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      Antti and Vuokko Nurmesniemi's “common design philosophy” showcased at Helsinki Design Museum retrospective

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      A vivid orange Helsinki subway seat and an iconic timber sauna stool are among the pieces in this exhibition of work by design duo and couple Antti and Vuokko Nurmesniemi.

      Various works by the late interior architect Antti Nurmesniemi and textile designer Vuokko Nurmesniemi are presented in this eponymous exhibition at Helsinki Design Museum, which charts the pair’s work from the 1950s to the 2000s.
      An orange Helsinki subway seat is included in the exhibition. Photo is by Mari KallionpääFrom kitchen crockery to colourful textiles, the Nurmesniemis created a broad range of designs together and individually over their solo and shared careers before Antti’s death in 2003.
      “The exhibition is important because there has never been a joint retrospective exhibition about this central designer couple in Finnish design history,” curator Susanna Aaltonen told Dezeen.
      Colourful garments by Vuokko also featureArranged across a gallery at Helsinki Design Museum, the show includes a striking orange subway seat that Antti created in 1982 in collaboration with industrial designer Börje Rajalin – a model that is still in use on Helsinki transportation today.

      Visitors can also find an extensive cluster of garments featuring bright hues and geometric patterns, designed by Vuokko for her fashion label Vuokko Oy, which she founded in 1964.
      Antti’s red Pehtoori coffee pot is well-known in Finland. Photo is by Mari KallionpääA red Pehtoori coffee pot from 1957 by Antti is also on display – described by Aaltonen as a product that is “often highlighted as Finland’s early industrial design item” – as well as elegant models of electricity pylons created with interior architect Jorma Valkama in 1997.
      Also central to the exhibition are photographs of and furniture from Studio Home Nurmesniemi, the couple’s live-work home and atelier in Kulosaari, Helsinki, which was completed in 1975.
      Lounge chairs by the couple are defined by black, white and red pinstripesThese pieces include signature wooden sauna stools and 1980s geometric lounge chairs designed by Antti and upholstered in Vuokko Oy pinstripe fabrics.
      This furniture is displayed alongside archival imagery of the designers in their modernist house – a setting still used for Vyokko Oy photoshoots.

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      “All in all, the couple’s shared home and studio house is the finest example of the [their] lifestyle dedicated to design,” reflected Aaltonen.
      “I hope that the exhibition will increase people’s understanding of Finnish cultural heritage and that people will also learn to cherish and preserve objects better, especially interiors.”
      Artefacts on display vary from furniture to pylon scale modelsOther shows at Helsinki Design Museum include a recent exhibition by design studio Formafantasma and furniture brand Artek and a temporary “insect hotel” installation that is currently on display outside the museum.
      Previous retrospectives at the museum include one centred on the plastic furniture and chairs of Finnish designer Eero Aarino.
      The exhibition is held at Helsinki Design MuseumAntti + Vuokko Nurmesniemi is on display at Helsinki Design Museum from 28 October 2022 to 9 March 2023. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.
      The photography is by Paavo Lehtonen unless otherwise stated. 

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      Norman Foster creates angular retreat in Martha's Vineyard for “friends of the Foster family”

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      Pritzker Architecture Prize-winning architect Norman Foster has designed the Foster Retreat in Martha’s Vineyard as a holiday home for his friends and those of the Norman Foster Foundation, which features furniture designed by the architect for Karimoku.

      Named the Foster Retreat, the mono-pitch roofed building in Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, was built opposite Foster’s US home.
      The building draws on traditional wood structuresThe home was formed from a series of angled steel beams that are connected by timber beams with smooth timber louvres enclosing an outdoor patio space.
      According to Foster, the holiday home’s shape was informed by North American barn structures, with large amounts of timber chosen to reference Martha’s Vineyard’s traditional wood-boarded structures and its sustainability credentials.
      Pale wood was used inside Foster Retreat”The retreat takes inspiration from the generous wooden barn structures of North America and combines that tradition of timber construction with a small amount of steel in the form of skinny portal frames which touch the ground lightly,” said Foster, who is the founder of UK studio Foster + Partners.

