Sober minimalism? Scandi furniture takes an experimental, joyous turn

“I’m not the designer you should call if you want something that fits in everywhere and is minimalistic,” says Gustav Winsth, whose bold, playful, industrial furniture pieces were on show at Stockholm Design Week (February 6-12) alongside other new talent bucking norms and expectations.

To think of Scandinavian furniture design is, typically, to think of minimal forms, clean lines, muted colours and bare wood. The “Scandi” trend, originating in mid-century Modernism, has seemingly dominated our homes and Instagram feeds for more than a decade.

But now, a new generation of Swedish furniture designers such as Winsth — who graduated from college in 2021 and was nominated for the Rising Star of the Year prize in the 2023 Scandinavian Design Awards — is challenging the status quo, creating experimental furniture that draws on references as diverse as 1990s rave culture and traditional folk art. Is it time to leave our sober furniture behind, and embrace a bit of Scandi joy?

Winsth’s work was featured at Greenhouse, the exhibition dedicated to emerging designers at the Stockholm Furniture Fair (February 7-11). He garnered particular attention last year for his Acid Vase (2022), a circular, neon-yellow anodised aluminium vessel with a smiley face welded on to it, produced for Hem X, a platform for limited-edition design.

“I don’t have a background in woodworking — I’ve always been more fascinated by welding and working with metal,” says Winsth, who studied mechanical engineering before becoming a designer.

Another anodised aluminium work of his is the Dio shelf (2021), which rests on a zigzag, recycled rubber base inspired by “sneaker aesthetics”. That this contemporary streetwear style is combined with, as Winsth explains, a direct influence of Italian postmodernist designer Ettore Sottsass’s Carlton room divider (1981) seems to neatly sum up the playful, referential spirit that Winsth and his contemporaries bring to this new wave of Scandinavian design, disrupting pervasive minimalist style with a bang. “I don’t want to put my name on anything that goes unnoticed,” he says.

The work of Chef Deco, a Stockholm-based design studio founded by Emilie Florin and Cora Hamilton in 2020, also seeks to stir a response. “Our objects should awaken a feeling when being seen — a lust and joy,” says Florin. The studio’s pieces, mostly comprising home accessories such as rugs and vases, are an explosion of colour, and were also exhibited at Greenhouse this year.

Their Tapis rugs and Coussin bolster cushions bear riotous patterns of organic and geometric shapes in bright, contrasting hues — almost like camouflage prints having a party. The playful aesthetic also makes nods to the postmodernist Memphis group, but tailored for contemporary interiors.

As with many other emerging designers creating experimental works, Florin and Hamilton see themselves as artists: “Two artists making functional objects is how we describe our studio,” says Florin. The duo collaborate with local craftsmen in Sweden to bring their visions to life.

Ellen Hedin, a 27-year-old designer who also exhibited at Greenhouse, enjoys dealing in contrasts. In one piece, Motfoting (2022), she combines heavy concrete with fragile dried flowers; in another, Beach (2022), she mixes seashells with construction pipes.

“My process often starts in the attraction between two opposites,” she says. “I think contrasts can be found in materials that may not be so common in furniture design.”

Certainly, her deployment of red wine and blueberries as a wood stain in the Dear Diary (2022) wardrobe feels delightfully novel. But her use of such materials, rather than being subversive, is meant to imbue each piece with narrative and feeling. “Everyone has some kind of relationship with flowers, wine or blueberries,” Hedin says. “For me, the materials I use are connected to places and people. The seashells I use, for instance, remind me of the Swedish west coast, to which I have a very special relationship.”

Part of the ambition behind adopting materials with personal resonances is to create a relationship between the furniture piece and the user to breed longevity. “In the future, furniture will have to play its role for a longer time,” Hedin says. “We can no longer think of furniture as something to be thrown away depending on the trend cycle. I think sustainability is very much about the relationship we have with our furniture and how that relationship is created.”

For Matilda Hunyadi, founder of Gothenburg-based design studio Sloydlab, it is important to “diversify typical Swedish design”. Hunyadi’s practice, established in 2016, embraces the pluralism of folk culture, and celebrates ornamentation as opposed to minimalism. “The expression ‘unnecessary decoration’ is something that sits very heavily in Scandinavian and Swedish design,” she explains. “By going against that, it really feels like you’re committing a sin.”

The curvaceous, decorated furniture produced by Sloydlab was exhibited at Designgalleriet’s Tradcore & Luminary Lollipops exhibition (February 7-17) as part of Stockholm Design Week. Hunyadi describes Sloydlab as “folklore modern” (“sloyd” is derived from the Swedish word slöjd, meaning crafts).

She recalls being surrounded by folk art during her upbringing at home, instilling a love of and fascination with it. “What I really love about folk art is that it’s a bit more uncensored than what higher society’s aesthetic has been — there’s something really punk about it,” she says.

Though the kind of work these young designers are creating seems to disrupt the clean-lined, minimal Scandi stereotype, it is also often rooted in and celebrating history. “When you look back to pre-industrial Swedish furniture, folk furniture, it can be really expressive and ornamented,” says Hunyadi.

“Ornamentation is something that humans have resonated with since the beginning of time. What is considered typical Swedish design is actually a very recent aesthetic.”

Find out about our latest stories first — follow @FTProperty on Twitter or @ft_houseandhome on Instagram