Ask any insider which Scandinavian country has best upheld its design credentials since captivating the world in the 1950s and 1960s and the answer is unlikely to be Norway. In fact, no Norwegian designer showed at Milan’s annual Salone Internazionale del Mobile for 30 years until a youthful design group, Norway Says, was invited to participate in 2000. Happily, this initiative blazed a trail leading to today’s highly creative design scene.
Some would argue that the country’s design isolation was natural. While Denmark, Finland and Sweden built global reputations as design-aware nations, Norway focused on exporting raw materials (timber and fish) and developing its petroleum industry. It wasn’t until Norsk Form (the Centre for Norwegian Design, Architecture and the Built Environment) was founded in 1993 that industry and commerce began forging relationships with indigenous designers.
Now, however, a new generation is producing innovative work. Current developments will be the focus of 100% Norway, a feature of next month’s London Design Festival. The designs include Cathrine Kullberg’s Norwegian Forest lights, whose Nordic birch veneer shades are etched with delicate, laser-cut patterns, the Giant Leap rug (with integral footprints) by Permafrost (whose four partners were classmates at Oslo School of Architecture and Design) and innovative lights by Northern Lighting. Further designs by Bergen-based designers Petter Knudsen, Tveit & Tornoe, Geir Saetveit and Circus Design are on show at Tent London during the festival.
Is there a shared aesthetic among contemporary Norwegian designers? Henrietta Thompson, co-curator of 100% Norway with Benedicte Sunde from the Norwegian Centre for Design and Architecture and design editor of Wallpaper* magazine, believes so. “Say Norwegian design and the cultural stereotypes immediately conjured up are blond wood, warm weaves, bright primary colours and simple, organic, timeless forms,” she says. “You can certainly find all these elements in contemporary design but there is also something very fresh, independent and original, too. This is partly because Norway’s contemporary design industry is comparatively young, and partly because the country lacks the great Scandinavian design heroes like Alvar Aalto, Arne Jacobsen or Finn Juhl. As a result there’s a sense of humour and lightness of touch that’s quite distinctive.
“There’s also a great tradition of skilled craftsmanship. A lot of the manufacturers are family businesses, passing on traditions from generation to generation, while the designers themselves have a good understanding of materials and techniques because they generally have to learn to make things themselves in college. This means they know what goes into a design.”
Co-curator Benedicte Sunde agrees. “As a Norwegian, I’d say we’re a very young design nation. We don’t have a gigantic oeuvre. Our population is just 4.5m, which speaks for itself. However, the current generation is really into using materials, especially textiles and wood, in new ways. The common link is simplicity of style, a love of natural, earthy colours and consistent quality of production.”
Below is a guide to some of country’s rising stars, many of whose designs are available online at www.purnorsk.no
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| Duo sofa by Norway Says |
The trio which, for 10 years, comprised Norway Says recently split. Torbjorn Anderssen and Espen Voll now work together, with Petter Skogstad as an intern, while Andreas Engesvik has gone solo. However, the group’s innovative furniture, textiles, glass, lighting and home accessories – many still in production – internationalised contemporary Norwegian design by combining a pared-back minimalism with sensual, organic shapes. Designs on show at 100% Norway will include Fjordfiesta’s Nordica table; the clever Duo sofa and a hand-made, straw wall-covering produced to celebrate the 70th anniversary of Norwegian family firm Biri Tapet.
www.norwaysays.com
StokkeAustad
Jonas Ravlo Stokke and Oystein Austad met at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design in 2004 and founded their studio after their graduation in 2007. Strong, simple shapes and clean lines characterise their furniture, lighting and home accessories, often with one clever element adding interest. The depth of cut Corian on the circular Lola table-top controls the intensity of its colour, for example, while the Bengt cabinet’s angled front panels offer different perspectives depending where you stand. A lacquered ash, extendable dining table and matching benches for Norwegian manufacturer Nora will launch at 100% Norway. StokkeAustad has also designed the show’s stand – an A-frame structure inspired by the Norwegian hjeller (traditionally using for drying fish) and made from Kebony, a new type of eco-friendly wood treated with sugar industry bio-waste, which Stokke describes as “a viable substitute for rainforest timber”.
www.stokkeaustad.com
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| XXL vase by Anne Haavind |
Glass artist Haavind studied graphic design at New York’s Parsons School of Design and fashion design at the Norwegian Institute of Fashion and Norwegian Academy of Applied Arts. A chance visit to a Czech glass factory inspired a change of direction in 2004. Her big, bold vases, platters and chandeliers are organically fluid with great depth of colour. Haavind, a trained ballet dancer, says “I love the physicality of glass-blowing – your movements draw emotions and intellect into the shapes.”
www.annehaavind.com
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| Panel by Scandinavian Surface |
Kristine Dybwad, Katrine Nylund, Ann-Tove Engenes and Asne Midtgarden studied textiles at Bergen’s National Academy of the Arts, then spent 10 years working individually on exhibitions, applied arts, costume and set design prior to founding Scandinavian Surface in 2003. The company specialises in developing patterned surfaces, including wallpaper, and bespoke designs for three-dimensional objects and building façades. “We wanted to establish a common platform where our ideas could come to life,” says Dybwad. Their work with Swedish manufacturer Photowall on contemporary wall-coverings made of durable, surface-coated, non-woven paper ( www.photowall.eu) has led to the development of an imaginative product launching at 100% Norway. Called PanelPiece, it comprises 12 individually designed wallpaper panels that can be displayed separately as artworks or mixed in interesting, non-repetitive combinations. “It’s a new way of thinking about pattern – put them together and you get different rhythms,” says Dybwad.
www.scandinaviansurface.com
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| Blaane tableware by Wik & Walsoe |
Linda Svedal Walsoe and Ragnhild Wik graduated as fashion designers in 1993, then worked in product design and development at various companies before setting up their porcelain studio in 2006. “Our aim is to produce unique porcelain of enduring value that will be kept for generations,” says Walsoe, adding “we’re anti-throw-away consumerism”. The partners work closely with experienced craftspeople in Bangladesh, which “contributes to employment, development of skills and provides economic growth in one of the world’s least-developed countries”. Shapes are simple and functional (with fist-sized handles on mugs) while design inspiration derives “from nature, cultural heritage and supernatural phenomena” with fairies, elves, and reindeer frequently depicted. The new Alvekvist collection, launching at 100% Norway, comprises bowls and vases hand-painted with a silver lustre.
www.wik-walsoe.no
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| Hubless wall clock by Petter Knudsen |
Bergen-based Knudsen is very much a rising star despite only graduating from Bergen National Academy of the Arts this summer. Considerable interest was generated by his Loop light emitting diode lamp, shown pre-launch at 100% Norway last year. It is now produced by Belgian lighting manufacturer Dark. “Using LED technology affects the lamp’s overall look and gives it the purity of a sculpture,” says Knudsen. Of his elegant oak LeeLow bench and table he says: “I was trying to find a funky new interpretation of Scandinavian design.” Meanwhile, inspiration for his aluminium Mir lamp, which he says offers “a high flexibility to position the light beam”, came from a shaving mirror. A more challenging concept is the Hubless clock. “I was trying to construct a wall clock where the hour and minute hands don’t emerge from the centre but, instead, float around the outer rim.” Knudsen will show these designs at Tent London.
www.petterknudsen.com
‘100% Norway’ is at stand G30 at ‘100% Design’, Earl’s Court, London W8, www.onehundredpercentdesign.co.uk; ‘Tent London’ is at the Truman Brewery, Brick Lane, London E1, www.tentlondon.co.uk; September 24-27