      “Wood was the obvious choice not only for reasons of sustainability but also as a direct reference to the traditional buildings that characterise the island.”
      The building has a visible gridThe site levels around Foster Retreat, which will be used as a private residence for friends of Foster’s family and of the Norman Foster Foundation, were contoured to hide the building from the roadside and situate it within the landscape.
      The studio also added indigenous plants to the site, as well as a bank of solar panels that together with “a high level of insulation and shading” helps the building be more sustainable, according to Foster.
      Norman Foster designed the NF Collection for KarimokuInside the building, the holiday home has white walls with pale wood panels and wooden floors.
      To match the pared-back material palette of the house’s exterior and interior, Foster designed a wooden furniture collection named NF Collection together with Japanese furniture brand Karimoku.

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      The collection comprises a dining chair, two stools, a lounge chair, a sofa, and a dining table, all of which feature pale “skeletal” timber frames and padded upholstery.
      “The wood-based furniture I designed for Karimoku is an extension of the philosophy behind the building,” Foster explained.
      “lt has always seemed to me that there is a commonality between the American Shaker Movement and traditional Japanese furniture. Given my own admiration for the qualities of historic Japanese architecture, there are evident cultural links.”
      The furniture has skeletal frames and white padding. Photo is by Chuck ChoiThe collection was developed as Foster had trouble finding suitable furniture for the space.
      “When we started to think about what type of furniture could best fit in the spaces created in the Foster Retreat, Martha’s Vineyard, we realised that there was no single specific collection in existence that could be used for the different uses of the building, so I decided to develop a bespoke family of furniture,” Foster explained.
      “Timber was a natural choice to match the spirit of the building.”
      Foster Retreat was designed as a private residenceFoster Retreat is Karimoku’s seventh case study project, which sees the studio work together with architects on bespoke furniture collections.
      “I see the collaboration with NF as an important step for us as a brand – not only do we venture into a new area with the case at Martha’s Vineyard, but we also show how the brand can accomodate a more diverse furniture collection, showcasing the unique design languages of the individual studios, yet still maintaining a red thread throughout the collection in the use of materials, excellent craftsmanship and high quality,” Karimoku creative director Frederik Werner told Dezeen.
      The collection marks Karimoku’s seventh case study. Photo is by Chuck ChoiThe NF Collection will also be shown in an exhibition at Karimoku Commons in Tokyo, the brand’s retail and showroom space. Karimoku was one of a number of Japanese brands that showed at this year’s Salone del Mobile furniture fair as the focus on the European market grows.
      One of the world’s best-known architects, Foster leads the UK’s largest studio Foster + Partners. The studio’s recent projects include 425 Park Avenue, which is the “first full-block office building” to be built on Park Avenue in over 50 years, and the tallest building in the EU, the Varso Tower in Warsaw.
      The photography is by Marc Fairstein unless stated otherwise. All photography courtesy of the Norman Foster Foundation.
      The Norman Foster x Karimoku exhibition is at Karimoku Commons from 21 October to 9 December. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

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      Ten designers create products from a single dying ash tree for SCP

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      Furniture company SCP has tasked a group of British designers including Faye Toogood and Sebastian Cox to craft objects from the wood of a tree infected with ash dieback disease for this year’s London Design Festival.

      The resulting pieces, ranging from furniture and lighting to decorative objects, are currently on display as part of the One Tree exhibition the brand is hosting in its Shoreditch showroom.
      One Tree includes works by Moe Redish (above) and Wilkinson & Rivera (top)The project saw ten designers make use of a tree on SCP founder Sheridan Coakley’s property, which had to be felled after being infected with a highly destructive fungal disease called ash dieback. Eventually, this is expected to kill around 80 per cent of ash trees in the UK.
      “Most fallen ash trees are getting just cut down and used for firewood,” Coakley told Dezeen. “But rather than burning the tree or letting it rot, we wanted to capture the carbon that’s in the wood by making something out of it.”
      Faye Toogood made an organic love seat from a tree forkA group of ten designers and makers, including Cox and Toogood alongside industrial designer Matthew Hilton, carpenter Poppy Booth and design duo Wilkinson & Rivera, was invited to observe the tree being felled in April 2022 and to select the pieces of timber they wanted to use.

