3 Days of Design unfolded across the Danish capital with fresh product releases and an emphasis on holistic lifestyle experiences.
Though small in size, Copenhagen continues to have an outsized impact on the rest of the world. Arguably the epicentre of Scandinavian commerce, the Danish capital is leading the charge in numerous sectors, embodying future-proof urban planning strategies that might seem too advanced in other places. Part of that dynamism centres on the architecture and design industries. The city (and the country it helms) has done a good job of keeping its contribution to mid-20th-century modernism fresh in people’s minds, but there is still a collective impetus to innovate and reframe that rich history through new paradigms. This “looking to the past to inform the future” and “looking to the future to re-evaluate the past” mindset is perhaps most apparent during the annual 3 Days of Design event.
A non-fair in every sense of the term, the design week (tightly condensed to just 72-hours as its name suggests) is a breath of fresh air when compared to the larger beast that is Milan’s Salone del Mobile—held two months earlier. Not only are fairgrounds removed from the equation, the programme is more closely controlled, primarily attracting knowledgeable trade visitors with a vested interest rather than aimless lookie-loos, and does not exceed the limits of Copenhagen’s available exhibition space: temporarily repurposed storefronts, museums, government buildings, palaces, and even private homes.
As its boisterous counterpart becomes more and more unmanageable—a tourist attraction more than a trade-oriented show with numerous other industries getting in on the game and diluting quality—3 Days of Design doesn’t overflow with hundreds of competing activations. No car brands or fashion houses have overrun the programme. There’s more symbiosis and cooperation. And yet, the event—closing out an exhaustive spring season—is beginning to punch above its weight. Trends in not just colour, form and general style—but also in more attractive modes of presentation—are either born or best articulated here.
Since its inception 12 years ago, 3 Days of Design has grown into a formidable alternative, a new type of gathering that has begun to inform the format of other city-based events. This year’s instalment—18 to 20 June—centred on the theme: Keep it Real. “Copenhagen is emblematic of the multifaceted meaning behind [this sentiment],” said Signe Byrdal Terenziani, the event’s managing director. “It’s a sustainable and open-minded metropolis that celebrates diversity. Our festival embodies our ethos to provide a visibility platform for different people with different perspectives. All in the context of Copenhagen’s rich cultural heritage, reputation for innovation, and legacy of design.”
Exhibitors—including many newcomers from outside of Scandinavia—held true to the theme by staging their presentations with a more holistic and immersive approach. Many programmed their showcases as immersive domestic or hospitality settings. The notion of adaptive reuse and adaptability permeating architecture today seems to be influencing this context as well. The general strategy: convincing visitors to stay for a while and experience a brand’s full “lifestyle” vision by offering conducive cuisine and hosting robust talks series.
Perhaps the best demonstration of this approach was accessories and furnishings brand FRAMA’s Structures of Living showcase. Two spaces were staged as what appeared to be the respective workshop and home of an individual. An unmade bed and desk strewn with notebooks and other stationery suggested recent activity but frozen in time. The overall message: the value of modularity in supporting an agile lifestyle. In this context, as well as the brand’s newly opened Bar Vitrine, it launched the three new furniture collections: the all-metal Petit Rond, wooden and textile Symmetry, and Ratio storage/bed frame series.
While ever-edgy Swedish furnishings company Hem launched the expressive, playful, and decidedly sculptural Palma Pouf by British-born Ghanaian up-and-comer Kusheda Mensah in a moody art-deco gallery space—a striking contrast if there ever was one—Copenhagen-based homewares producer Ferm Living activated the locally beloved Dapple Bar to highlight the potential application of its newly released, aptly-named outdoor dinning furniture Dapple Collection.
Across town, Vipp—the long-established Danish company primarily known for its iconic metal trash bins but also the numerous other furnishings and kitchens including their Stainless Steel Kitchen Island—opened its main complex to various interventions. The family-run company also maintains over a dozen guest houses across the globe designed by noted architects; a significant undertaking that fully embodies the scope of the brand’s mission of resourcefulness, answering necessity, and fostering agility. At 3 Days of Design, notable French-Moroccan practice Studio KO unveiled a interior concept for the program blending both Danish and Marrakesh-inspired influences through the use of key materials and finishes but also theatrical treatments like colored light and smoke. The installation re-examined the meaning of home as a distilled personal but also cross-cultural expression.
Canadian company Man of Parts took over the second floor of the grand, storied Harsdorffs Hus with a slew of new products: “novelties” by Sebastian Herkner, Workshop ADP, and Yabu Pushelberg, amongst others. To fully illustrate the inspiration of German artist Gregor Hildebrandt’s Berliner Promenade rug collection—a dualistic textural and tonal translation of concrete architecture meeting water—the company covered walls in strips of videotape vibrating at different intervals. The content of that ‘material’: the 1956 film adaptation of Herman Melvile’s seminal novel Moby Dick.
Getting in on the immersive experience game, heritage Danish lighting brand Louis Poulsen tapped local fashion maverick Henrik Vibskov to create the Circle Dome Square pavilion. Celebrating Verner Panton’s seminal 1971 Panthella Lamp design, the bright red fabric-based structure expands in various directions and sharply contrasts the historic architect in its midst. Like Panton before him, Vibskov is known to push beyond the confines of pared-back Danish rationalism all while respecting these principles as an important foundation.
Copenhagen-based multidisciplinary studio and concept store Tableau staged several activations during 3 Days of Design. Developed by Edition Solenne, Project Materia was of note. The collection of one-off, semi-functional objects—imagined an illustrious roster of contemporary talents from around the world—reassessed the potential of noble materials bronze, marble, and glass. Staged on a multi-tiered podium within the courtyard of a shopping center, the dozen or so concepts revealed the scope of preoccupation and approaches permeating various design practices—mostly autonomous—these days.
Though Milan Design Week is really their chance to shine, Italian design brands also had a strong presence at this year’s 3 Days of Design.. Of note was wood veneer company Alpi’s Echoes of Form installation, developed by Danish-Italian duo GamFratesi and staged within the grand yet eclectic courtyard of the Thordvaldsens Museum. Rendered in variants of the colourful and seemingly textured surface material, the organic monuments are distilled translations of the oversized, oversized statutory created by the 18th-century sculptor for which the museum is named.
Italian lighting brand Flos contextualized its Architecture division track light system against the backdrop of traditional local wooden beam architecture. Danish brands Carl Hansen & Søn and Normann Copenhagen adopted a similar approach to display pieces from existing collections: staging them within the cadre of wood-constructed frames.
Very little of Copenhagen was left unturned for this short yet increasingly influential design “non-fair.“