Design Week Returns to Scandinavia this February featuring Nendo

Stockholm Design Week kicks off February 4th to celebrate the best of Scandinavian design.  The main event, Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair, attracts around 40,000 visitors from more than 60 countries and 750 exhibitors every year.  The entire city of Stockholm will get involved in design events, showrooms and exhibitions all week long.

This year Mr. Oki Sato, Chief Designer and founder of Nendo design studio, has produced an installation that creates the illusion of snow-capped mountain peaks soaring into the sky. This is an instance of the method being as central to the creative process as the visual effect.

Oki Sato has been called the 21st century’s most ingenious designer and his work is praised for its low-key humor and constant desire to tell a story. He was born in Toronto in 1977 but spent a large part of his youth in Tokyo and studied to be an architect there. Following his breakthrough in Greenhouse ten years ago, he has risen to stardom in the design world and has worked with Cappellini, Swedese, De Padova, Foscarini and many others.

“Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair is one of the most profoundly memorable places for me. In 2004 I exhibited in Greenhouse, a place for young designers and students at the fair. Since I didn’t have the budget to ship my work, I carried my wood chair on the flight to Stockholm. During that week I connected with Swedese, who chose my chair to be a part of their collection. This was my first furniture piece to be produced by a company! Now, after nearly ten years, it is such a privilege to return as Guest of Honour to the place where doors were opened and that enabled me to start my professional career” says Oki Sato, founder and Chief Designer of the Nendo design studio.

The first design week was launched in 2002, and today this theme week has supported Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair in making Stockholm a must-place to be for purchasers, architects, designers and journalists during week 6 each year.  Stockholmsmässan, which is Scandinavia’s largest exhibition and congress center, organized its first furniture fair in 1951. Since then the fair has grown into what is generally considered as one of the top-notch furniture fairs in Europe – the other one being Salone del Mobile in Milan. The largest exhibitor nations, apart from Sweden, are Denmark, Finland and Norway, and usually around 80 percent of all exhibitors come from Scandinavia.

Click here for a list of 2013 exhibitors.

Websites:
www.stockholmfurniturefair.com
www.northernlightfair.com
www.stockholmdesignweek.com