A weather machine that brings back the poetics of forecasting

Weather forecasting has a curious design history. For centuries, we looked up, reading the sky through clouds, colour shifts, and the ache in our joints. Then came barometers, anemometers, mechanical systems designed to measure the atmosphere with precision and care, tools of both science and poetry. Fast forward to now, and weather has been flattened into app widgets and vague percentages, data that is read at a glance and forgotten just as quickly.

Skymill is an attempt to rebuild our relationship with the atmosphere, by making the ephemeral tactile. Conceived by Gustav Rosén and realised by Klong, it’s a weather forecasting sculpture that tracks the unseen and returns it to a real experience. The result is a fusion of Scandinavian design, precision mechanics and real-time data that transforms the weather into a kinetic experience, bringing forecasts to life in a visible and tangible way.

Skymill uses real-time data and represents it through nine minimalist symbols, each referring to various weather cues – sun, moon, cloud, rain, snow, fog, thunder, wind, and drizzle – which together can form more than 35 different combinations. A button allows for time travel, being able to see the predictions up to a full day ahead. In addition to weather display, the product also features indoor air quality monitoring, measuring the levels of CO₂, dust, and other irritants in the room, represented by the elegant symbol of a small bird flying out of a cage, a nod to the canaries that were used to detect dangerous gases in mines.

The designer, Gustav Rosén, has always been fascinated by mechanics and nature, with the core of his designs being the intersection of function and aesthetic beauty. ”As our everyday lives become increasingly digital, I felt a longing for something more tangible. People have long built complicated mechanical objects, both for function and for pure entertainment – everything from barometers to cuckoo clocks and music machines. With Skymill, I wanted to create something that respects the way we used to look at the sky. It doesn’t reduce the weather to numbers on a screen, but lets you reconnect with it,” he says. Skymill is the perfect fusion of the past and the present, rooted in mechanical craftsmanship and modern technology.

The collaboration with the Swedish company Klong was fundamental in the product’s development. “Our brand is based on care,” says CEO Georg Hedendahl, “for both people and nature.” The collaboration is not just a stamp of aesthetic alignment but a reinforcement of shared values: craft, intention, durability, and definite resistance to disposability. The use of high-quality metals, a shared visual language, and care in mechanical detail elevate Skymill from an eccentric idea to a sculptural object that aligns with Scandinavian design’s values.

In a market full of digital devices that are constantly demanding our attention, Skymill asks us to slow down, to notice, to care. Not just about whether it might rain, but about the quality of the air we’re breathing, the systems that surround us, and the tools we use to interpret them. Skymill offers a new way to connect with the weather, connecting modern technology with thoughtful design and lasting craftsmanship.