Skud på stammen at the Design Werck gallery

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Bord dæk dig - en eventyrlig historie / Table deck yourself - an adventure from fairy tales

An exhibition of furniture with tables and chairs by young cabinetmakers from Snedkernes Uddannelser and with lighting by students from the glass school of EUC Nordvestsjælland in Holbæk.

All the designs were inspired by traditional fairy tales.

The title of the exhibition - Bord dæk dig or Table Set Yourself - is from a story by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm about three brothers who are sent off to make their fortunes as apprentices and about the gifts they are given by their masters when they finish their training …. so more than appropriate for the theme for an exhibition by young furniture makers.

In the tale, one of the young apprentices is given a table by his master that, on command, sets or lays itself with a magic feast. The table was carried on the back of the apprentice so the table here is on a version of trestles and the top is made from many layers of veneer that must symbolise potential new layers as the table 'sets itself'.

The inspiration for the other tables were four tales from Hans Christian Andersen …...

Thumbelina was a girl who was so small that she was carried off by a toad and captured by a beetle but escaped on the back of a swallow and that tale inspired a table shaped like a beetle that is supported on insect-like legs and with chairs like giant insect or butterfly wings.

The Top and the Ball, also by Hans Christian Andersen, is a tale of love and loss and rejection and the complicated inlay of the top reflects the pattern of a satin ball that became lost and faded.

The Little Match Girl was caught out in a snow storm, and struck three of her matches for light and warmth and this has inspired the brilliant legs of the small tables with tops like match boxes with three of the four legs like used and burnt matches and the fourth match unused.

Klods-Hans …. Hans the Blockhead - seems to me to be a rather more obscure story that is less easy to interpret. it is the tale of three brothers, two of whom are sent off on horseback by their father to win the hand of the princess with fine wit and fine words and the blockhead son follows behind on a goat and collects on the way a dead bird and rank rubbish as gifts for the princess. The chairs are inspired by the goat but the table with its staggered ends and sliding extension leaves? …. is this the crenellations of the royal castle?

This is an exhibition about the imagination of the designers whose inventions are realised by cabinetmakers with the technical skills required to produce furniture of this quality.

 

Photographs for the catalogue were taken at the fairy-tale castle of Jægerspris Slot on Sjælland.

 


note:
I think that Skud på stammen can be translated as shoot or bud on the stem or tree trunk. It’s like the English phrase about mighty oaks that from little acorns grow but implies new growth or the new branch on the tree rather than a completely new tree so the relationship between the apprentice and the master.

Design Werck as a venue for the exhibition was planned for the Spring but it had to be postponed because of the lockdown.

Actually, it is a great show for this time of year, in the build up to Christmas, in part because of the fairy tale theme but also because the Christmas season is when, for Danes, the dining table and food becomes such an important part of celebrations with friends and family.

more photographs of the furniture and lights 

the exhibition opened on 6 November 2020
at Design Werck, Krudløbsvej 12, 1439 København
Design Werck
NEXT Uddannelse

note: Design Werck does not open on Mondays or Tuesdays

 

wine and tapas and jazz at Design Werck on a Saturday afternoon

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If you are heading out to Refshaleøen on a Saturday afternoon, then how about sauntering along the canal. This was Design Werck today and, as far as I can gather, most Saturday afternoons. A pretty civilised way to spend a few hours on a sunny afternoon - the front of the gallery faces west and sitting here you look across the canal to Nyholm.

Design Werck

 
 

skud på stammen at Design Werck

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Barndommens Land designed by Aske Foersom and made by Sara Ruff
En Gyngestol designed by Søren Nissen and made by Kasper Wium Kristiansen and Abia Manzanares
Bord designed by Tine Mouritsen and made by Gunver Lindeskov Søgaard

This week is the last opportunity to see the exhibition at Design Werck in Copenhagen of furniture made by students who are about to graduate as cabinetmakers. The students from next> in Copenhagen worked in partnership with designers and the furniture is made from lime wood from trees felled at the Rødovre City Hall when the main entrance courtyard was replanted.