      Toogood created a stool from the fork of the tree, which forms a natural love seat. This effect was highlighted by stripping off the bark of the wood but leaving its shape largely unadulterated.
      Flat facets allow the wood grain to become decoration in Sarah Kay’s piecesAlso making use of the thick, solid parts of the tree was designer and maker Sarah Kay, who chose to bisect a log to create a series of geometric side tables.
      The logs were given flat facets to highlight the gnarled grain of the wood. This swirling, almost psychedelic graining is also apparent in Wilkinson & Rivera’s three-seater bench.
      Poppy Booth’s cupboard is based on an abstract paintingHusband-and-wife duo Grant Wilkinson and Teresa River used rudimentary forms to construct the bench, allowing the grain of the wood to serve as decoration.
      Another furniture piece in the exhibition is a corner cupboard designed by Poppy Booth based on Black Square – an abstract painting by Russian-Ukrainian artist Kazimir Malevich from 1915.
      Mirroring the painting, the cupboard front features a square of blackened ash surrounded by a non-burnt frame. The piece is intended sit high up in the corner of a room to act as a kind of memorial for all the ash trees killed by the dieback.
      Max Bainbridge created a bench, vessels and wall pieceEast London designer Moe Redish created a series of glass vases and vessels, which were mouth-blown into natural voids in the wood made by birds, insects, weather damage and the fungus that causes ash dieback.
      Taking a similar approach, artist and craftsman Max Bainbridge chose to work with pieces of the tree that had apparent fissures, splits and raw edges, and turned them into a series of organically shaped vessels, a bench and a wall piece called Portrait of Ash.

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      A number of designers took a more sculptural approach, with Oscar Coakley creating a giant wall fixture in the shape of an acid-house smiley while Hilton designed a helical Jenga-like sculpture made from repeating elements of carved wood.
      Cox, who took charge of cutting up the ash tree using his portable sawmill and dried all of the wood for the exhibition in his South London studio, created two lights using the branches that were left behind after all the other designers had made their selections.
      Long sections from the tree’s branches were used for Sebastian Cox’s lightsThe branches were cut into thin, raw-edge slivers and fashioned into triangular prisms to act as shades for a pendant and standing lamp.
      The pieces are being presented as part of SCP’s Almost Instinct showcase at LDF and are all for sale, with the aim of putting a selection of the items into production in the future.
      Oscar Coakley created a wall fixture in the shape of a smiley”I think this is a project that might continue,” Sheridan Coakley said. “There are other trees that have got to come down, why not make something with them?”
      This year’s LDF saw a slew of brands open their showrooms and run events, many returning for the first time since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
      All the pieces in SCP’s show were made using wood from this ash treeOther projects on show as part of the festival include an installation by architecture studio Stanton Williams that was informed by Stonehenge and Shakespearian theatres, and an exhibition of furniture by James Shaw that pokes fun at the tensions that arise between cohabiting couples.
      Photography is by Robbie Wallace.
      One Tree is on show between 17 and 25 September as part of London Design Festival. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

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      Jan Hendzel tracks down “super special” London timbers to overhaul Town Hall Hotel suites

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      Reclaimed architectural timber and wood from a felled street tree form the furnishings of two hotel suites that designer Jan Hendzel has revamped for London’s Town Hall Hotel in time for London Design Festival.

      Suites 109 and 111 are set on the first floor of the Town Hall Hotel, which is housed in a converted Grade II-listed town hall in Bethnal Green dating back to 1910.
      Each of the apartment-style suites features a living room with a kitchen alongside a bedroom and en-suite, which Hendzel has outfitted with bespoke furnishings. Like all of the furniture maker’s pieces, these are crafted exclusively from British timbers.
      Jan Hendzel has overhauled suites 109 (top) and 111 (above) of the Town Hall HotelBut for his first interiors project, Hendzel took an even more hyper-local approach with the aim of finding all of the necessary products inside the M25 – the motorway that encircles the British capital.
      “We started out with the idea that we could source everything within London,” he told Dezeen during a tour of the suites.

