The annual design calendar is undeniably saturated with various well-entrenched events taking place across the globe almost every other week. Traditional convention center-beholden trade fairs have largely operated along the same lines for decades now. Visitors with a vested interest enter one of these poorly lit, badly insulated, and cavernous voids only to find rows and rows of white cube booths and narrow, overcrowded passageways between them. The proposition is clear: bringing a wide range of brands—specialized in different types of design products—under one roof.
For well over a decade now, a handful of these exhibitors have sought to break out and showcase within offsite city center showrooms; welcoming in visitors in a more intimate and impromptu fashion. These not necessarily opposing and perhaps more complimentary formats are now the norm at major happenings like Milan Design Week, New York Design Week, and 3Days of Design in Copenhagen. Until now, no-one has really challenged the duality.
To the perceived chagrin of an ever-thriving Stockholm design scene—one that gets easily overshadowed by the boisterous Danish capital to its south—its annual design week and furniture fair were cancelled this year. Instead of throwing their hands up and accepting this fate, the Swedish capital’s small but internationally impactful crop of independent studios and manufacturers mounted a series of more informal and scrappy happenings. Inherently—by nature of these industriously collective efforts—the resulting but not necessarily aligned program felt more authentic. The exchange was less prescriptive; fresher and more honest.
One such endeavor was local powerhouse industrial design practice Form Us With Love’s (FUWL) Testing Grounds Showroom project. Bringing into the fold various local and international industry players, the studio chose to re-assess the efficacy of this model, as well as the larger fair format.
FUWL brought in Dutch textile producer BYBORRE, Swedish acoustics company BAUX, modular storage system brand String, office chair maker Savo, and French sustainable flooring manufacturer Tarkett for a four-month-long showcase (on view through the end of May). FUWL collaborated with each on new concepts.
Running for much longer than any fair, even a conventional gallery exhibition, the presentation champions a hyper contextualized approach, putting these complementary solutions to the test in a sincerely demonstrative fashion. It allows those vested visitors mentioned before to slow down a bit and truly engage with the concepts; have time to make their own substantively critical assessments. In a more traditional context these myriad releases would be disassociatively exhibited across a sprawling convention center.
Tying everything together is a series of live event workshops that push far beyond the typical panel talk. The carefully coordinated program is earnestly addressing the main question of what a showroom is today through a wide variety of lens. Topics range from color accuracy in digital workflows and the role sound technology plays in communicating brand value to how showrooms themselves can become the most effective devices for decision making.
To learn more about the pioneering brand, visit formuswithlove.se.
Photography Courtesy of Form Us With Love.
