Copenhagen’s recent 3daysofdesign offers a blueprint for the future of conscious furniture fairs and a beacon for Denmark’s diverse design community

Designmuseum Danmark. Image by Rasmus Hjortshoj

It’s a midsummer day in Copenhagen and the optimism in the streets and courtyards is palpable. Concealed in the historic grounds of Designmuseum Danmark’s Grønnegården, the transparent, shell-like structure of a newly erected pavilion reveals itself to onlookers as they step beyond the colonnades.

Designed by Scandinavian architecture firm Henning Larsen, the dramatic structure was built to celebrate the 150-year anniversary of iconic Danish brand Fritz Hansen and was unveiled days before the 2022 edition of the city’s 3daysofdesign festival. Coinciding with the event, the museum itself pre-opened after a two-year renovation, and the striking new pavilion stood in juxtaposition with the museum’s historic setting. To be in Copenhagen at that moment felt auspicious.

Overseeing the three-day fair, its charismatic founder and director Signe Byrdal Terenziani has become a familiar presence to the event’s visitors, having played a crucial role in growing the event to its over 200 exhibitors in 2022. Early visitors recall Terenziani personally guiding them around the city’s exhibitions with passion, humour and expertise, and its growing success is in no small part down to those qualities, along with her commitment to the festival’s founding principles.

Seeing the volume of visitors and exhibitors in 2022 has been invigorating, and Terenziani notes that some brands like Fritz Hansen, &Tradition and HAY chose the festival as the focus for their year’s efforts. ‘Some of the more traditional brands decided to skip other fairs and do bigger events here in Copenhagen,’ she says. ‘It’s amazing how much effort and energy they put into those exhibitions.’

While Fritz Hansen had its pavilion, HAY revealed new designs including pieces by Muller Van Severen and a feted collaboration with chef and artist Laila Gohar. Meanwhile, in the city’s Islands Brygge neighbourhood, Vipp opened the new Vipp Garage, a multipurpose cultural and creative space that makes its home in a mid-century garage reimagined by architects Frank Maali and Gemma Lalanda and interior designer Julie Moelsgaard. At the same time, the brand introduced its latest hotel room, Vipp Loft, one of five one-room spaces in its portfolio.

At last year’s edition of the festival, Ander Byriel, the CEO of Danish textile giant Kvadrat, declared that Danish design was experiencing a ‘golden age’ and was poised to become a third hub after Milan and London. Terenziani explains that major companies’ decision to forego larger fairs to focus on Copenhagen was no accident, and that the fair’s openness and audience interaction offers both an attractive solution to transporting entire teams for a week-long show and removes barriers between brands and audiences. In turn, the festival’s continued success challenges the traditional concept of a design fair, while fostering a greater sense of self-confidence within the Danish design community. ‘What the audience expects is a much more personal dialogue and contact with who is selling a product,’ she explains. ‘Here, brands can invite people to visit their own premises — it’s like inviting people home. It’s much more personal. And I think that’s not only a Danish tendency. I think more companies experience that the concept of a fair is being challenged these days.’

And what do installations like the Vipp Garage and the &Tradition House — where three floors of the brand’s 20th-century mansion were transformed to show new and iconic pieces in distinct settings — say about the Danish design landscape? ‘If we have to link it to the Danish design scene, the possibilities afforded within our own communities pose the question of why we should move all Danish companies to Stockholm or Milan if people can visit us in our own premises,’ Terenziani says. ‘If you can come, see what we have to offer here. And I think maybe we will be the first movers. But I think that will be a tendency we will see in other places as well.’

Text / David Paw