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Ideat-Alexander Lervik

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Ideas-Design-Escape-Architecture-Trends / N°72, www.ideat.fr

Architecture, quality of life, cocooning, ecology, high-tech, urban planning, music, fashion, contemporary art...

All the keys to Scandinavian genius

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Climate and latitudes necessitate it: light and lighting issues are constant concerns for Scandinavian designers. Especially for Alexander Lervik, an essential Swedish designer who captivated the public during the experimental exhibition "Enlightment" (produced by the Röhsska Museum of Design and Decorative Arts) at the Stockholm Furniture Fair last year. A devotee of creations that are as remarkable as they are noticed, he presented a swing and glowing Plexiglas door handles that allow children to find their way in the dark. Or the Brightdoor doors (currently in production) that change from green to red depending on whether they are open or closed.

Designer, interior decorator, and artist At 37 years old, Alexander Lervik is one of the leading Swedish designers: his Ribb chair was awarded the "Best of the best" prize at 100% Design, the largest Dutch design exhibition in Rotterdam. The design museum in Oslo exhibits his Red Chair, while the fiber-optic luminaire Lighttree has entered the collection of the National Museum in Oslo... The creator of the highly publicized Dolphin Chair (Johanson Design) trained as an apprentice carpenter before entering Beckmans College of Design. He regularly leaves his signature on the interior design of boutiques, nightclubs, and restaurants in Stockholm when he is not exhibiting limited-edition pieces at the influential gallery of Pascale Cottard Olsson. His furniture creations produced by Skandiform and Johanson Design are the soft side of his work. For here is a designer capable of scanning his brain at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm and creating a lamp named Mybrain, acquired by the museum of design and decorative arts in Gothenburg... A sense of humor and foolproof versatility! www.alexanderlervik.com

Known for being a women-friendly society, Sweden can, with good reason, take pride in having seen a brilliant generation of female talents emerge over the past ten years. Monica Förster is certainly among them. All the more so as she has just brought design prestige to gender parity by creating the very first office chair for women (Lei, Officeline).

Perpetuating the convivial expertise dear to Swedes

Monica Förster made a notable entrance onto the international scene with Cloud, a ghostly nylon igloo—in reality a mobile meeting room inflatable in three minutes flat—presented in Milan in 2002 within the mythical Nordic collective Snowcrash. Beyond its primary role as a manifesto, Cloud (now produced by Offecct) is a space within a space, a genuine 3D landscape that instantly blurs the boundaries between private and public. This architectural approach to design is likewise found, although more discreetly, in the collections of seating, tables, or lamps that she creates for the cream of contemporary manufacturers (Cappellini, Tacchini, Swedese, Modus, Zero). The Esedra ottoman (Poltrona Frau), which transposes the traditional craftsmanship gestures of the Sami people into the elegant world of Italian furniture, can only sit proudly in the center of a room! Another link between design and space is Ominous, the surprising installation inspired by Hitchcock's film The Birds, which took over the lobby of the Nordic Light Hotel during Stockholm Design Week. A very lovely way for Monica Förster to introduce Wing, the pendant light recently launched by Zero, while illustrating the philosophy close to her heart: infiltrating the emotional into the industrial process. www.monicaforster.se

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English translation of the original article. Text read from the scanned original; small transcription errors may occur.