Organisers of the Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair have announced the event will be pushed back from its scheduled date in February due to coronavirus for a second consecutive year.
The design show, which is the largest of its kind in northern Europe and attracts exhibitors from across the world, was scheduled to take place from 8 to 12 February 2022 but has been rescheduled for 6 to 9 September 2022.
The date move is temporary and will not affect the furniture fair's sister event, Stockholm Design Week, which is set to run as normal from 7 to 13 February.
Move necessary given "current situation in the world"
Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair and Stockholm Design Week project area manager Hanna Nova Beatrice said the postponement was necessary given the current state of the coronavirus pandemic, which has seen rapidly rising case rates and corresponding protective measures in many countries.
"We are an international fair with exhibitors and visitors travelling here from all over the world, including our neighbouring Scandinavian countries," said Beatrice.
"We have great interest and engagement for the 2022 edition of the fair, but we need to move it forward due to the current situation in the world."
Event organisers said they chose the new date to avoid clashes with other design fairs and activities, and because it would allow continued access to the usual venue of Stockholmsmässan.
"By moving Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair forward to September we hope to give more people an opportunity to participate, including those based in countries that now have a lockdown," said Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair and Stockholm Design Week product and concept owner Sanna Gebeyehu.
"After a two-year break, it feels important to welcome as many exhibitors and visitors as possible in 2022."
Design Week to go ahead
While the furniture fair will move to September, Stockholm Design Week is scheduled to go ahead as planned on 7 to 13 February.
This is because the festival is more focused on local exhibitors and audiences, and its events will not be prevented by Sweden's current coronavirus restrictions.
"Many of the planned exhibits and activities during Stockholm Design Week can still be carried out and therefore it still feels relevant to go ahead with the design week in the city," Beatrice said. "But of course, we follow the prevailing restrictions."
Stockholm Design & Architecture Talks will also continue as planned and will be aired digitally. This year, they will revolve around the theme Being a Game Changer.
Stockholm one of first 2022 design events cancelled
Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair is one of the earliest events in the design calendar, and is therefore one of the first to announce its postponement due to the global surge in coronavirus cases driven by the new omicron variant.
Italian architect Renzo Piano has transformed a former power station in Moscow into a contemporary arts centre for the V-A-C Foundation named GES-2 House of Culture
Renzo Piano Building Workshop's revamp of the power plant, which was designed in 1907 in the Russian Revival style by architect Vasili Bashkirov to power the city's tram system, is the studio's first project in Russia.
Renzo Piano Building Workshop transformed a power plant into the GES-2 House of Culture
The studio stripped away more recent additions to the historic structure in the Red October arts district and aimed to restore as many of the plant's original features as possible.
One exception to this was replacing the original brick chimney stacks with four 70-metre-high, blue steel chimneys that give the building a presence in the city. They nod to the colourful pipework of the studio's previous high-tech buildings including the Centre Pompidou in Paris.
The studio restored the existing structure
Informed by the community role of the Soviet Union's historic system of Houses of Culture, at the centre of GES-2 House of Culture is a 1,200-square-metre atrium that is cut through by an indoor pedestrian walkway that crosses the building.
Conceived as a "cathedral of light", this bright atrium is illuminated by the large windows and a new glass roof covered with solar panels.
"Contemporary art is more democratic than classical art, and complex, multifunctional cultural buildings have partly taken the place of temples," said Piano. "And, like temples, they are open to everyone."
The building is arranged around a large central atrium
The white-painted steel structure of the plant defines the interiors, complemented by new additions such as staircases, walkways and pipework that reference this industrial aesthetic.
A "circulation web" of stairs, lifts, corridors and balconies was designed to create a legible, interconnected route through the building, which is divided into four areas described as civic, welcoming, exhibition and education.
"When entering and reaching the 'welcoming' area, it is sufficient for [visitors] to turn their eyes rich and left, up and down, to understand what is inside, where to go, and how to move," said the practice.
"Ideally, they don't need any plan to visit the entire centre."
Open stairwells create interconnected circulation routes
Alongside the atrium on the ground floor, the civic and welcoming spaces contain a library, media hub, restaurant, play area and workshop space.
On the floor above a wood-panelled performance space with auditorium-style seating is oriented to look out at an area alongside the museum that has been planted with over 600 birch trees.
Exhibition and gallery spaces sit both above and below the ground floor. A basement gallery space was designed to meet modern lighting and climate conditions, while smaller spaces above were designed for temporary multimedia installations.
There is a workshop, gallery, library, media hub and restaurant
GES-2 opened to the public on 4 December 2021, and its forthcoming programme includes a series of exhibitions dedicated to the transformation of Russian culture over the past three decades.
NFTs experienced a meteoric rise this year but continue to divide opinion. As part of our 2021 review, Dezeen speaks to both sides of the debate to explore what the future might look like for NFTs in 2022.
