The research-based design studio Formafantasma is Stockholm Furniture Fair’s Guest of Honour 2024 and presents a site-specific installation for visitors and exhibitors. The so-called Reading Room offers a calm space of respite to sit and read, reflect and immerse oneself in the ideas that have shaped Formafantasma’s work. It is furnished with the Forest Collection, developed by Artek in collaboration with Formafantasma, and features Alvar Aalto’s tables, stools and benches made of wild birch. To ensure a meaningful afterlife for the products, each piece of furniture has been numbered and signed by Formafantasma and will be available for purchase after the fair.

Drawn together by a mutual interest in the Finnish forest, Formafantasma and Artek started a collaboration in 2020, leading to a reassessment of Artek’s current strict selection criteria for wood. As a result, a new, more encompassing wood selection – referred to as “wild birch” – has been introduced into Artek’s collection, highlighting the impact of climate change and industrialisation on forests. The new wood selection proudly shows a variety of natural marks, allowing more of the tree to be used for Artek’s long-lasting products, embracing the honest beauty and variety of the forest, including knots, insect trails and natural colour fluctuation.

First introduced with Stool 60 in September 2023, this beautiful and sustainable wood selection is now being applied on additional Artek products to form a Forest Collection, unveiled at Formafantasma’s Reading Room. While the four-legged Stool E60 is available now, the full collection tables, chairs and benches and will follow in September 2024.

Alongside the Stockholm fair, Artek’s partner Nordiska Galleriet celebrates the Forest Collection in a dedicated window installation and offers a meaningful after-life for the Reading Room furniture, making it available for purchase at its stores in Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö as well as in its online store from February 5th.