Photography courtesy of Bankston
Editor Sophie Lewis reports on revisited icons, emerging brands, and cross-disciplinary collaborations that put people at the heart of this year’s 3daysofdesign.
This feature originally appeared in est magazine #58: ‘Kitchen Expressionism’.
Nils Fougstedt, 1929
It was the first time that Swedish interior design company Svenskt Tenn exhibited in Copenhagen, choosing a private residence in the city’s Christianshavn district as its setting. Founded in 1924 by designer and entrepreneur Estrid Ericson, the company was initially known for producing pewter—Svenskt Tenn meaning ‘Swedish pewter’.
The apartment staged Svenskt Tenn’s iconic furniture, textiles and objects, celebrating the 140th anniversary of designer Josef Frank’s birth, who joined Svenskt Tenn in the 1930s. The interiors were also shaped by pieces that marked the brand’s centenary last year, including the Noah’s Ark Nesting table by Nils Fougstedt, comprising three wooden tables with a pewter tabletop engraved by hand. The table was styled as part of a living space and was one of the first furniture pieces the brand produced in 1924.
Photography courtesy of Svenskt Tenn
Photography courtesy of Fredericia
Family-owned Danish furniture company Fredericia relaunched Bench for Two, a piece first designed by famed Danish industrial and product designer Nanna Ditzel in 1989. Inspired by the symmetry of butterflies, the seat is crafted from solid maple and veneer. The graphic pattern originated from a spontaneous sketch, where Ditzel drew directly on the prototype with a marker. While the original design featured a black stripe, Fredericia has honoured Ditzel’s colourful universe with three new colours: red, yellow and pink.
“The piece is called Bench for Two, because Ditzel’s idea was that you would sit, angled towards each other, and if it was a good conversation, you could move to something softer and closer,” Fredericia second-generation owner Thomas Graversen says. “It’s a sculptural conversation piece—it reflects Nanna’s fascination with pushing the boundaries on how furniture can be made.”
Photography courtesy of Fredericia
HAY Amanta Sofa
Contemporary Danish furniture brand HAY unveiled its reissue of the era-defining Amanta sofa by Italian architect and designer Mario Bellini. Modular and low-slung, the sofa speaks to Bellini’s view that design should serve behaviour, as much as aesthetics, seeking to bring people together in an informal and communal way. Initially designed with a fibreglass shell, the sofa is now encased in 99 per cent post-consumer recycled ABS, with cushions crafted from 94 per cent bio-balanced foam. It’s also available in new shell colours, fabric and leather upholstery options.
HAY co-founder and creative director of furniture and lighting Rolf Hay, reflects on Bellini’s design impact during the late sixties when the sofa was originally created. “After the great achievements of the 1950s and 60s, Danish and Scandinavian design entered a time of uncertainty,” Hay says.“In that period, Italian design stepped forward, offering new energy and a fresh understanding of modern life. Mario Bellino was one of the figures who defined that shift.”
Photography courtesy of HAY
Photography courtesy of HAY
Photography courtesy of GUBI
Carlo De Carli, 1963
Danish furniture and lighting brand GUBI reintroduced the work of Italian architect and designer Carlo DeCarli, with the Tavolo a Dischi table. De Carli believed there should be no distinction between a building and an object, expressed through the mid-century dining table’s precise series of stacked birch plywood and wood discs that conceal a cylindrical metal core. “Its distinctive layered curves beautifully express the rich tones and textures of the wood, revealing the natural depth and dynamic character of the material,” GUBI CEO Marie Kristine Schmidt says. The plywood creates a striped effect on the discs, all three centimetres thick, that widen at the base and taper at the centre, before expanding again at the top. A band of brass-toned steel features at the base for protection.
VERPAN Series 270 F Armchair
Danish furniture and lighting brand VERPAN, which manufactures the designs of influential Danish designer Verner Panton, revived the Series 270F armchair as part of its Living with Our Senses exhibition. The armchair was first developed in the mid-sixties, denoting the designer’s fixation with modularity and modernism. The chair is made from bent and lacquered plywood and is available in blue, red, orange, black, and honey-stained finishes, with Kvadrat Hallingdal textile or Sørensens leather cushions. The Series 270 F was designed as a modular system comprising three unique components, allowing for numerous configurations, including chairs, armchairs, tables, and stools.
Photography courtesy of VERPAN
Photography courtesy of Royal Copenhagen
2025
Heritage Danish porcelain brand Royal Copenhagen celebrated its 250th anniversary with an immersive exhibition titled Still Making Waves at its flagship Copenhagen showroom. The showcase included demonstrations of the artistry of Royal Copenhagen’s Flora Danica and Blue Fluted Plain patterns, while introducing a new collection of four interior objects, Kontur.
Royal Copenhagen creative director Jasper Toron Nielsen says the collection represents a new creative expression beyond tableware, and a more organic approach to working with porcelain. “Centuries-old techniques and modern technology were used to create this collection, including Royal Copenhagen’s signature Underglaze spray-painting technique, creating the rich depth in the design,” Toron Nielsen says.
Photography courtesy of Royal Copenhagen
Time & Style Kouryu Stool
Japanese furniture brand Time & Style collaborated with Copenhagen-based OEO Studio on their installation design, housed within a historic harbour warehouse. Several new pieces were on display, including the Kouryu stool, also developed in partnership with OEO Studio. Following the design of the Kouryu chair created for Noma Kyoto in 2024, the stool is crafted from Zelkova hardwood, traditionally used in temples and shrines, and features a Tatami seat.
