Mapping contemporary Nordic design in Stockholm
Stockholm Creative Edition 2026 offers a city-wide overview of contemporary Swedish design, bringing together established brands, emerging studios and experimental practices across exhibitions, showrooms and newly opened spaces.
Stockholm Creative Edition 2026 unfolded as a city-wide exploration rather than a single destination. Spread across showrooms, studios and exhibitions, the initiative brought together established brands, newly founded studios and emerging designers, offering a layered reading of contemporary Swedish design. As founders Ulrika Kjellström Attar and Philippe Attar note, “we want to showcase the breadth of Swedish design today – both what is well established and what is entirely new.”
A central part of the 2026 edition is Stockholm Creative Edition’s own exhibition at Industricentralen, developed in collaboration with Atrium Ljungberg, where 35 forward-thinking designers, brands and studios showcase new approaches to materials, form, and function in a historic industrial setting. Located in the industrial heart of Hagastaden, the exhibition took place in a context shaped by experimentation and future-oriented thinking, framed by a district currently undergoing rapid transformation.
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Among other key curated destinations across the city, the former CFHILL gallery, just steps from Kungsträdgården, became The Building, a curated design destination bringing together seven established Nordic brands: String Furniture, Grythyttan Stålmöbler, Gemla, Källemo, ateljé Lyktan, Made by Choice and HAHA studio. Within the historic space, each brand curated its own dedicated exhibition, contributing to a layered and dynamic environment that highlighted different perspectives on contemporary Nordic design while encouraging dialogue between heritage and current practice.
Alongside the brand presentations, the initiative also opened up to new voices. As part of The Building, the seven brands jointly invited a group of young emerging designers to present their work to the press, industry professionals, architects and a design-interested public. Curated by Nils Askhagen, this additional exhibition introduced further variation in terms of disciplines and materials, reinforcing The Building as both a showcase for established design and a platform for the next generation.
At NK Interior, the exhibition Stay Curious extended the programme into a public-facing setting, bringing contemporary Swedish design into the Ljusgården and the display windows along Hamngatan. The initiative highlighted contemporary Swedish design through works exploring material, craftsmanship and personal expression. Among the projects presented, a constellation of vases—articulated through different materials—emerged as the most compelling, from Gustav Winsth’s TIG series in aluminium, where welding becomes a defining gesture, to Nick Ross’ unique wooden vases shaped by elemental volumes, and Lisa Hilland’s glass vases for Orranäs Glasbruk, cast from repurposed agricultural tools.
The week also served as a stage for the opening of new spaces across the city, including the first flagship store of award-winning Swedish brand Mizetto and the new Lammhults Group showroom designed by Note Design Studio. The space signals a more unified direction for the group’s brands—Lammhults, Abstracta, Fora Form and Ragnars—bringing them together under a shared framework.
What made Stockholm Creative Edition resonate was its refusal to compress design into a single narrative. Across the city, projects revealed a design culture that is material-led, process-aware and increasingly confident in showing how things are made. This edition embraced difference, between scales, generations and approaches, maintaining a strong sense of intent.
Now, let’s discover the projects that drew our attention as we moved through the city, highlighting different ways of approaching design through process, material and form.
Highlight projects:
ARK 1.0 by Josefin Antus
ARK 1.0 is a table lamp made from a single sheet of paper, cut, folded and hand-stitched using a technique derived from Japanese bookbinding. The structure is fully exposed and self-supporting, with stitches acting as both joints and ornament. By adjusting stitch density, proportion and balance emerge directly from the construction process, making the lamp’s form a result of its making.
The shade is composed of eight angled squares forming an octagonal top, while the base is built from rectangular elements connected through a secondary octagon. Folds, seams and stitches create shifting shadows and a changing expression depending on viewpoint. Trained as an architect with a background in woodworking, Josefin Antus treats paper as an architectural material, valued for its structural strength and ability to diffuse light into a warmn glow.
Valchromat + Spruce by Nils Askhagen
VALCHROMAT + SPRUCE is a furniture series consisting of an armchair, a chair and a table, exploring contrast and hierarchy through material use. The project combines spruce—light, tactile and visibly grained—with red-pigmented valchromat, a dense, engineered fibreboard defined by compression and strength.
Nils Askhagen assigns materials distinct roles. Valchromat carries the structural load, while spruce frames and articulates the construction. This clear division makes forces and dependencies readable, turning material contrast into a tool for clarity and aligning structure, function and expression. In addition to showcasing at Industricentralen, he exhibited and curated the emergent designers exhibition at The Building.
Tide, Atrium, Hollow by Kogl Design Studio x Lunnheim
Kogl Design Studio, founded by Christian Sandbye and Jonas Oppedal, works across furniture, objects and spatial design with a strong focus on material integrity and local production. The studio presented a selection of furniture and lighting developed for Lunnheim, a newly established furniture brand based in Oslo.