Digital fashion designer Amber Slooten believes non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are allowing artists to "tak[e] back ownership over their work", with the potential to create "a new society" through the digital asset certification system.
But cryptocurrency journalist David Gerard told Dezeen the industry is already overrun with nefarious activity and will soon be "absolutely destroyed by the authorities".
NFT sales flourished in 2021 with many traditional design fairs, including Milan design week, postponed or completely cancelled due to coronavirus restrictions.
NFTs entered the mainstream in the latter half of the year
Facebook's rebrand as Meta in October 2021 brought the NFT phenomenon squarely into the public consciousness. The rebrand confirmed that the metaverse – a digital world where people can experience a parallel life to their real-world existence – was here to stay.
It therefore came as no surprise that Collins Dictionary selected "NFT" as its word of the year.
"Artists pushed the limits of NFTs during lockdowns"
NFTs are the unique identifier that records ownership of a digital asset, such as an image, using the same blockchain technology that powers cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. Designers can create items such as clothes, artworks or even houses in the form of a video, jpeg or gif and then sell the ownership – which is distinct from copyright – as NFTs.
Crucially, the token can’t be traded for any other form of cryptocurrency, and designers are able to sell their work directly to customers on platforms such as OpenSea.
"Back in 2019, when we sold our first dress on a blockchain as an NFT, nobody really knew it was called an NFT," she told Dezeen. "That gives a good understanding of what the world was like before covid."
"Because of covid, we had this gigantic surge in digital – digital ownership, digital places, digital products," she reflected. "I think it's because we couldn't leave our houses, that there needed to be a different way of commerce."
"During the past year in lockdowns, artists have pushed the limits of what NFTs previously were, devising creative outputs, processes and afterlives of the pieces, Taylor told Dezeen.
"I believe these bold movements have increased the demand and brought a greater curiosity to NFTs in a broader spectrum and to a wider audience," she added.
Charlotte Taylor has developed a fantasy architecture project called Architoys
Slooten is a champion of NFTs. She argues that many designers are drawn to the format for its democratizing characteristics.
"The thing that excited me most about this is that we're creating a new society [of designers]," Slooten told Dezeen. "Everything feels really new with platforms like Open Sea serving as a portal into this new world."
It's a sentiment shared by others within the industry. Monty Preston, curator of Saatchi Art's The Other Avatars, a platform of avatars designed by professional artists, highlights how the blockchain technology that underpins NFTs allows the authenticity and ownership of designs to be more traceable.
"NFTs are revolutionizing how creators are compensated for their work," Preston says.
"With the introduction of digital scarcity and ownership provided by NFTs, we can now establish authenticity and provenance, and pay royalties to artists on each sale of their works."
Criticism from investors and experts
Not everyone is as enthusiastic about the potential of NFTs to democratise the design world, however. Despite their meteoric rise, they remain the subject of criticism over the environmental impact of energy-hungry blockchains and ridicule over the fact that although an NFT cannot be replicated, the digital file it is associated with can still be freely copied and downloaded.
The nature of the NFT marketplace has also drawn criticism from wary investors and experts who say it is prone to the same concerns about money laundering and absent regulation as cryptocurrencies.
"We have to be careful to distinguish between two things," said cryptocurrency journalist Gerard. "One is the fabulous hypothetical future possibilities of what you might be able to do with NFTs in some future sense. And secondly, the actual real-life NFT market we have, which is awful and reprehensible in pretty much every way."
He claims that the NFTs market is being artificially inflated by those seeking to exploit it for money laundering purposes through sham transactions. As a result, the actual potential financial benefits for designers are smaller than they might seem.
"I'm all for artists getting money... but one of the problems is they often don't. A lot of artists get into NFTs, they think this is finally their chance to get ahead and they don't realise how the whole market is largely fake," he says.
Eventually, Gerard predicts a heavy crash back down to Earth for the NFT market as governments move to introduce more regulation.
"I look forward to this market being absolutely destroyed by the authorities, however possible, then people can get on with doing cool stuff," he says.
Amber Slooten says NFTs have the potential to give "the agency of creativity back to the people". Photo is by Valentina Vos
So what next for NFTs in 2022? There's no doubt that designs are increasingly being made in a virtual setting.
Taylor, who is currently working on developments to her imaginary home Casa Atibaia, believes that next year will see NFTs help widen the appeal of the metaverse.
"The metaverse will be very prevalent in new architectural and design projects, expanding to retail and fashion fields," she says.
"Ironically I’m very much a lover of analogue technologies, so to see the interaction and relationship between the metaverse and reality will be the most curious element for me."
Slooten similarly envisions a year in which NFTs become more widespread as non-designers increasingly realise the potential of creating digital designs themselves. She cites The Fabricant Studio, the new platform set to launch next year on The Fabricant, where people can create clothes and sell them as NFTs, as an example.
"This is giving the agency of creativity back to the people," she explained. "We're really excited about enabling this new creative economy and creating a new fashion ecosystem that doesn't exploit but actually accelerates and creates more wealth for everyone."