Photography by Stefania Zanetti
Photography by Heidi Lerkenfeldt
De La Espada Chair One
Deltag, meaning “participate” in Danish, was an exhibition held at Danish kitchen cabinetry brand Garde Hvalsøe’s showroom. Curated by Danish stylist Pernille Vest, the ‘living installation’ invited visitors to feel as though they were stepping into a boutique hotel or hospitality space, through a tactile material dialogue with De La Espada’s latest Portugal-made furniture designs.
De La Espada also used the occasion to launch a new chair by Lisbon-based architect Manuel Aires Mateus. Crafted from solid wood, the chair is described as being “designed at the limit, where comfort appears as a surprise.”
BassamFellows Philip Johnson and Richard Kelly Floor Lamp
Philip Johnson and Richard Kelly, 1953
For this year’s 3daysofdesign, furniture and design house BassamFellows, founded by Australian architect Craig Bassam and American creative director Scott Fellows, reissued the 1953 Philip Johnson and Richard Kelly floor lamp, which had been out of production since 1967.
The lamp was designed for architect Philip Johnson’s iconic mid-century residence, The Glass House in Connecticut. To illuminate his living space, Johnson collaborated with lighting designer Richard Kelly, creating ‘a small piece of architecture within the larger structure’.
The Glass House now belongs to the BassamFellows founders, who, after moving in, wanted to explore reintroducing the Philip Johnson and Richard Kelly floor lamp into production. BassamFellows designed a transparent, pavilion-like structure to present the lamp, as part of the group exhibition Design/Dialogue on the harbour.
Photography courtesy of BassamFellows
Photography courtesy of FORMARKIVET
2025
Danish multidisciplinary design house Formarkivet made its debut, opening the doors to its newly opened showroom in the city’s Nordhavn district. The collection of lighting and furniture was displayed under the banner of Sense of Form, reflecting their philosophy that contemporary objects are not only functional but also sculptural forms. This included the brand’s Cubio collection, a series of tables—coffee, side, dining and console—distinguished by their chubby legs and rounded tabletop. The Cubio collection is available in either a raw aluminium finish or a semi-gloss light beige.
Photography courtesy of FORMARKIVET
Photography courtesy of FORMARKIVET
Bankston The Streaks
Australian hardware firm Bankston brought its latest collaboration to Copenhagen; The Streaks by YSG director Yasmine Ghoniem. The collection features timber and bronze door levers, joinery pieces and pulls with names such as The Headliners, Opening Tracks and Supporting Acts that reference Ghoniem’s background in music. Old school rock posters lined the walls of the industrial exhibition space, while the designer even produced a record to support the collection’s release.
The Streaks references the contrasting timbers found in the collection, including the Light Band, which pairs American White Ash with Australian Blackbutt; the Dark Band, featuring American Walnut with Australian Red Cedar; and the Colour Band, combining New Zealand Purpleheart and African Padauk.
Photography courtesy of Bankston
Photography courtesy of Bankston
Photography courtesy of Kvadrat
Isa Glink, Studio Meyers & Fügmannand and Studio Greiling, 2025
Danish textiles company Kvadrat offered a first look at its Frequency collection during 3daysofdesign, which contemplates life as a constant state of flux, through light, colour and movement. The collection is the result of a collaboration between Kvadrat creative director Isa Glink, Berlin and Luxembourg-based Studio Meyers & Fügmann, and Berlin-based Studio Greiling. The designers wanted to emphasise that the perception of frequency is both deeply individual and widely shared, explored through advanced spinning, weaving, printing and dyeing techniques. “We use colour to reveal the properties of textiles by mixing hues through the loom, layering transparent inks, or even exposing the fabric to sunlight,” StudioMeyers & Fügmann founder Sarah Meyers says. “This way, we create palettes based on how colours change gradually.”
Photography courtesy of Kvadrat
Muuto Dream View Bench
Scandinavian design company Muuto created a space of escape on the showroom’s rooftop, with its landscape installation Grounded in Nature, in collaboration with Kinda Studios.
The new outdoor Dream View bench by Danish designer Lise Vester was dotted throughout the installation, made in Denmark from brushed stainless steel. Mirroring the natural curves of the body to draw the viewer’s gaze upward, Vester explains the bench is designed for taking time out to pause, and simply look up. “The sky remains ever-present—limitless and available to most, as long as we remember to look up. When we do, natural daylight, shifting colours, the moon, passing clouds, and birds suddenly feel within reach,” Vester says. She began the design process by the sea, modelling the natural curve of her own posture in the sand.
Photography courtesy of Muuto
Photography courtesy of LAYERED
2025
Swedish rug and furniture brand LAYERED drew from the country’s ritual of fika to an installation Fiketin the city’s Kismet Café, where the brand shared its latest collaboration with American self-taught multidisciplinary artist Heather Chontos.
The artist, based on a horse farm in Portugal, collaborated with LAYERED on the hand-tufted rugs Kaleidoscope, Collage and BlueLake—two of which were exhibited in the space. The cafe installation offered a glimpse into Chontos’ studio and creative practice, featuring buckets of paint, sketches pinned to the wall and canvases propped up on easels. The dialogue between Chontos’ works and the final rug designs hinted at the intricacy of translating her distinct shapes and vibrant use of colour.
Gunnar Asplund, 1931
Originating from a small town in southern Sweden in the seventies, Källemo is a brand renowned for producing furniture that pushes the envelope through playful, experimental concepts. Exhibiting alongside Swedish lighting brand Örsjö, Källemo brought together a series of recent reissues, including the GA-2 armchair by Swedish architect Gunnar Asplund.
A prominent figure in modernist design, Asplund originally created the GA-2 in 1931 for the boardroom of the Swedish Society of Crafts and Design. The armchair features a chrome or matte chrome steel frame, with a birch base and seat upholstered in vegetable-tanned leather.
Photography courtesy of Källemo
Photography courtesy of Källemo
