Designed in Sweden

Swedish furniture, with their sleek, streamlined silhouettes and laid-back, laconic appeal, are some of the most dynamic expressions of design today. The brilliance of Swedish glass, with its sculptural, sensual contours and lustrous surfaces, is mirrored in the cool outlines of ceramics that appear as crisps and untainted as the white snowfalls of winter. The seductive shapes of contemporary metalware are designed with the same considerations an architect would have for building a timeless edifice, as designers craft enduring pieces destined to become the artefacts of the future. But while Swedish design was once regarded as a gesture of simplicity, today it makes space for brilliant colours, rich textures and lavish motifs that transform textiles into artworks and bring graphics to life in three-dimensional forms. New Swedish design expresses the optimism of youth culture yet emphasises understated elegance; although the style was once regarded as subdued, the atmosphere surrounding Swedish design today is charged with the exhilarating intensity of a Bergman film.