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Northern Disclosure

Q: What do you get if you combine three black-clad Swedish architects with a penchant for nature?
A: Revitalisation in Scandinavian design.

Mårten Claesson comes over with a big smile and a firm handshake. He is dressed in black jeans and a short-sleeved black shirt. On his feet, unassuming brown open-toed Birkenstocks are brightened up by some wildly colourful, patterned socks. "Otherwise it would be boring" he says, grinning.

The quietly confident and humorous Claesson is one third of Claesson Koivisto Rune, one of Stockholm’s most innovative design and architecture firms. The firm was founded in 1995 with fellow principals Eero Koivisto and Ola Rune, whom Koivisto met at Konstfack, the renowned Stockholm-based school of arts, crafts and design, while all three undertook graduate degrees. The trio started working together almost by chance after entering (and winning) competitions while studying. Their first important commission was designing sales offices in various European cities for major paper and cardboard manufacturer Assi Domän – while they were still officially students – not bad for beginners. In the decade since, they have become famous at home and abroad for their prolific, individual, and witty output; been appointed art directors of some of the best Scandinavian design firms, and designed for clients all over the world.

While Claesson Koivisto Rune favours a sleek and uncluttered aesthetic, the use of white and natural (or nature-mimicking) materials and enduring products, it would be impossible and reductive to typecast them as advocates of a purely Swedish aesthetic. "It’s true that we have done quite a few things in white, but it has other explanations," says Claesson. "Think about it, we are almost at the North Pole here. We need to bring in as much natural light as possible and reflect it in the interior."

As if to distance himself even further from a somewhat overpowering Scandinavian modernist legacy, "We have never wanted to have a style. Obviously whenever someone does something it's possible to put a label on it because it is an expression of a person or a group of persons, but I think we have always evolved and we are very much doing this right now ". He adds with some vehemence, "You can't arrive at a perfect set of rules to create the perfect design or perfect object. That is a modernist idea that is dead."

DESIGN IN FLUX

What the firm has done with their significant, but sometimes burdensome, Scandinavian design heritage on the other hand, is metabolise it, shake it up a bit and take it one step further. Their work is both meticulously considered and at times formal, but also spontaneous, open-minded and intuitive. Quite fitting for three guys who grew up and studied in many places (Finland, Zimbabwe, New York, London and Sweden), and who live in a city that is small but that has an undeniable international touch. If there has been an evolution in what Claesson Koivisto Rune does, says Claesson, it is the realization that your work doesn’t necessarily need to be confined by rules. "You set them for yourself when you start. You think something absolutely has to have a right angle, or it has to be a white ceiling. But then you realise that things are always open, in a state of flux, and that’s the beauty of it also."

Take, for example, the Pebbles chair the firm did for Cappellini in 2001. It started life as a handful of rocks. "I was on a beach in southern Sweden picking up stones" he says. "I always do that anywhere I go because I find them so beautiful. They’ve been pounded by waves for millions of years and they become these soft and fantastic shapes." The particular pebbles in questions had been sitting on a shelf in the Claesson Koivisto Rune studio for a couple of years.

"Someone took them out and we started playing around with them, "Claesson recollects" putting them on top of one another." The juxtaposition inspired the partnership to create a flexible "seating island" using the same flat stone-like shapes and irregular contours. But when they tried to design the seat on the computer, "It would correct the lines we drew with mathematical radii and straight lines". With their project in danger of losing its soul, the trio opted to enlarge their initial drawings on a good old-fashioned photocopier.

The Pebbles chair was one of Claesson’s favourite projects, and what he found particularly rewarding was the fact that it was a new type of furniture. "It’s nice to make an elegant chair with four legs and a back," he muses. "But to do something which is a new typology, and also hopefully elegant, that’s much more interesting to do…and very hard. You can only do it so many times."

NEW DESIGN FOR DIPLOMATS

Claesson’s pebbles were also useful in 1999 when Claesson Koivisto Rune entered a competition to design the interior of the Swedish ambassador’s residence in Berlin. The colours of the pebbles were used to create a typically Swedish palette for textiles and wall colours. The trio nearly decided not to enter the competition after receiving over 200 pages of rules and restrictions, becoming increasingly convinced that the organisers would "want more conservative stuff made by the large offices". But when they found out they would receive 50,000 kronor just for participating, they reconsidered. "It was not a lot of money" Claesson admits sheepishly, "but we were extremely poor at the time!" Feeling they had nothing to lose, they decided to make their entry "totally contemporary", and chose a range of objects and furniture by 200 Swedish designers – none of which "could be more than ten years old". When they won, they were surprised, but it made sense. This was the first time it was possible to assemble such a large collection of objects made by Swedish designers since the 1960s. "That was the last time Sweden was good at design" Claesson says, quietly asserting that Sweden is experiencing its "second wave".

As a result of the Berlin commission, the firm received plaudits for showcasing the work of so many other Swedish designers, "instead of doing everything ourselves, which could have been a natural option", Claesson says. This humility can also be seen in the way the firm works. Though Rune and Koivisto are out of town, Claesson speaks of them often and affectionately. He also makes it clear that they work collectively, that there are no leaders or frontmen. "We are not just the three of us anymore by the way, we have three other full-time employees and usually a couple of interns" he says. "And everyone is involved in the creative process." To further emphasise the point, he shows me around the firm’s office in Stockholm’s hip Södermalm district.
Workstations line two walls, and Claesson explains that everyone just sits down where a computer is free. When I comment on how democratic it all sounds, he is quick to say, "Yes, democratic within these walls. Of course it’s not democratic outside."

A recent project was a renovated house of culture in central Kyoto in Japan (which opened in 2003). Known as the Sfera building, it features a brilliantly executed titanium facade punched with a pattern of light-dappled leaves. It was a struggle to make, says Claesson, because people"… in city planning offices are not open to too much progress". And not just in Japan, he insists, "this is true wherever you are in the world". More recently, the partnership designed an awe-inspiring, selfcontained, interior living environment for Dune in New York ("the only people crazy enough to do it"). Luna Project came out in May 2005, and is actually both a room and a sofa (with built-in speakers) large enough (5m x 6m) to seat 30 of your closest friends. Covered in foam and upholstered with fabric of the client’s choice, if space gets tight Claesson suggests people could even sit on top of it. Again this is a new ‘typology’ and one that the firm is proud of. So far only one has been made – there is the obvious thorny issue of getting it through doors or windows - but Claesson thinks it is the sort of piece that would work very well in a hotel lobby or nightclub.

As I leave, I recall an earlier comment of Claesson’s: "I think that the stuff you will see from us in about two years’ time most people would not expect from us." I ask if he can give me a quick preview. "It is architecture, and design" he says, smiling, but he won’t be drawn. Based on what I have just seen and heard, I am sure it will be worth the wait.

Appeared in Pol Oxygen in March 2006.

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