      “Some timbers have come from Denmark Hill, some are reclaimed from Shoreditch. And we used Pickleson Paint, which is a company just around the corner, literally two minutes from here.”
      The living area of suite 111 features green upholstery by Yarn CollectiveThe reclaimed timber came in the form of pinewood roof joists and columns, which Hendzel found at an architectural salvage yard.
      These had to be scanned with a metal detector to remove any nails or screws so they could be machined into side tables and tactile wire-brushed domes used to decorate the suites’ coffee tables.
      Rippled wooden fronts finish the kitchen in both suitesIn Suite 111, both the dining table and the rippled kitchen fronts are made from one of the many plane trees that line the capital’s streets, giving them the nickname London plane.
      “This London plane is super special because it has come from a tree that was taken up outside Denmark Hill train station in Camberwell,” Hendzel explained. “We couldn’t find timber from Bethnal Green but it’s the closest we could get.”
      The dining table in suite 111 is made from London planeFor other pieces, materials had to be sourced from further afield – although all are either made in the UK or by UK-based brands.
      Hendzel used British ash and elm to craft mirrors and benches with intricate hand-carved grooves for the suites, while the patterned rugs in the living areas come from West London studio A Rum Fellow via Nepal.
      “People in the UK don’t make rugs, so you have to go further afield,” Hendzel said. “Same with the upholstery fabrics. You could get them here but if they are quadruple your budget, it’s inaccessible.”

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      Hendzel’s aim for the interior scheme was to create a calm, pared-back version of a hotel room, stripping away all of the “extra stuff” and instead creating interest through rich textural contrasts.
      This is especially evident in the bespoke furniture pieces, which will now become part of his studio’s permanent collection.
      Among them is the Wharf coffee table with its reclaimed wooden domes, worked with a wire brush to expose the intricate graining of the old-growth timber and offset against a naturally rippled tabletop.
      “It’s a genetic defect of the timber, but it makes it extra special and catches your eye,” Hendzel said.
      Grooves were hand-carved into the surfaces of mirrors and benches featured throughout the suitesThe coffee table, much like the nearby Peng dining chair, is finished with faceted knife-drawn edges reminiscent of traditional stone carving techniques. But while the table has a matt finish, the chair is finished with beeswax so its facets will reflect the light.
      Unexpected details such as loose-tongue joints, typically used to make tables, distinguish the Mowlavi sofa and armchair, while circular dowels draw attention to the wedge joint holding together their frames.
      Reclaimed architectural timber was used to bedside tables in room 109Alongside the bespoke pieces, Hendzel incorporated existing furniture pieces such as the dresser from his Bowater collection, presented at LDF in 2020. Its distinctive undulating exterior was also translated into headboards for the bedrooms and cabinet fronts for the kitchens.
      These are paired with crinoid marble worktops from the Mandale quarry in Derby, with roughly-hewn edges offset against a perfectly smooth surface that reveals the fossils calcified within.
      “It’s a kajillion years old and it’s got all these creatures from many moons ago that have fallen into the mud and died,” Hendzel said. “But then, when they get polished up, they look kind of like Ren and Stimpy.”
      A rippled headboard features in both suitesGoing forwards, the Town Hall Hotel plans to recruit other local designers to overhaul its remaining 94 rooms.
      Other installations on show as part of LDF this year include a collection of rotating public seating made from blocks of granite by designer Sabine Marcelis and an exhibition featuring “sympathetic repairs” of sentimental objects as the V&A museum.
      The photography is by Fergus Coyle.
      London Design Festival 2022 takes place from 17-25 September 2022. See our London Design Festival 2022 guide on Dezeen Events Guide for information about the many other exhibitions, installations and talks taking place throughout the week.

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      Form Us With Love designs perforated steel furniture for its Stockholm studio

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      As part of Stockholm Design Week, Swedish design firm Form Us With Love has opened the doors to its new studio space featuring modular furniture informed by pegboard walls.

      Perforated steel units are dotted throughout Form Us With Love’s (FUWL) Stockholm studio, which is housed in a former travel agency.
      Form Us With Love’s Stockholm studio has furniture made from perforated steel”We’ve been dealing with this space for a good year and a half, and thinking about it for a good ten years,” FUWL co-founder John Löfgren told Dezeen.
      “It’s definitely a place that is a catalyst for what we’re doing – and we’re doing quite a lot of different things, so we need a really flexible space and we need a mobile space,” he added. “We tried to be smart about how you store things and logistics in general, really being economical with each square metre.”
      Large hangar doors can be used to divide the interiorThe 200-square metre studio space, which was created in collaboration with architecture studio Förstberg Ling and branding studio Figur, was designed to suit the needs of the FUWL team.