SKUD PÅ STAMMEN continues at Design Werck until Sunday 10 March 2019
note: Design Werck does not open on Monday or Tuesday

Design Werck

Margrethe Kaas at Design Werck

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An exhibition has just opened at Design Werck in Copenhagen of paintings and sculptures by the Danish architect and artist Margrethe Kaas. The gallery space at Design Werck has beautiful light in space where furniture and decorative arts are also shown.

Margrethe Kaas was given her first set of paints at the age of four and painting has, for her, been a major vehicle for exploring colour. The large-scale colour studies show an architectural sense of planes and space and there are also topographic studies including here painting from visits to New York and London and a painting to reflect the colours and energy of Berlin.

the exhibition continues at Design Werck through to 31 March 2019

Margrethe Kaas
Design Werck

umsicht regards sguardi 17 - SIA at Design Werck

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An exhibition has opened at Design Werck in Copenhagen to show major engineering and design projects that were selected for their annual award in 2017 by SIA … the Schweizerischer Ingenieur- und Architektenverein or the Swiss association of engineers and architects.

“The SIA invited architects, engineers, public authorities, companies, investors, and private and public developers to submit projects covering schemes of any size. Each project was then judged on the design’s response to its environment and on the way it applied solutions that would meet users’ needs in an exemplary or novel way.”

Six projects received awards and two others were given honourable mentions for their pioneering roles in designing evolutionary living spaces and their contribution to the sustainability of Switzerland’s built environment

Photographs are by Beat Schweizer and films are by Marc Schwartz.


The exhibition continues at Design WERCK until 7 October 2018

 

ORBIT at Design Werck in Copenhagen

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On show at Design Werck in Copenhagen is a major work from the cabinetmakers Mette Bentzen and Lasse Kristensen of Egeværk.

It is hanging sculpture - a globe with a diameter of 1.8 metres - that is deceptively simple but with 14 perfectly cut, curved and finished ribs in walnut that are slotted together at the top and bottom where they are held with a key piece in maple.

Suspended from the ceiling but with the axis set at an angle of 23.5 degrees, ORBIT twists slowly to throw shadows across itself and across the floor.

This is an amazing combination of imagination and consummate skill for a simple geometric form but with a complex and precise construction making maximum use of the grain, colour and character of the wood.

Design Werck

Egeværk

 

Lives & Works in Fiskars ..... an event for June at Design Werck in Copenhagen

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On Thursday evening there was the launch of a special event at Design Werck.

In partnership with ONOMA - the Cooperative of Artisans, Designers and Artists in Fiskars - Design Werck will show furniture, art, textiles, graphics; ceramic works and glass made in the historic village that is 80 kilometres west of Helsinki in Finland.

Founded in 1996, the association now represents 117 members. Twenty members of the cooperative will be showing their work here in Copenhagen and the exhibition, with works for sale, will continue through until 30th June.

Design Werck, Krudtløbsvej 12, Copenhagen K

 

 
 

Artists, designers and makers showing their work:

  • Heikki Aska, cabinet maker
  • Marko Escartin, wood worker
  • Antrei Hartikainen, cabinet maker
  • Lulu Halme, graphic designer
  • Sonja Tuulia Halttunen, graphic designer
  • Elina Makkonen, goldsmith
  • Olli Kari, muscician
  • Petri Koivusipilä, cabinet maker
  • Minja Kolehainenen, cabinet maker
  • Ivan Kulvik, cabinet maker
  • Camilla Moberg, industrial and glass designer
  • Piitu Nykopp, visual artist
  • Deepa Panchamia, textile artist
  • Katja Öhrnberg, visual artist
  • Ari Turunen, jewellery smith
  • Arto Vuohelainen, photographer
  • Karin Widnäs, ceramist
  • Tuulia Penttilä, cabinet maker
  • Matti Söderkultalahti, cabinet maker
 

food for the opening event was by Restaurant Kuparipaja in Fiskars and iced cider, gin and akvavit was from the Ägräs Distillery in Fiskars

 

Design Werck for 3daysofdesign

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Design Werck, on the canal at Krudtløbsvej, showed the work of the forty or so companies that now use the gallery as their base in Copenhagen and with many of the designers and makers there to talk about their work.

