For The New Era, design journalist and editor Amy Frearson shares her top pick from the 2024 edition of 3 Days of Design in Copenhagen. Her selections highlight the diverse and imaginative spirit of contemporary design, showcasing both emerging talents and established names in the Nordic design scene.

NoDe

The House of Nordic Design’s exhibition was the place to find new talent during 3 Days of Design. Founder and curator Natalia Sánchez brought together 28 emerging designers from across the Nordic region to showcase their work in a loft atelier on Store Strandstræde. Furniture, objects and artworks were dotted around different rooms, with designs by Tale Berger Hølmebakk, Reeta Laine, Anton Mikkonen and Sissel Warringa among those featured. The domestic setting created opportunities for whimsical displays – a stool displayed atop a fridge freezer was a particular highlight – but a strong sense of materiality was a recurrent theme and left a lasting impression.

Happy Sobriety

At design gallery Etage Projects, young Danish brand Raawii celebrated an important milestone with an exhibition that was highly eclectic and, as a result, joyful to behold. Happy Sobriety marked the launch of the brand’s first chair, a collaboration with French designer Erwan Bouroullec. A serious piece of industrial design, Arba is a lounge chair made for the work-from-home generation, with the ability to bend and rotate as if it were a task chair. The exhibition was contrastingly lighthearted, featuring a playful assemblage of colourful products and artworks. These included personal contributions from Bouroullec, ranging from abstract graphic prints to tree branches collected from his home in Burgundy.