      Large floor-to-ceiling hangar doors hide an office area, workshop and kitchen while allowing the front of the studio to be sectioned off from the remainder of the space.
      The studio is showcasing material experiments on wheeled cabinetsThis allows the area to be used as an exhibition space, where FUWL is displaying some of its ongoing projects during Stockholm Design Week.
      Among these is a project that explores how toxic glass – a waste material from the glass industry – can be treated to separate the toxins from the glass.
      Five low, wheeled cabinets made from perforated steel were used to display the projects.
      FUWL has created multiple different storage unitsThese are just some of the storage units and room dividers that FUWL has made for the studio, drawing on materials found in its own workshop.
      “We have these boxes that were derived from the workshop, like ones you would have in the garage,” Löfgren said.
      “We started wondering what would happen if we move these things out in the open,” he added. “It started off as dividers and walls, but add some wheels and all of a sudden we are in the open space.”

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      The studio is currently using the modular units as a material library, a tool wall and storage for personal and studio use, as well as experimenting with new functionalities.
      Produced by Tunnplåt – a company that normally supplies lockers to schools, gyms and other public-sector interiors – the containers have a pattern of symmetrical holes.
      A material library is housed in their drawersThis was designed to make the reference to pegboard walls immediately recognisable.
      “We definitely experimented with patterns,” Löfgren said. “We still wanted people to have a smile on their face like: I can see where it derives from.”
      The pegboard-style furniture was informed by tool wallsRealising that the perforated steel units could be used to create a flexible interior was just a coincidence, Löfgren said.
      “I think it’s definitely a tool that incorporates how we want to work in the interior,” he said. “And I think that’s just been a coincidence.”
      “We were always looking for something that would help us have this kind of full flexibility, and still be able to do something both fun and functional,” he added.
      The studio was designed to be both practical and flexibleIn the future, the studio said it might also create the units in other colours. For its own office, soft grey tones were chosen to aid concentration.
      “We worked with tones of grey as a backdrop throughout the space to put focus on the creative processes taking place within,” architecture studio Förstberg Ling said.
      Form Us With Love has previously launched products such as Forgo, a soap designed to minimise carbon emissions and an IKEA chair made from recycled wood.
      The photography is by Jonas Lindström Studio.
      Form Us With Love’s studio is open to the public between 5 September and 9 September 2022 as part of  Stockholm Design Week. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

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      Norman Kelley remodels Chicago apartment to showcase chair collection

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      Design studio Norman Kelley and architect Spencer McNeil have completed Apartment for Chairs, a two-storey unit that features ample space for guests and a diverse collection of chairs.

      Located in a contemporary, high-rise building in Chicago’s Near North neighbourhood, the apartment was designed for a couple.
      Apartment for Chairs is located in a Chicago high-riseOne of the clients is a longtime local resident who collects art and furniture, and the other is a Detroit transplant who prefers cosy environments with organic materials and neutral colours.
      The goal was to create a home that suited both personalities and offered plenty of space for hosting guests and displaying the owners’ extensive chair collection.
      The dwelling was designed to house a diverse collection of chairsSpanning from the early 20th century to the present, the collection includes a Shaker tilter chair and pieces from the Bauhaus and De Stijl movements. Designers include Gerrit Rietveld, Piero Fornasetti, Gio Ponti, Marcel Breuer and Lina Bo Bardi, among others. The exact number of chairs is not being disclosed.

