the guiding principle behind Anderssen & Voll’s creative process. The sofa is designed to be easy to assemble and take apart, flat-packed for energy-efficient shipping and also repeatable by the user. All upholstery can be removed to be washed or replaced; every component is available individually, and the sofa can be easily separated into its constituent materials to facilitate recycling at the end of its life.
Hay
Amongst new storage, furniture, and lighting launches to hit the market in September, peaking my interest in a new collaboration. Known for her intricate compositions and candid social media presence, Laila Gohar, @lailacooks on instagram, chef and conceptual artist, has revealed a collaboration with Hay launching a collection of tableware and kitchen accessories that celebrate the joy of hosting. The collection, called Sobremesa, (the Spanish tradition of relaxing and enjoying idle moments and each other’s company at the end of the meal) features textiles like ornamental tablecloths, napkin sets but also vases and a variety of ceramics seamlessly representing Laila’s identity merging beautifully with the brand’s DNA.
Coinciding with 3DD and the 20th anniversary of Hay’s origin starting in 2002, Phaidon has published a new book on the brand celebrating the ever-growing creative endeavours of husband and wife Rolf and Mette Hay. The book is a highlight reel of the incredible bonds that have marked the brand’s identity through the years including Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, Muller Van Severen, Doshi Levien, and GamFratesi, along with collaborations with brands such as COS, IKEA, SONOS, and more. Over 300 images; essays; interviews with key designers and collaborators; and an illustrated timeline of key milestones over the years.
Atelier Axo
Celebrating the three-year anniversary in an exhibition called ‘ENSEMBLE’ under the glass roof of the Jørgen Carlo’ Larsens pavilion, Atelier Axo, a cross-disciplinary design and architecture practice based in Copenhagen, showcased existing and new furniture designed by the studio. Founded in 2019, the focus is on small-scale architecture, interior design, and objects developing concepts and products for fine art galleries, retail, and hospitality as well as residential commissions. At the core of the design process is to develop site-specific solutions that can emphasize what’s already available on site. The result of the exhibition is a quiet series of conceptual pieces of furniture and objects all uniquely shaped. Amongst them the Otto Puff which is part of an ongoing study revolving around the importance of slowing down and the pieces of furniture usually associated with rest.
Exhibit Studio
From the investigation during their master’s degree at Spatial Design from the Danish Royal Academy in 2018, architect Emilie Allin and designer Liv Engelbrecht joined forces and co-founded Exhibit Studio. In their first solo exhibition, STACKS – Spatial Sentences, the multidisciplinary practice takes on the idea of a shape alphabet where, by pushing the boundaries between architecture, design and crafts, they empower each object to speak through shape and materiality with a series of objects in ceramics and glass. In a wide range of scales, this exploration takes shape in the exhibition which is open at Officinet on Bredgade 66 until July 2nd.
&Tradition
As a culturally relevant venue, a staple in Copenhagen’s dining scene, the Apollo Kantine played a role in this year’s 3DD in collaboration with &Tradition in hosting Studies of a Table. It’s an exhibition at the crossroads between art and design featuring five international designers and design practices — All the Way to Paris, Studio Raw Material, Teruhiro Yanagihara, Stellenbosch Art Foundry, and Spiritual Objects — called to explore the boundaries of what is considered the archetypal table. The final pieces will be put on auction, with the proceeds from each table being donated to charities chosen by the designers and design studios.
Worth mentioning is the generously proportioned Tulip Table by Spiritual Objects, a multidisciplinary LA-based studio focused on the exploration of everyday objects. The table itself, in a puzzle-like form, is a visual representation of a colorful tulip that once nested together provides a dynamic combination of shapes and color.
In a visually soft expression, bent aluminum has been given an organic fluidity in Table Cloth, a table designed by Copenhagen based practice All the Way to Paris. Resembling a table cloth in its appearance, the table top appears to have fallen on a side giving a soft and poetic characteristic to it whilst its base confirms the overall rounded feel. ”Table Cloth fuses industrial expression with silky smooth tactility,” says &Tradition.
Last but not least, by Studio Raw Material, a rural design practice based in the desert plains of western India, Khokhar Table made with collected stone fragments discarded at construction sites. Whilst investigating the circularity of waste, each composing element is created in a unique form that assembled together creates the whole table. ”The piece celebrates the ideas and acts of ’gathering’ — of people in leisure, and in the act of making — especially in this new world forced into isolation,” the studio says.
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