Copenhagen, June 12-14 – During 3DaysofDesign, the garden at Designmuseum Danmark was home to the Lifestyle and Design Cluster’s Circular Furniture Days for the 6th year running. We were proud to be one of 17 brands showcasing the steps we’re all taking towards circularity. The stage featured multiple talks on everything from materials to design, to the coming European regulations for product passports, to impacts on nature and more. More than 12,000 people stopped by. We’re happy to inspire you with some of the highlights:
Circular initiatives to keep your eye on
Things we saw at Circular Furniture Days at Designmuseum Danmark during 3daysofdesign
We were part of the Lifestyle & Design Cluster's Circular Furniture Days during 3DaysofDesign, the trendy design festival with venues all over Copenhagen. Circular Furniture Days was in the garden at Designmuseum Danmark, in the very heart of both Copenhagen and Danish design. Here are some of the exciting things that were presented by some of the other companies working on the important topic of circularity. And of course, we had to include our own offering as well.
Njord: sustainable architecture for outdoor spaces
Njord showcased their beautiful geometric acrylic structures for outdoor spaces. These bright, sometimes colourful greenhouses are made of recycled acrylic from store displays. You can choose to put together the colours you want. These structures are used in parks, kindergartens, institutions, retreats and even your own garden at home.
Eager to design for circularity from the beginning, Njord wanted to get Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) on their products from the start. As a relatively new start-up, they had only one year of data available. The current regulations require three years of data for an EPD, but Njord pushed for a tiered approach. Using their one year of data, they now have a “start EPD,” which will be updated in year two and made official in year three. This way, they ensure that they are thinking about circularity and adjusting as they go along.
A:gain: upcycled building elements and interior products
A:gain is creating circular building elements for the construction industry by upcycling plastics and textiles, turning what others see as waste into resources. They’re sourcing discarded plastic insulin pens from NovoNordisk, old kegs from Carlsberg, household plastics, discarded work clothes and more to make various innovative materials that reduce the need for raw materials.
They’re able to ramp up production of these materials at scale, as companies and partners find new and innovative uses for them, for improving acoustics, or as building materials, worktops, flooring and perhaps even kitchens.
Don't buy office furniture, subscribe to it at nornorm
Nornorm wants to change the way companies furnish their offices. They have come up with a subscription model for office furniture. Teaming up with Swedish digital consultancy Umain, they showcased a visual tool at Circular Furniture Days. This tool, built for the Apple Vision Pro, allows companies to use to ensure that they choose the right furniture for their spaces. Think you need 30 chairs for that meeting room? See how they will look using VR. The Nornorm subscription concept is great for growing companies – as you can adjust as you go along, always ensuring you create the spaces you need for your employees. If a chair breaks or a table starts to look shabby, just switch them out using this fully circular concept.
Weigelt Studio x Kvist: textile pap chairs with textile-leftover cushions
Stine Weigelt is a Danish object designer working with recycled materials. She had an idea for using a textile pap, which is a combination of cardboard, recycled paper and textile fibres. She approached Danish furniture-maker Kvist about a collaboration, including their cast-off materials from their production. The idea was that she would see what she could create using Kvist’s existing tools and configurations without adding anything new. She fashioned the textile pap into curved forms and created some chairs, adding various colours of textiles to achieve different colours. From Kvists’ textile leftovers, Stine experimented with cushions of different kinds for the curved chair.
SMALLrevolution: design products made of plastic waste
The garden was dotted with innovative products from SMALLrevolution. They’re recycling plastics into decorative and useful objects – from vases and stools that could withstand the changeable Copenhagen weather, to full benches. Founder Arendse Ekegreen Baggesen shared the circular philosophy behind the company. They identify and collect plastic waste from the companies they work with, transforming it into useful, beautiful things that the company can use anywhere from in their product displays to their canteens, then documenting the entire process for the company’s ESG reporting.
Kvik: presenting circular chairs in new KvikLiving collection
We presented the first items in our first ever furniture collection: KvikLiving. The circular collection consists of two dining chairs and one lounge chair, so far. The new timeless yet stylish chairs, designed for Kvik by Danish furniture designer Hans Thyge, are made of recycled materials, certified wood and are recyclable at end of life, though we hope you pass them down to your grandchildren.
Additionally, we showed the results of the work we’ve done, creating a Lifecycle Analysis and EPDs on all our kitchen families. This work means that from this autumn, all offers from Kvik will include information on the CO2e footprint of the customer’s new kitchen, as well as how many plastic water bottles have been recycled to create it and how many kilos of recycled wood it includes. We are the first kitchen producer in the world to offer this insight to our customers on their personal, exact kitchen.
All companies participating in the Circular Furniture Days:
SMALLrevolution, Frandsen, Mater, Fredericia Furniture/Sheworks, ferm LIVING, Kvik, OUT-SIDER, a:gain, MÅLBAR, Weigelt Studio/KVIST, NJORD, Wehlers, Tenksom, HabiWe, and NORNORM.
