The Dezeen team are reporting from the 10th edition of 3 Days of Design in Copenhagen (7-9 June). Updated throughout the day with exclusive previews of products, installations and events.
12:00pm French designer Inga Sempé has collaborated with Kvadrat creative director Isa Glink to create a collection of fabrics that translate continuous and rhythmic lines drawn by Sempé into yarn and fabrics.
“It’s not a boring grid, as if you were in jail,” said Inga Sempé at Kvadrat’s showroom when discussing the design of one of the fabrics that forms part of the new collection – James Parkes
11:30am Dezeen editorial director Max Fraser has caught up with 3 Days of Design co-founder Signe Byrdal Terenziani.
We are here to celebrate passionate designers, to share ideas, and explore new things
She reflected on ten years of the citywide event. “Now more and more people know and have experienced 3 Days of Design but the concept remains the same ten years on: we are here to celebrate passionate designers, to share ideas, and explore new things.”
“It’s not just a regular fair where you have to sell, sell, sell. The fact that you can easily walk from showroom to showroom in Copenhagen makes a difference to the experience. You wouldn’t experience that in a fairground,” Byrdal Terenziani continued.
11:00am Dezeen reporter James Parkes has been to see Spanish artist and designer Jaime Hayon’s installation at &Tradition’s headquarters-turned showroom for the launch of its Momento and Fomakami collection.
The installation comprises two spaces including a “cabinet of curiosities” and a decorative vignette (pictured above), which serves as the backdrop for the product launches.
10:30am Dezeen deputy editor Cajsa Carlson has had a sneak peak of Finnish pine furniture brand Vaarni’s exhibition at Tableau and spoke with the brand’s founder.
The way that we consume stuff is broken
Vaarni founder Antti Hirvonen told Dezeen “we originally started the brand with the idea that the way that we consume stuff is broken”.
“We wanted to do things that actually last a hundred years.”
Vaarni’s “brutal and sophisticated” furniture is juxtaposed against sculptural pieces by other artists and designers that are part of the display at multidisciplinary studio Tableau’s gallery space in Copenhagen during 3 Days of Design.
The exhibition at Store Kongensgade 50 is on view from 7 to 9 June.
10:00am Also from yesterday, Dezeen editor-at-large Amy Frearson was the first journalist to see an exhibition by glassware design studio Helle Mardahl Studio for The Sensory Society and spoke to the designer.
I love being an artist as well as a designer – it’s a playground and there are no limits
Mardahl’s work spans lighting and homeware. Her designs are all mouth-blown glass objects and typically have a candy-like aesthetic, with bold colours and round shapes.
For 3 Days of Design Mardahl is presenting in her studio’s apartment showroom. Each room has a different installation, including one designed to look like a grand dressing room, and another set up with an incredible circular bar counter.
Across the rooms new and recent products are displayed, including her Candy Series One collection, which launches today (7 June). The new products include wine glasses and her take on the perfect bowl.
In a presentation to a room of special preview guests – mostly interior designers – she said “I love mixing art and functionality; I love being an artist as well as a designer. To me, it’s a playground and there are no limits”.
“This year we named the exhibition The Sensory Society. We transformed this old amazing apartment into a world of imagination.
I was inspired by Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel when I implemented the colours from our newest additions to the Candy Collection, such as grapefruit, blue jelly and champagne – absolutely yummy.
9:30am Ahead of the official launch later this morning, yesterday afternoon Dezeen reporter James Parkes attended the unveiling of House of Finn Juhl’s latest project, the 77 chair.
Founder Ivan Hansen (pictured above, left) described the new chair as “a piece of Lego” and named it “perhaps the brand’s least iconic chair”.
“You won’t believe how difficult it is to make something this simple,” he said.
The 77 chair is available in textile or leather upholstery (pictured) with burnished steel legs and wooden toes in oak or walnut.
9:00am Dezeen’s editorial director Max Fraser, editor-at-large Amy Frearson, deputy editor Cajsa Carlson, events guide editor Sophie Chapman and junior reporter James Parkes are on the ground in Copenhagen reporting from the 10th edition of 3 Days of Design.
Dezeen Events Guide has created a 3 Days of Design guide, highlighting the key events at the festival this year.
As the 2023 event gets under way, look back at of some of our coverage from last year – including architects Frank Maali and Gemma Lalanda’s “sacral feeling” steel-clad 1950s garage event space for Vipp and a translucent pavilion by Henning Larsen Architects for Fritz Hansen’s 150th anniversary.
3 Days Design takes place in Copenhagen from 7 to 9 June 2023. Dezeen Events Guide has created a 3 Days of Design guide, highlighting the key events at the festival. See Dezeen Events Guide for all the latest information you need to know to attend the event, as well as a list of other architecture and design events taking place around the world.
All times are Copenhagen time.
The lead image is by Cajsa Carlson.