Nola Urban Furniture at Stockholm Furniture Fair 2025

Innovation and appreciation of nature are long-standing features of Scandinavian design, and Stockholm Design Week and the Furniture Fair 2025 is no exception to this. Marrying time-honoured values with new thinking to drive progress has been the hallmark of this annual celebration. We see this approach increasingly moving beyond the furniture fair’s home, expanding into many of our brand’s independent spaces and showrooms.

The question of materiality is at the design forefront looking at climate-smart materials, biomaterials, recycled plastic or no plastic. A continuing important discussion is the use, performance and impacts of alternative sustainable resources versus petroleum-based products. A new material bio-based to watch is by a start-up exploring the use of seaweed and natural materials to reinvent fossil fuel-derived polyurethane furniture foam. The start-up is by Norwegian entrepreneur Celine Sandberg founder and CEO of Agoprene.

A cult classic for K5 is our Swedish reindeer moss by Nordgröna, a product that draws you with a tactile connection to nature like no other. Harvested from the forest floor, the moss stays in its original raw state preserved with a water-based blend of pigments, sea salt and additives resulting in a low-maintenance, textural acoustic piece. Last month saw the release of Boulevard, the latest addition to the moss collection which acts as a dual sided room divider improving acoustics and adding natural texture.

As the fair guest of honour, the design studio ‘Toogood’ by Faye Toogood disrupted the norm with the world of manufacturing, revealing the inner workings of a designer with the unseen process of creation. The charm is in the process of trial and error, piloting design, making improvements to move forward and reminding viewers the ‘finished’ product is never fully finished. This theme is prevalent throughout many newly released products.

From Lammhults to Materia we see a strong appreciation for existing design and the expansion of design iterations extending product functionality. Bringing together consumers’ divergent needs with original design adaptions – a true collaboration in product development and fine-tuning.

As AI infiltrates the design industry, many conversations within the fair questioned whether AI could design a better product than a designer. An intriguing insight was the comparison of AI to the birth of photography in the early 20th century. Faye Toogood compared this to the sudden feeling of paintings becoming obsolete, yet reflecting on the history of art this only gave birth to abstraction. Drawing a strong correlation to how this may form a “really creative and abstract moment for us’, Toogood encourages designers to lean into the digital age as a way to rewild humanity and reconnect with the fundamentals of creation. This emphasis on creating a balance between the integration of industrial advancements and the preservation of craft is critical to viewing technology as a ‘co-conspirator in creativity’.

Design doesn’t live in an isolated world, from forces that shape society, politics and life beyond, it speaks to the movements of the current climate. Counteracting the intensity of current unpredictable global pressures, we are seeing the resurgence of playful, fun and joyful designs. It is the Scandinavian way of surviving winter, transitioning to new life and hope.

Feeling the pressure of the world we live in, designers are leaning into products we interact with on a day-to-day basis to stimulate inspiration. Bold colours, increased flexibility, movement, and organic and free forms are the focus, filling Stockholm and our showrooms soon. Yet the foundational conversation around sustainable design (environmentally, economically and socially) and circular economy has deepened.

With the focus on sustainability and material innovation globally it is no surprise that many brands are reinforcing this transition to a circular economy with the central theme ‘disrupt more, waste less and act better’ igniting action within global practices.

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