Contemporary Art & Design 635

The wild and vivid seventies

During an exciting period around the time of the turn of the decade in 1970, architects and designers were given the opportunity, thanks to new materials and processes, to create objects and interiors that had previously been impossible to realize. The period is a highly eventful time in Swedish furniture history. It transformed our view on how we use and relate to furniture as functional objects and sculptures. The possibilities seemed endless and the conditions for furniture designers, manufacturers and sellers were changed to the core (while at the same time Swedish homes were being furnished and decorated like never before). Some really stretched the boundaries and created unforgettable design classics for posterity. In a time when many furniture factories were forced to close down, the desire was to get noticed at fairs or in shops. Manufacturers therefore encouraged their designers to create sensational furniture, so-called ‘fair bombshells’. The results were colourful, sculptural interiors with seating cut from, amongst other things, blocks of foam rubber, moulded plastics, Styrofoam, chipboard and asbestos cement!