Play with HDK at Furniture Fair

1 Feb 2010

Hide and Seek with Tian Tang, Jenny Palmborg and Eva Johanna Sandberg. Photo: Christian Strömqvist

How do you ignite the thrill of playing, through furniture design? HIDE & SEEK is an exhibition of playful and flirtatious design objects birthed by master students from the Design Programme and the new specialization Child Culture Design at HDK- the School of Design and Crafts, University of Gothenburg.

The 9th - 13th of February, students are hiding out in the stand V01:10 at Stockholm Furniture Fair. Do you like to play? Seek them out at the fair.

Titled after the ubiquitous children's game, the students’ collection circles the lighter side of life; the novel, the quirky, the curious, the dreamy, and the daring. Teleport back to a place where things were not that structured. Where objects didn't dictate what they should or should not be. Where the clouds become whales and the dining room table could as well be a ship.

As grown-ups, our collected experiences frame our imagination. Where as children, our minds lacked borders. The students’ design process has been exploring the freedom of mind of being a child. Thirteen individual pieces of furniture, in which imagination and play have been made core function are presented.

One of the furniture pieces is a rug, meant for adults and children to play together on.

- Just the simple act of sitting down on the ground creates a sense of playfulness, says Eva-Johanna Sandberg. My rug is inspired by landscape topography and scale variation; by the view you get looking down from an airplane, combined with the zoomed in image of moss.

Even though playing is a joyful business - most of the time, children's play is followed by mess. Lina Lagström asks:

- Could a table encourage children to pick up after playing? We have all longed for a magical "cleaning button". That wish inspired me to create a "stow-away-storage" for toys, making the cleaning fun with a slide joyride for the toys.

Not all the pieces in the stand will be meant for children, though. The Bojagi stool is a witty furniture with historical references. The Bojagi is a Korean wrapping cloth, that in past times often were used as a wardrobe or storage unit. Yoonji Kim has taken up that tradition, and added her own twists: with a stool as undercarriage, and prints on the Bojagi cloth, surprise elements and flexible use creates the playful experience.

Others from the HDK family

HDK - School of Design and Crafts can be seen in plany places at the fair: besides the HDK stand HIDE&SEEK students and alumni exhibit in several stands. Amongst them Daniel rybakken, Fredrik Färg, Olof Nordenson, Ulf Nilsson Jevin, Lina Lagstrom, Eva-Johanna Sandberg. Stefan Holm and Dan Sunaga was awarded the Furniture Design award by Eller Interior. Keep you eyes open!