Produced entirely in Norway, the collection includes modules from the Tide sofa system upholstered in Kumo, Kvadrat’s newest textile collection, Atrium lounge tables and Hollow table lamps. Crafted from solid oak with a dark pigmented linseed oil finish, the pieces share a restrained material language. Soft curves, shallow arcs and architectural volumes are balanced with sharper details, resulting in furniture that feels both grounded and contemporary.
Green Edge by Anne Ländle
Green Edge is a project exploring biobased materials, furniture design and biodiversity. Developed from roadside grass, wildflowers and wood waste, the material transforms overlooked biological resources into durable and expressive surfaces for contemporary furniture.
Presented through a cabinet inspired by historical herbarium furniture, the project embeds botanical elements directly into the material. Light, touch and everyday use activate the surface, allowing its texture, colour and structure to emerge over time. Anne Ländle’s work connects material innovation with local ecosystems, proposing a future where furniture is cultivated, rooted in place, landscape and biodiversity.
Furniture collection by Niklas Runesson
Niklas Runesson is a self-taught craftsperson, furniture maker and artist raised in Småland, southern Sweden, within a three-generation woodworking tradition. Working intuitively and without sketches or models, he creates objects that sit between sculptural furniture and functional art.
Using few components yet moving beyond Scandinavian minimalism, Runesson’s pieces shift in expression depending on placement and point of view. Nature, imagination and tactile exploration guide his process, engaging multiple senses, from visual to olfactory, in the making of each object.
Knekt by Hegren
Knekt is a floor lamp designed and produced in Norway by Hegren, a Norwegian design studio focused on interior objects with an emphasis on quality, repairability and longevity. Working primarily with aluminium and local production, the studio approaches design through simple, honest expressions shaped by close involvement in the making process.
Lightweight (1.1 kg), flat-packed and space-saving, Knekt is conceived as a precise lighting solution for the armchair. Its low weight and straightforward construction make it easy to place and move, prioritising use and durability over visual excess.
The Architect by Bülow + Cox
Bülow + Cox is a design brand focused on modular furniture systems that combine Scandinavian mid-century references with British sartorial influences. Designed by award-winning landscape architect Nicolai Bülow-Rousting, the collection is rooted in the idea of a “new heritage,” where durability, refinement and adaptability are central to contemporary living.
Presented at Stockholm Creative Edition, The Architect is a bold and balanced pre-configuration of the patented Macaron Shelf System. Solid oak shelves are combined with a modular, polished brass frame, creating a structure that is both flexible and composed. The system allows for reconfiguration over time while maintaining a clear, minimalist expression, an approach that treats modularity as a long-term design principle.
Bovik by Grythyttan Stålmöbler
With Bovik, Grythyttan Stålmöbler introduced a new outdoor furniture series combining untreated teak with a robust steel frame. The first pieces—a table and a chair—balance warm wood surfaces with a restrained metal structure, available in hot-dip galvanised or black powder-coated steel. The result is an expression that feels both light and solid, suited to a range of outdoor settings.
Rooted in the company’s long-standing spring steel construction from the 1930s, Bovik reinterprets Grythyttan’s heritage through slimmer wood profiles and a more contemporary silhouette. Named after a village near Grythyttan, the series reflects a close connection to place, landscape and longevity, positioning itself as a quieter evolution within the brand’s outdoor collection.
Donut by HAHA studio
Stockholm-based HAHA Studio presented Donut, a compact lamp composed of two stacked aluminium rings. The piece can function as a table lamp or be wall-mounted through discreet keyholes at the base, allowing it to adapt to different spatial contexts. Its graphic form is paired with a straightforward construction and a G9 light source.
Founded in 2016, the studio focuses on small-scale, local and sustainable lighting production, with all manufacturing taking place in Sweden, close to its Stockholm studio. Designed by founder Arash Eskafi together with Oliver Edgren, Donut reflects the studio’s interest in industrial processes, material precision and restrained, honest expressions.
Mela by Matti Klenell x ateljé Lyktan
Mela is a luminaire designed by Matti Klenell in collaboration with ateljé Lyktan, originally developed for the renovation of the National Museum in Stockholm. Created as part of a broader commission for the museum’s interiors, the lamp now moves from a site-specific context into production.
Available as a pendant in three sizes and colours, Mela can appear as a single light or be combined into larger chandelier compositions. The system allows for rhythm and variation, shifting between the individual object and the collective installation. The project reflects Klenell’s interest in archetypal forms and ateljé Lyktan’s long-standing expertise in translating conceptual lighting into durable, architectural products.
Trolley (Museum Collection) by TAF Studio x String Furniture
Trolley, designed by TAF Studio, expands String Furniture’s Museum Collection through a compact, mobile object built entirely from aluminium. Its slim proportions are paired with a robust construction based on established industrial principles, allowing the trolley to remain lightweight while meeting String’s standards for stability and durability.
Equipped with wheels and a solid handle, Trolley introduces mobility into the collection without altering its restrained language. Designed to move easily between rooms, it supports shifting uses in both domestic and public settings, maintaining a clear identity regardless of context.