      “It is very much a living collection,” said local studio Norman Kelley, which designed the apartment in collaboration with Chicago architect Spencer McNeil.
      Norman Kelley created the project with Spencer McNeilThe project entailed combining two apartments – one atop the other – to form a spacious, two-storey unit.
      In total, the conjoined apartment encompasses 4,000 square feet (372 square metres).
      The apartment exists on two levelsThe lower level serves as the main apartment, while the bulk of the upper level is meant to act as its own private apartment – similar to an in-law suite, the team said.
      A range of modifications were made throughout the unit, including spatial changes and new finishes.
      Neutral wooden interiors are interrupted by small pops of colourThe most drastic change involved opening up a room on the upper level to form a mezzanine overlooking the lower-level living room. The double-height living room was pre-existing.
      The mezzanine, which holds an office, is connected to the room below by a new spiral staircase.
      A spiral staircase connects the two storeys”Our mandate from the owner was to create an object worthy of inclusion with the collected works of design in the home,” the team said of the staircase.
      Near the stair is a 20-foot-tall (six-metre) display area where books and chairs are on view. The steel display system has pegs, shelves, and backlit niches.
      Eames side chairs feature in the living roomOverall, the unit features a mix of vintage and contemporary decor, along with finishes such as white oak, walnut and limestone. In several areas, concrete structural elements were left exposed.
      The living room is fitted with a sectional by Molteni, Eames side chairs and a vintage Noguchi coffee table. An adjacent reading nook is adorned with chairs by Ponti and the Eameses. Overhead are globe-shaped lights by Jasper Morrison.
      Ample space was created to allow for entertainingJust off the living room, the kitchen and dining area were expanded, which was made possible by the elimination of a powder room.
      Finishes in the kitchen include lacquer cabinets, quartz countertops and a back-painted glass backsplash.
      The kitchen includes walnut stoolsWalnut stools were conceived by Norman Kelley and fabricated locally by Jason Lewis – one of several bespoke pieces.
      In the dining area, the team placed a walnut table by George Nakashima and caned-wood chairs by Emanuele Rambaldi. Above is a lighting fixture by BBPR and manufactured by Arteluce.
      A walnut table also defines the dining roomIn addition to the common areas, the first level has a main suite and two additional bedrooms. The team took an unusual approach by blurring the division between public and private spaces.
      For instance, the main bedroom’s door is a frameless, sliding wall that disappears when opened.

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      “In a home for two adults, we saw no reason for the bedroom to be considered a separate space,” the designers said.
      “There is no threshold between living room and the primary bedroom,” they added. “The whole apartment is a living space.”
      Plugs are built into a white oak bedThe sparsely adorned main bedroom features a white oak platform bed with built-in plugs – another element designed by Norman Kelley. Floor-to-ceiling windows are covered with gauzy curtains.
      The main bathroom has raked limestone walls, a walnut-and-Corian vanity and a Norman Kelley-designed ipe shower bench inspired by George Nelson’s mid-century platform bench.
      The main bathroom has raked limestone wallsUpstairs, the team made limited changes to the layout beyond the mezzanine. The upper level has two bedrooms, a kitchen and a living room.
      “We specified furnishings for the upper unit, but there were no significant architectural changes,” the team said.
      “The majority of the renovation was limited to the lower unit and its connection to the upper unit.”
      Other Chicago projects by Norman Kelley include an Aesop store that features reclaimed bricks arranged in pinwheel patterns and the update of a lobby inside a postmodern tower by John Burgee and Philip Johnson.
      The photography is by Kendall McCaugherty Ristau and Sarah Crowley.

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      Formafantasma and Artek's Cambio exhibition explores Finnish design's link to forestry

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      Design duo Formafantasma has collaborated with furniture brand Artek to explore the relationship between the timber and design industries in Finland through an exhibition at Helsinki Design Museum.

      Called Cambio: On Finnish Forestry, the exhibition is part of Formafantasma’s wider Cambio project – an ongoing investigation into the global impact of the extraction, production and distribution of wood.
      The exhibition takes place at Helsinki Design MuseumThe duo teamed up with Finnish company Artek to create the show, which features a mixture of work shown in previous Cambio exhibitions in the UK, Italy and Switzerland, as well as new works specific to Finland.
      Featuring original films and installations as well as supporting archival material, On Finnish Forestry examines how the country’s timber industry has evolved over time, with a focus on design.
      Formafantasma created an installation of interlocked Stool 60s”This exhibition clearly links furniture design to a specific biome: forests,” Formafantasma founders Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin told Dezeen.

      “At the end of the day, it isn’t about products but about ideas.”
      An installation made up of stacked 1933 Stool 60 models by the late Artek co-founder Alvar Aalto intends to communicate the iconic product’s lasting legacy by mixing both vintage and recently produced pieces.
      One installation features aerial images capturing tree canopy density over OrivesiThe stools are crafted from silver birch, a tree species commonly found in Finland. Trimarchi and Farresin explained that Artek’s local production habits influenced their desire to collaborate with the furniture brand.
      “The majority of trees used in the production of Artek furniture are from Finnish forests, specifically from an area within a 200-kilometre radius from a sawmill close to Jyväskylä,” explained the designers.
      “We don’t see Artek just as a design company producing beautiful furniture, but as a case study on how to relate production to a specific ecosystem.”
      Under the Yoke includes a postcard of artwork by Eero JärnefeltAnother installation presents wooden boards featuring infrared aerial images of Finland’s Orivesi municipality, which document recent tree canopy cover in its peatlands area.
      Formafantasma overlaid the large-scale images with smaller, historical black-and-white snapshots comparing the habitat in previous years.
      A contemporary model of Aalto’s Screen 100 is also on showUnder the Yoke is an installation comprising a postcard of an 1893 artwork of the same name by Finnish painter Eero Järnefelt that depicts a traditional scene of slash-and-burn agriculture, which is framed by chunky pinewood sourced from contemporary clearcutting.
      Among the work presented in the exhibition, other pieces by Aalto include a 2022 version of his 1936 flexible room divider Screen 100 and deconstructed chair legs featured in an investigation into the designer’s renowned L-leg design for furniture.
      The specific qualities of birch wood was a significant influence on Aalto’s desire to create an alternative to the then-popular metal tubular legs, according to Helsinki Design Museum.

