The work-from-home trend accelerated by Covid-19 was the starting point for these versatile furniture designs, unveiled by Beckmans College of Design students during Stockholm Design Week.
Six pairs of students from Beckmans‘ product design programme have each teamed up with a different Swedish furniture brand to design and prototype a piece of furniture that could be used for either home or workplace activities.
Called Room Service, their designs respond to a time when more people are working from home than ever before, as a result of travel restrictions enforced to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
They include a laptop table better suited to a lounge chair than an office chair, a daybed that doubles as a bench, and seat that is both comfortable and easy to move around.
“Room Service plays with the idea of redefining the meaning of a room,” said the project organisers.
“That place you might call your own space, that once – not too long ago – was an intimate refuge, a private sanctuary, has now become more of a verb, a temporary state of semi-public work/play/flux.”
Alice Lannfelt and Nataliya Khanenko worked with Johanson Design on the Handle chair, which has a powder-coated steel frame and a wool-blend upholstered cushion and backrest.
Designed by the designers as “a combination of a pouf and an armchair”, the chair is designed to be supportive without being too hefty.
Another lightweight design, Cael is a powder-coated steel table designed specifically for laptop use. Created by Anna Rothlin and Emma Falkehed with Kinnarps, it is intended for use in flexible, open spaces such as schools or co-working offices.
“The table is easy to handle, mobile, and adapted to low seating,” said the designers.
The Dag daybed was designed by Gustav Winsth and Teresa Lundmark in collaboration with furniture brand Gärsnäs. Their aim was to create a seat that could work in both private and public settings.
The piece comprises a beech wood frame and tubular, wool-covered cushions. By keeping these elements separate, the piece becomes easier to recycle at the end of its life.
Working with bed manufacturer DUX, Johanna Fosselius and Max Stjerna thought about how the bed is no longer just a place for sleep.
Eos is a bedside table that is open-ended in its use. Available in both tall and wide versions, it incorporates shelves and surfaces with no obvious front or back. It comes in ash, oak or limestone, to suit a variety of settings.
The most unusual piece in the collection is Åsa, a table and seat hybrid created by Alina Piatanova and Arpie Amirians with Storängen Design.
Combining a simple birch base with inset cushions, this design creates a casual seat that is accessible from all sides.
The collection is completed by Etage, a sculptural side table designed by Elsa Frisén and Matilda Olsson Borg with family-run furniture company Källemo.
The table is multi-level so it can work with seats of different heights, and is made from circles and rectangles of ash wood and/or marble.
Room Service forms part of Greenhouse, Stockholm Design Week’s showcase of emerging talent, which has gone digital for 2021.
In response, Beckmans has staged its own physical exhibition for Room Service, which is on show at Superellipsen, Sergels Torg, alongside exhibitions from two other design schools.
For the many people unable to visit this exhibition in person, it is possible to access it virtually via the interactive Room Service website.
“We hope that as many as possible will be able to experience the exhibition, some on site and others via other media,” said the organisers.
Room Service will run from 9 February – 13 February as part of Stockholm Design Week. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.
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