Materia at Stockholm Furniture Fair

New Products for 2010 from Materia

‘Materia Newcomer’ launched for the fifth year in a row…

Ever since Materia founders and Swedish architects Kersti Sandin and Lars Bülow started their careers, over 30 years ago, they have supported young, newly qualified designers by lecturing on design training courses, and as mentors.

When Sandin and Bülow founded workplace furniture design group Materia, in 1992, they had a unique platform, with its own furniture production and sales, from which they were able to set in motion their plans for an annual ‘Materia Newcomer’ project, to recognise and encourage young design talent.

It started with the design group Front, which had already begun to establish itself, though not in an industrial context. Front was given the opportunity to develop its prize-winning, wastepaper basket, ‘Bin’, which changes shape as it is filled.

Materia continued the project by launching the designers Märta Friman, Fredrik Källgren, Form Us With Love, Frida Ottemo Källström, Sigrid Strömgren and Fredrik Färg.

Lucas Elander Hinnerud is Materia Newcomer for 2010

“This is not furniture for sitting and working. It is too hard and flat. However, this is why it is better suited to creative meetings, or a time when you just want to think about things while waiting for something”, says Hinnerud.

The design of the stool ‘Platon’ makes it possible to rock gently to and fro and to sit in a more relaxed manner. The stool also has a weight inside, which causes it to return to its original position once the user stands up. It joins a raft of Materia products that are both relaxing and stimulate creativity, by offering freedom of movement.

“At Materia we want our products to be useful. We rarely go for trendy aesthetics”. Says Bülow.  

“This stool speaks for itself. It is simple and functional. While very stable, it invites movement. There must be some personal appeal that generates energy and excitement in a product”.

“Lucas has artistic integrity. His thinking is innovative and functional. He is thoughtful and consistent and that is probably what originally drew us to him and his stool. “ He explains.

Design hits the wall

Materia has also been working with Murman Architects to develop ‘Le Mur’ – like a room within a room…

Sitting high or low on the same piece of furniture is the idea behind the seating landscape called ‘Le Mur’ (‘The Wall’), which has been developed by Wivian Eidsaunet and Marie Oscarsson at Murman Architects in collaboration with Materia.

“Many of us are spending far too much time sitting down in our places of work, and if we must carry on, we should at least vary the sitting position.” Explains Oscarsson.

‘Le Mur’ is like a room within a room, a kind of modular system that can be tailored to your requirements. The configuration can be round, pivoted or straight and it provides natural screening and sound reduction, thanks to its high padded back.

On one side of the ‘wall’ you sit high up, with a straight back. On the other side you sit lower down, leaning gently backwards, with a cushion in the small of the back to support your lumber region.

If you don’t want seating on both sides, the rear can also be used in other ways. The irregularly placed buttons on the back of ‘Le Mur’ are not just there for decoration. They also function as clothes hangers or brackets for hanging storage, such as newspaper racks.
 
“Murman does a lot of work designing rooms in official environments, to facilitate the meetings that take place there. As we trained as architects, Materia’s focus is on the room rather than just the individual pieces of furniture. So, Murman’s approach goes hand in hand with our design philosophy”. Explains Sandlin.

She concludes:  “We want our furniture to make things easier in people’s day-to-day lives, so that they are happy at their places of work and in other public environments. We believe that the way to get there is by being unconventional, and having some fun on the way.”

Materia furniture is available, exclusively, in the UK via Kinnarps.

For further information on Materia or other Kinnarps Group products, please contact: Donna Pilcher on (01306) 88 48 08