OnOffice

FEB 2018

SCANDI SPECIAL

SNOHETTA IN BERGEN An art schoel that

you can dfaw on

OFF

STOCKHOLM PREVIEW What’s ¢oming up at this year’s furnituare fair

Alexander Lervik’s

elevator is one of the designs taking him to another level in 2018

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Open the door on ! - 1 our storage special

February 2018

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FROM THE EDITOR We turn our heads north for our Scandi-themed issue

NEWS The Icelandic bank designed with flexibility in mind

GRANT GIBSON ON... Håg's Capisco chair designed by Peter Opsvik

ON LONDON Peter Murray gets a grip on the new tall buildings policy

ON TOPIC Nick Forrester on Scandinavian wellbeing

ON CULTURE Katrina Larkin falls for the Scandi way of doing things

ON SHOW A peek at this year's UKCW, Joburg and Shanghai events

STOCKHOLM PREVIEW The exhibitors and products to keep an eye on this year

PRACTICE PLAYLIST BroomeJenkins' eclectic mix for the working day

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COVER STORY: ALEXANDER LERVICK The Swedish designer takes things to another level with his furniture-like lift

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OnSite

STAIRWAY TO LVMH Designer Ora Ito steps up the traditional staircase

THE HUBHUB An international co-working brand with a local focus

SNOHETTA'S DELIGHT The new Bergen arts school with a reductivist approach

RegiOn

HULL'S ANGEL

Hull emerges into the spotlight as the UK's second ever City of Culture

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OnGoing | 15

OnStage

OUTSIDE THE BOX A guide to stress-free and secure workplace storage

ON THE DOUBLE How to process the workplace data revolution

ON CO-WORKING

Uncommon’s new south London ca-working space

ONOFFICEMAGAZINE.COM

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SEA OF LIGHTS The duo creating sculptural and intuitive designs

SOMETHING FISHY

Handmade lights crafted from Icelandic dried cod

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Words by Helen Parton

Portrait by Erik Undéhn

EVATOR

PITCH

With his home elevator design making a commercial .crossover, Sweden’s Alexander Lervik is clearly on the up. ; But he still finds time to talk to OnOffice

46 | Cover Story

February 2018

£2017 was a busy year for Swedish designer Alexander Lervik, then 2018 is set to top that. He will begin work on a commercial version of his design-led lift and present a raft of launches at this year’s Stockholm Furniture Fair, as well as being the subject of a major retrospective in a cultural institution in the Swedish capital. Indeed Stockholm is where our photoshoot takes place, in the showroom of lift manufacturer Aritco, which was set up in 1995 to serve the office, retail and education sectors. It took a different, more design- orientated direction to — if you’ll pardon the pun — elevate itself above the competition, when it commissioned Lervik to come up with a new concept: giving him the brief to design a lift like a piece of furniture. “It decided to do something like Apple,” says Lervik by way of explanation: to change its industry. “They set up a competition asking a number of industrial designers in Sweden — I was the wild card!” And, since clinching the commission for the Aritco HomeLift, he adds: “It’s taken three years; it was great. We started with a blank piece of paper — that was the best part: being able to think outside the box. I designed everything from the shaft to the lift platform and also came up with a whole new solution for the control panel. My ambition was to come up with the ultimate flexibility for consumers, who have to be able to identify with their choice of lift through a range of options in terms of materials and colours.” Like iPhones — although with a significantly higher price tag and on a bigger scale — the appearance of Lervik’s designs for Aritco can customised. Colour-changing is possible (a SmartLift app controls the lighting) and Bolon flooring keeps it stylish from the top to the bottom of the lift carriage. Following the launch of the initial design for the domestic market in 2016, Lervik says: “I’s been a huge success, especially in the Asia and Middle East markets, a lot more than expected.” This year will see him working on initial concepts for a version for commercial buildings such as workplaces. Given the time taken for design development for the first

RIGHT Lervik's HomelLift for Aritco is designed for domestic use

opposITE Colour can be adjusted and flooring specified for the lift

iteration, 2020 looks to be a decent bet for the next evolution to come to market.

Back in the present, Lervik has just sold his brand Tingest (while still remaining a designer for the brand). Its diverse range of objects were all inspired by Swedish design heritage and manufactured in Sweden using natural materials and sustainability — from the Dimma furniture collection, featuring a chair, stool and table, to home accessories such as candle holders and lamps, to the Bikupa wristwatch. Launched at last year’s Stockholm Design Week, this comes in bronze, stainless steel and black plating, with a leather strap and a circular case punched with a grid of hexagonal holes covering the face. Tingest’s collection for the home gym — such as a bench, dumbbells and kettlebells, and even a hula hoop, that have a more design-led edge &

“We started with a blank piece of paper, that was the best part: being able to think

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February 2018 |

Cover Story | 49

so they don’t have to be hidden away — proved particularly popular.

