What does an object do to us, to a room, to the conversations we are having? What does it say about the community where it was made? In issue four we look at the things we surround ourselves with and what they mean to us. We visit the architect Petra Gipp on her island abode and spend some time at home with brand director Petrus Palmer, who uses his family home as a testing ground for new products and furniture. We discuss the concept of home with the renowned artist Miriam Bäckström and the architect Eero Koivisto, of architecture and design practice Claesson Koivisto Rune, who shares his favourite objects with us. In his home a bowl is never just a bowl, it is a bowl with a story. “When you cease to see something, it’s time to replace it with something else,” Koivisto says. Elsewhere in the issue, we visit a home resembling a spaceship, and one built to celebrate wood. We highlight some great initiatives and some really good pieces of furniture. “I’ve never fully understood how people can be so attached to new furniture”, says design writer Hugo McDonald when asked about what he is drawn to. “It takes several decades of heavy bottoms to shape a good chair into something irresistibly comfortable. There can be no greater proof of furniture’s quality than time.”