Electric vehicle brand Arrival has revealed the prototype of its monovolume electric car designed for Uber, which aims to offer passengers a comfort-driven ride-hailing experience.
Intended for urban environments where ride-hailing is most popular, the Arrival Car features a one-box-style design with a squared back-end that smoothly tapers towards the front. Its form was described by Arrival as "super minimal".
Arrival has designed the Arrival Car for Uber
The design team elevated and moved the driver's seat as far forward as possible to grant optimum visibility, which is enhanced by the large size of the windscreen.
The passenger seating area at the back of the car offers twice as much leg-room as that of an average car of the same length, more than in a Rolls Royce according to the company.
The car's shape was designed to give passengers lots of room
"The overall footprint of the whole car is the same as the Volkswagen Golf," said Arrival's Tom Elvidge.
"But, as you can see, one of the big design features that we've really strived for is in the back of the car, [which] is massive."
It has a simplified design
The singular front passenger seat can be folded down and moved forward underneath the dashboard to further open up the interior and back row.
Additionally, the boot is designed to hold two large suitcases and several small bags.
It features a large, digital dashboard
In a bid to make the dashboard as stripped-back as possible, all the car's additional features, such as navigation, bluetooth phone connection and temperature-control settings, can all be monitored via a simple touchscreen display.
When riders start their trip, the name and photograph of both the driver and passenger can be shown, offering a "moment for connection".
The car was developed in just over six months by way of "vertical integration-utilising technologies", which saw the team have a hand in all parts of the design process.
It forms part of Arrival and Uber's plan to create an electric fleet of cars that can be used for ride-hailing.
Arrival Car has a large windscreen and glass roof
"Electrifying ride-hailing will play a crucial role in reducing the emissions of vehicles in cities globally, providing a sustainable, clean multi-modal transportation system for communities," said Elvidge.
"We are keen on supporting drivers with this transition by developing the best possible product for ride-hailing that elevates the experience for both them and their passengers, making urban air clean in the process."
A prototype was recently unveiled
A prototype of the car was unveiled on 16 December 2021 and will be tested at the start of 2022 to provide feedback for a further design phase, before going into production.
Arrival previously launched a zero-emissions bus aimed at making public transport feel safer during the pandemic. The vehicle includes features such as a zero-touch bell, removable seats and seamless, easy-to-clean surfaces.
Hong Kong artists and designers created a playful set for the Design Trust's annual fundraising gala, which took place last week for the first time in two years due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Architect William Lim, textile designer and researcher Elaine Yan Ling Ng and conceptual artist Mak Ying Tung 2 (Mak2) worked with Design Trust co-founder and executive director Marisa Yiu to create the setting for the event.
Described by the Design Trust as "winter playscapes", the venue was decorated with an eclectic mix of palm trees, sunflowers and architectural elements.
The Design Trust Gala 2021 was decorated with palm trees and sunflowers
Yan Ling Ng created a palm tree installation made from UV polymer, Swarovski crystals and textile offcuts from her studio, while conceptual artist Mak2 contributed an artwork comprising a bed and chest of drawers tangled in cables.
The 340 guests sat around a single long table that snaked around the room.
"My excitement of being able to host and realise this year's gala is beyond words and it's humbling to see so many collaborators come to support us," said Yiu.
"This year's theme Winter Playscapes is a collective testament to our community to gather and support the ongoing inspirational research, projects and ongoing granting projects to connect various generations, and which impact our city with optimism, energy and vibrancy of shaping our cultural community."
Artist Mak Ying Tung 2 created an installation comprising a bed and chest of drawers tangled in cables for the event
Design Trust is a charity that supports creative projects in Hong Kong and the surrounding region.
Twenty-six lots were auctioned during the event, which raised 9.86 million HKD ($1.26 million) for the charity.
"This year's gala could not have been successful without the support from our passionate sponsors, table hosts, donors and winning bidders for the auction lots," said Yiu.
"These critical funds will help Design Trust continue with our community programmes and projects, as well as allowing cultural exchanges, research programmes, and design and curatorial research fellowships to thrive."
Designers Mak Ying Tung 2, Henry Steine, Elaine Yan Ling Ng and William Lim at the Design Trust Gala 2021
The gala also featured a screening of artist Cao Fei's film Nova and a musical performance by Hong Kong New Music Ensemble.
Graphic designer Henry Steiner received the Design Trust Legacy Award 2021 at the event.
The Design Trust Gala 2021, which took place on 16 December at the Hong Kong Ocean Park Marriott Hotel, is the first fundraising gala Design Trust has held since 2019 due to the coronavirus pandemic. Dezeen was a media partner for the event.
Design Trust Gala 2021 took place on 16 December 2021 at the Hong Kong Ocean Park Marriott Hotel in Hong Kong. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.
Media partnership
This article was written as part of a media partnership with the Design Trust. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.