There were special demonstrations … for instance an afternoon of smocking … but above all it was an opportunity to meet and chat … the design community here were entertaining friends and family and all and any visitor that dropped by and wanted to discover or understand more about what was designed or made.

Food here was Danish and served out from breakfast and onwards but given a good west-coast sense with Henry Seymour serving out amazing oysters for a Danish brunch and there was gin and tonic each evening.

The main display, specifically for 3daysofdesign, was organised in conjunction with Business Finland to show the furniture and products of designers and companies from Finland.

The north end of the gallery was cleared and then restyled as a Finnish cottage with the furniture, lighting, textiles and wallpaper and so on shown in a more-obviously domestic context.

 

Design Werck

 

Companies from Finland showing here include: BEdesign; be&liv; bonden; Eco Furn; Fasetti; FINARTE; GEDIGO; GOODIO; HUKKA DESIGN;KRISTIINA LASSUS; Magisso; moimoi; NIKARI; NORD-T; PISA DESIGN SUSTAINABLE TEXTILES; SECTO DESIGN; Teemu Järvi Illustrations; GRÖnlund; VALLILA and woodio

 

Design Werck celebrates

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Last night there was a party at Design Werck to celebrate the anniversary of the opening of the gallery two years ago.

It was well attended by friends and by many of the designers and companies represented by the gallery … it might not look it in the photograph but then the food and drink was exceptionally good and it was interesting to see that very few people wanted to move away from the kitchen at the other end of the gallery ... even when Birgitte Bjerregaard and Ib Schifter Schou spoke about setting up the gallery and thanked everyone.

Design Werck, Krudtløbsvej 12, Copenhagen

3daysofdesign at Design Werck

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a light from Secto

 

Through the period of 3daysofdesign, the work of a number of designers and manufacturers from Finland were shown at the Design Werck gallery.

These companies included:

  • Nikari the well-established maker of furniture from Fiskars in Finland
  • Gedigo Piece from Naantali making kitchenware and household products - many combining wood and leather
  • Langø Home Textiles for woven textiles and bed linens.
  • Magisso - a company from Helsinki for glassware, ceramics, tableware and kitchenware
  • Feathr for bold distinctive wallpapers and textiles
  • Secto for distinctive and finely-made wood lamp shades

 

 

The event was organised with Finpro - the Finnish trade and tourism organisation - and was an important opportunity to look at good design from another Nordic country.

 

 

 

earlier posts on this site:

the 4210 floor lamp from Secto from September 2013

pendant lights from Secto from December 2013

Secto

 

 

Log Carrier in leather with a wood handle by Gedigo Piece

to quote:

"For us luxury is about the quality
of the item, the craftsmanship
and the story behind it.

"Inspired by the harsh, mysterious
Arctic and made of materials from
the pure Finnish nature." 

 

Four of the bold wallpaper designs from Feathr

to quote:

"Good design is for everyone.  We created FEATHR to put modern art into everyone’s hands via the medium of designer wallpaper, fabrics and cushions.  We’re not super-expensive and nose-in-the air-snobby.  We work smart and use modern digital tools to keep our company lighter than a Victoria sponge, whilst making sure a good slice of the cake goes straight to the artists.  We’re inspired by the like of Morris and Eames who wanted modern design to be for everyone."

 

Stacking glasses from Magisso and a selection of their jugs in a specially developed ceramic that when soaked in cold water uses evaporation to keep the contents cool

to quote:

"Best solutions grow from personal frustration."

 

Nikari at Design Werck

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the December Chair by Jasper Morrison and Wataru Kumano with leather seat and back and the April tables by Alfredo Häberli from the 12 Designs for Nature Collection

 

detail of the top and edge of a table

 

Nikari Oy was founded in 1967 by the cabinet maker Kari Vitanen and is now established in Fiskars - the historic settlement, 75 kilometres west of Helsinki, that has grown up around an ironworks dating from the middle of the 17th century.

Nikari have a well-established reputation for the quality of their furniture and for their policy of using sustainable timber.