      “It’s not enough to ask designers to be sustainable” says Formafantasma

      Trimarchi and Farresin explained that the exhibition attempts to use different media to unite audiences over the same ideas about the impact of the timber industry.
      “It might sound banal, but what we want is to shift the focus from ‘things’ to ‘context’,” concluded the designers.
      “We would like people to see chairs like pieces of forests and design as the outcome of political decision-making and not exclusively as the fruit of the creativity of a designer.”
      The exhibition also explores Aalto’s renowned L-leg designKnown for an interest in climate change, Formafantasma has completed a number of other projects that explore the environmental impact of design.
      These include the first Cambio show in London, which was commissioned by the Serpentine Gallery. Last year, the duo also redesigned its website to try and reduce “pollution connected to the internet”.
      The photography is by Paavo Lehtonen Photography.

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      Emil Eve Architects retrofits own office in brutalist building in Hackney

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      London studio Emil Eve has retrofitted its Hackney office to include a striking green-painted floor and modular birch plywood furniture designed to be “reconfigured or adapted as the needs of the users change”.

      The architecture firm created the studio space, which it shares with design practices OEB Architects and Material Works, in an existing brutalist building with an exposed concrete structure in Hackney, east London.
      The studio was renovated so that no alterations were made to the buildingCalled Regent Studios, the office was carefully designed so that no changes had to be made to the fabric of the building, according to Emil Eve.
      Instead, the firm created a “family” of modular, CNC-cut birch plywood furniture that fits into the space without having to be fixed to the existing structure.
      A vivid green-painted floor defines the space”The furniture is freestanding so that it can be reconfigured or adapted as the needs of the users change,” Emil Eve co-founder Emma Perkin told Dezeen.

      As well as linoleum-lined desks and small shelving units, this group of furniture includes a standout floor-to-ceiling “sample library” where the architects display and interact with a range of material samples.
      Emil Eve created a floor-to-ceiling “material library”Shallow upper display shelves are combined with deeper, lower storage compartments to create a unit that takes cues from the design of kitchen cabinets.
      “We knew we wanted the material library to be the main focus of the space, with everything visible to hand,” said Perkin, who designed the system to replace “inefficient” stacked boxes.
      Desktops are lined with linoleumThe architect also explained why the firm used the CNC process to create the furniture, which was fabricated by Natural Buildings Systems.
      “The process enables complex shapes to be cut from sheet materials,” she said. “Here, we used slits cut into the shelves to create an interlocking design that creates a hierarchy between framing, horizontal and vertical elements, which brings a rhythm to the whole.”

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      Emil Eve chose bold green paint for the flooring, which was used for its cost-effectiveness and ability to transform the mood of a space, according to the firm.
      This colour was also decided upon to complement the windowsill herbs and various potted plants scattered around the studio, as well as to contrast with a cluster of bright yellow chairs positioned around a communal work table.
      Yellow chairs contrast with the green floorAs a small design agency, Emil Eve explained the benefits of sharing a co-working space with other design companies in the interest of sharing collective resources – a decision the architects called “economical as well as sustainable”.
      “It’s always more fun to make things rather than buying furniture off the shelf if you can!” added Perkin.
      Visitors are invited to touch the materials on displayEmil Eve Architects was founded in 2009 by Emma and Ross Perkin. The firm has completed a number of architecture projects, including many in London.
      Recent projects range from a monochromatic pale pink loft extension and a timber-framed residential extension filled with light.
      The photography is by Mariell Lind Hansen.

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