Konstfack at Stockholm Furniture Fair – societal changes in focus

Today, practitioners from different fields need to re-position themselves to better understand and respond to the many rapid societal changes we face. Reality in realities is an exhibition in which a series of design projects explore interdisciplinary methods to engage with various realities. For instance design that responds to the needs of immigration, the means to become absorbed in marginalized communities, different points of view on design, social needs, aesthetics and the use of a public space through co-creation. These kinds of socially absorbed issues get their responses by students at the programs of Interior Architecture & Furniture design, Industrial Design and Textile at Konstfack University College of Arts, Crafts and Design.

Meeting Places
In the autumn of 2015, students worked with the Meeting Places project together with residents of the Fornhöjden area of Södertälje, outside of Stockholm. The aim of this project was to develop meeting places that contribute to integration, counteract isolation and provide a better living environment. 24 budding interior architects and industrial designers took up residence on location and worked together with local operators and residents to map the needs and behaviours that form the basis for inclusive meeting spaces. The project took place in conjunction with the modernisation of the local housing company’s homes and properties in Fornhöjden. Collaboration partners were Konstfack, Stiftelsen IOU design and Södertälje’s urban planning office.

Shelter
This project has its starting point in the migration and refugee crisis currently happening all over the world. The students examine and explore the current needs of shelter in a broad sense in its various contexts and have the opportunity to discuss and demonstrate how they can make a difference. Shelter faces aesthetic, functional, textile and constructional challenges and the various strengths of the three different Konstfack programmes at Konstfack provide many different approaches and solutions.

Welcome to Konstfack at Greenhouse, stand VH03:01, Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair 9–13 February 2016, Inauguration 9 February, 2 pm