Their catalogue has a good, wide-ranging collection including chairs, stools, tables, side tables and cabinets, a sofa and garden furniture. All the pieces rely on the natural beauty of the high-quality wood used and the skill of the workmanship … as so often, here simplicity does not mean basic or even furniture that is spartan or minimalist … just uncluttered lines … so square sections to legs and straight plain edges to table tops rather than any mouldings or shaping.

Nikari have worked with an impressive list of designers ... with major Finnish designers including Antrei Hartikainen, Hari Koskinen, Johan Olin and Mikko Paakkanen; Scandinavian designers including Louise Campbell from Denmark and Mårten Claesson, Eero Koivisto and Ole Rune from Sweden as well as making pieces by the British designer Jasper Morrison and there have been recent collaborations with designers from Japan including Wataru Kumano, Motomi Morii, Tomoshi Nagano and Nao Tamura.

One particularly interesting collection in their current catalogue is their Designs for Nature series with each of the 12 pieces identified by a month from a collection of a stool, a bench and a low table designed by Harri Koskinen marking January through to a low chair with a slung seat and back in leather designed by Jasper Morrison and Wataru Kumano for December.

Several of these pieces that celebrate the months were shown at Design Werck.

See the separate post for October - the side chair from the collection designed by Samuli Naamanka

Nikari Oy, 10470 Fiskars, Finland

 

 

 

 

Detail of the December Chair in canvas (above and left) designed by Jasper Morrison and Wataru Kumano and the July table in elm and oak designed by Nao Tamura

 

samples of types of wood used by Nikari made like building blocks for a child and presented in a box with the clever trick of a hole in the centre of the tray so you can push them out ....  attention to every detail of presentation 

 

Finnish design day at Design Werck

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Ulla Koskinen, Johanna Vurio and Mads Arlien-Søborg lead the discussion

On the 2nd June there was a major event where the companies and designers from Finland who have been showing in the gallery were at Design Werck to talk about their designs and about the work produced by their companies.

There was a good general discussion about Nordic design that was led by Mads Arlien-Søborg - the design expert from DR TV in Copenhagen - with Johanna Vurio, CEO of the furniture company Nikari Oy, and Ulla Koskinen, editor for the design magazine ASUN - I Live.

People introduced themselves and talked briefly about the work produced by their companies and the strong common theme that emerged was that each had a distinct and unique and interesting story to tell about how their companies had been established but, and much more important, what came across in simply through talking about this, was their passion and commitment to good design.

This should not be surprising but it was obvious, as so often, that it is this background story that is not just a 'unique selling point' but is the best way to help potential customers understand the product … the way for the designer or manufacture to get across, in an interesting way, why the design is important and can be half the battle to justify the price - important in a competitive market - and is also the best starting point to explain the merits of the work … to explain how a piece works or explain why one material rather than another was chosen or why something was made in a specific way.

Of course a customer can be overloaded with information but equally many of the important factors about a product might not be immediately obvious when it is seen in a crowded shop display. It is important to get the balance right and important to include at least some of this back story on packaging.

The discussion moved on to the idea of marketing Scandinavian design generally as a way of pooling resources but also as a way of strengthening the image of the region for it's design.

The well-attended discussion session was followed by food from Finland and that was a fantastic opportunity to chat with the designers from Finland and with the teams from the different companies.

Design Werck, Krudløbsvej 12, Copenhagen 

 

Design Werck

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A relatively new gallery and event space that was opened by Birgitte Bjerregaard just over a year ago. It is in an historic dockyard building on the very narrow strip of land to the east of Nyholm - so between the canal of Søminegraven with house boats moored along the quay immediately across the front of the gallery and to its east the more open water of Minebådsgraven further to the east with trees, reed beds and wild ducks.

Design Werck represents a number of designers and furniture makers and provides them with an attractive space where they can see clients or have meetings and the gallery also organises a programme of lectures and events. It is described by the team as a meeting point for design and wine as Vinwerck is in the same building.

What is interesting, and more unusual in the city, is that they cover a wider range of Nordic design and at the moment have textiles and furniture from Finland as well as some Swedish work.

Design Werck Krudtløbsvej 12

 

 
 

chair from Egeværk

furniture and textiles from Finland