In February, visitors to the Stockholm Fair will see Lervik’s design on a range of stands. Johanson, for example, is showing Ester, a conference chair of his. “I designed an easy chair for them two years and now they asked me to do a smaller version for conference rooms. We found this old cafe chair from the 1970s [in the Johanson archive] that was so comfortable, so we took the comfort of that one and made a new design.” Johanson will also present a table called Storm with a light incorporated into the centre, making it ripe for specification for outdoor cafes or the ubiquitous office rooftop.

For Design House Stockholm, Lervik is producing two lights, “each with beautiful

ABOVE Tingest's Dimma chair is a contemporary take on the bistro chair

OPPOSITE Dramatic lighting designs by Lervik

RIGHT Lervik introduces bright colour into his lighting designs

FAR RIGHT The Bubble chair for Moroso is made of moulded wood

Jonas Lindstrom

details, one with wire, one without”. Their names are Luna and Kosmos. “It started with Kosmos and that I wanted to do a globe lamp with an extra detail on. The solution was the metal parts that hold the globe — a simple solution with a strong graphic design identity. For this I wanted the globe to have light also in the top (most existing globes have a metal cover in the top). We made a solution in glass and the result was so good Design House Stockholm decided to let the globe without the metal parts be a product called Luna.”

Another collaboration is with Atelier Lyktan, consisting of a glass lamp, Tricolour, with three shades of glass, which comes in either green or grey tones. Look out too for a new sofa from Finnish firm Adea.

“There will be six new art pieces... talking through things I really believe in — parts of

my personaliry”

After the fair, Lervik’s focus will remain in the Swedish capital as a retrospective of his work opens in April, showing 200 products from two decades in the business. “It’s an amazing opportunity, it feels really fantastic,” he says of the 1,000sq m show in Stockholm’s Kulturhuset. “At the start of the exhibition, there will be six new art pieces, spelling out one word each, talking through things that I really believe in — parts of my personality. When you’ve learnt about that, then you go into the exhibition, which is like a timeline from 1998-2018.”

Designs on show include the Mr Jones sofa for Adea, which riffs on the idea of the traditional British Howard sofa but given a Scandinavian makeover. It also takes its name from the 1980s electro artist (“One of the &

Brendan

50 | Cover Story

February 2018

“The lampshade is made of chocolate, which melts as the bulb heats up, and

melted chocolate is caught at the base”

Top Jeahna tent lamp ABovE The LED-Lit opposITE Lervik's 2017 from the Scandinavian Bright Handle turns Knot lamp for Finnish

Light Senses book from green to red manufacturer SAAS

. idols of my youth,” he says). On display too

will be the Bubble chair for Moroso, which is made in moulded wood with an upholstered seat. One of Lervik’s ambitions going forward is to work with more Italian manufacturers.

Lervik’s fascination with light will be explored too, an example being his red-green Bright Handle. Launched at the Salone Satellite element of the Milan Furniture Fair in 2001, the door handle communicates with coloured light. “It had an LED lamp. That was my first work where it used LEDs — that wasn’t done in the market before that.”

He continues: “I have felt a lot of inspiration working with light.” This experimentation extends to designs such as 2013’s La Lumiére au Chocolat: a lamp made of chocolate. “It started with me asking myself ‘Can you make a lamp that gives off no light?’ I realised that the answer was going to be something that changes form, going from dark to light.”

He adds: "T'm an infamous chocoholic, so that’s how I came up with the design medium. The lampshade is made of chocolate, which melts as the bulb heats up, and the melted chocolate is caught at the base of the lamp where it sets and can be broken off in chunks and eaten. After that, you can buy a replacement shade.”

Lervik’s lighting innovation is also seen in his 2007 MyBrain lamp, which harnessed 3D-printing technology, while his earlier acrylic LED-lit Sense Light Swing can be used outside and inside. In 2007 Enlightenment, an exhibition at the Rohsska Museum in Gothenburg, showcased the breadth of his work with LEDs. “This exhibition established my brand in light art,” he says.

Lervik’s light fantastic extends to 2017, when, as well as his playful Knot light being launched by Finnish manufacturer SAAS, he — with Aritco — put on the Scandinavian Light Senses exhibition at the London Design Fair in the Truman Brewery, as part of the London Design Festival. This was based on a book of the same name: “My wife Elin wrote it. It was good she did as I wouldn’t have been able to talk about some of the content if I wasn’t talking to her.” Images by photographer Brendan Austin show how Lervik’s lighting dramatically interplays with the landscape in various locations outside Stockholm.

‘When not working, Lervik spends time in an 18th century house in Dalarna province, an area popular for second homes due to its landscape of mountains, lakes and forests and rich historical culture of music, art and handicrafts. “My biggest inspiration is travel — Elin and I enjoy going to London, New York or the Philippines. Tm always discovering new things.” He adds finally: “I get inspiration from around the world. ’'m not a typical Swedish designer.” @