Life and Death at Furniture Fair

Every thing which is born eventually dies. What, then, would be a beautiful death for a product? Meet nineteen students, sculptured shuttlecocks, lightened milk packages, lamps with intravenous drip and shelves made by tires in the HDK stand at Stockholm Furniture Fair, 4- 8 February. 

Every thing which is born eventually dies. What, then, would be a beautiful death for a product?  Nineteen students from HDK- the School of Design and Crafts at the University of Gothenburg, have worked with the product’s death as an inspiration for new life. Exploring the ways to bring value to the death of a product, expanding its’ lifespan, transforming the materials for new purposes. The ambition is to see how a designer can influence the production in a responsible way.

- Everything in the every day life can be used with humour, says Lin Han, who’s sculptured abundant shuttlecocks.

In the stand V01:51 at Stockholm Furniture Fair you can also see sources of light made by recycled plastic bags, a table with a hidden history and a stool on which mushrooms can grow. You’ll meet a parasitic bookshelf and PET bottles transformed into a lamp, transformed into a fleece sweater. A damaged chair which is most beautiful on the inside, scrap iron melted into a hanger and a armoured knight saving damaged tables, are other things you can encounter. Old textiles become a patchwork quilt, a calendar becomes a diary and wooden material is recycled.

- You keep my lamp alive with an intravenous drip, says Erik Åleby. If you don’t activate the drip bag the lamp will slowly die, which is the point. It only uses as much medicine as you pre-scribe, helping to save on costs. The lamp is mobile, so you can move your patient wherever you need it to spread some light, he concludes. 

Light will also come from a yarn lamp, but can you rest on the cremated Windsor-style chair? The angles of approach to the theme "A beautiful death" are many in this year’s stand from HDK – School of Design and Crafts at the University of Gothenburg.

Nineteen design students on master’s level with eight different nationalities have worked together for ten weeks. With their different design competences they have contributed to the seventeen exhibited products, the design and the building of the stand, the graphic design and project management. The HDK Design Programme don’t have the traditional dividing lines between design professions, which facilitates both co-operation and cross-fertilization between different specialities.

More information:

- Watch the slideshow with pictures of the students' products on this page

- In the HDK:s "Folder Stockholm Furniture Fair 09" you can see pictures, scetches, read more, get all the student namnes and their contact info. Please dowload the pdf- file on this page.

- Read more about the MA Design Programme

- Read more about the Stockholm furniture Fair

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