Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair celebrates its 70th anniversary with the latest in Scandinavian design

This year’s Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair, the world’s leading meeting place for Scandinavian design, will be held on February 4–8. The issue of sustainability is a clear presence in the designs, material choices and production processes of many exhibitors this year. On the stage in the Design Bar, created by Fredrik Paulsen, visitors will be able to enjoy exciting talks about design and architecture. On Saturday, February 8 the trade fair will be open to the public, with Stockholmsmässan welcoming all design enthusiasts keen to see the very latest in furniture and lighting.

Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair (SFLF) draws buyers, architects, designers and journalists from more than 100 countries. The fair attracts around 40,000 visitors, and more than 30% of them are international visitors. Approximately 700 companies, 300 of which are international, have stands in Stockholmsmässan’s 70,000 sqm of exhibition space. Almost 80% of all the exhibiting companies are from Scandinavia.

Here are some of the highlights of Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair 2020:

Guest of Honour: Doshi Levien
Design studio Doshi Levien is the Guest of Honour at Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair 2020. With their magnificent exhibition in the Entrance Hall, the Indian-British duo from London aim to give visitors an insight into a creative process that is just as much about architecture as it is about individual objects.

Anniversary exhibition – 70 years of Scandinavian design
Celebrations for the 70th Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair will include an exhibition showcasing design classics from the 1950s to the present day, all of which have maintained their ongoing relevance – despite hot trends and new launches – by still remaining in production. Design journalist Dan Gordan has curated an exhibition that describes Scandinavian design history and raises contemporary issues.

Design Bar “Fredrik’s Fun Fair” created by Fredrik Paulsen
The Design Bar continues to explore contemporary aesthetics and gastronomy. The Victoria Hall hosts this fusion of a top-class restaurant with the stage for the Stockholm Design & Architecture Talks – a cross-pollination that this year takes on a Tivoli-inspired look, created by unorthodox designer Fredrik Paulsen. The menu comes courtesy of chefs Marion Ringborg and Linn Söderström, who run the Garba restaurant.

Stockholm Design & Architecture Talks
With 40 programmed events and 100 contributors, Stockholm Design & Architecture Talks 2020 is securing its position as one of Scandinavia’s leading discussion platforms for design and architecture. Many influential names will be giving talks, including:
Renee Hytry Derrington, Formica Group, “Blurred Spaces – a vision of future living”.
Kelly Alvarez Dolan, “Designing for a carbon positive future”.
Frida Ramstedt, “Home – a place to stay or to display”.
Style inspiration with Pella Hedeby.
The latest program can be found at www.stockholmfurniturefair.com.

Greenhouse and the Best Performance award
Designers from all over the world are invited to submit applications to exhibit in the Greenhouse, Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair’s area for up and coming designers. This year’s exhibitors comprise 35 designers and 31 design schools, not just from Sweden but from many other countries too. Experimental design duo Wang & Söderström are responsible for the look of this year’s Greenhouse area.
The award for Best Performance – selected by the Greenhouse jury has been presented to one of the Greenhouse exhibitors since 2019, in collaboration with Volvo Studio. The objective is to encourage the designers to think about the bigger picture and present their design in a carefully considered manner. The winner will receive SEK 50,000, and the award ceremony will be held at 9:30 am on February 4 in the Greenhouse Bar.

Born Classic – tomorrow’s design classics
In 2019, Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair created a new design prize – Born Classic – in collaboration with Bukowskis auction house, which has put together a jury comprising Eva Seeman, Henrik Åberg and Jonatan Jahn. The award goes to a new product with the qualities to make it a design classic of the future. The winner will be announced on Saturday, February 8 on the Stockholm Design & Architecture Talks stage. Bukowskis will also hold guided tours of the nominated objects on Saturday.

Editors’ Choice Award
The jury for Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair’s Editors’ Choice award is composed of editors-in-chief from some of the world’s most important design forums. The award has three categories: Rising Star, Best Stand and Best Product. The 2020 jury consists of Marcus Fairs, Dezeen (GBR), Costas Voyatzis, Yatzer (GRC), and Dana Tomic Hughes, Yellowtrace (AUS). The winners will be announced on the Stockholm Design & Architecture Talks stage on Wednesday, February 5 at 2:30 pm.

Re-defining the office – exhibition exploring the workplace of the future
With your office in your pocket, is there really any reason to leave home? Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair will feature the exhibition Re-defining the Office, about what it will take to keep the workplace relevant in a cloud-based reality. Re-defining the Office is a joint venture by Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair, Architects Sweden and the Swedish Federation of Wood and Furniture Industry (TMF), in partnership with Tengbom and supported by Swedish Wood. The exhibition is curated by Tengbom.

Workspace Sweden 2020 runs in parallel with SFLF on February 4–6
No new decade has challenged the idea of the workplace as much as the 2020s are going to. Rapid digitalization, new generations and lifestyles, profound changes in society and proliferating competitors are challenging companies and organizations on every level. Their businesses and their organizations are set to become more digital, innovative, sustainable and agile. While employers expect employees and freelancers to produce unprecedented results, the talent of tomorrow is making entirely new demands of the employee experience. Read more at workspacesweden.se

New hall layout

Hall A & C – Design & Contract Market
For this year’s fair, the floorspace given over to the Design & Contract Market is bigger than ever! With the industry growing, visitors can expect even more new products and exhibitors, and more interesting manufacturers on site. The new fair layout means that Design & Contract Market can now be found in both of the largest halls – Hall A and Hall C

Hall B – Home Furniture & Lighting | Home & Contract
For the 2020 fair, everything to do with the home is moving to Hall B, creating an exciting meeting place that focuses fully on all that is new in furniture and lighting for the home environment.

To find out more, please contact:
Cecilia Nyberg, Project Area Manager for Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair
cecilia.nyberg@stockholmsmassan.se + 46 8 749 43 86

Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair, February 4–8 at Stockholmsmässan, is the world’s leading meeting place for Scandinavian design. Nowhere else in the world will you find as many Scandinavian design companies gathered under one roof. Eighty percent of our 700 exhibitors represent companies from the Scandinavian countries.
Stockholm Design Week is also running in parallel with Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair. www.stockholmdesignweek.com