Seaweed chair wins Nordic design competition

14.12.18 | News
The Coastal Furniture wins Nordic design competition

“The Coastal Furniture” by the Danish designer Nikolaj Thrane Carlsen wins Nordic design competition

Photographer
Robert Bednarczyk /norden.org

Mats Widbom of the Swedish Society of Crafts and Design, Hans Christian Asmussen of the Danish Crafts & Design Association, and Mary Gestrin of the Nordic Council of Ministers at the Nordic Pavilion during COP24.

“The Coastal Furniture” has come out top in the final round of the Nordic Design Competition. The chair by the Danish designer Nikolaj Thrane Carlsen won 22% of the votes at the UN Climate Summit in Katowice and was announced as the winner at a talk about design held in the Nordic Pavilion.

Seaweed roofs on the island of Læsø were the key source of inspiration for the design of “The Coastal Furniture”, the shell of which is made of 100% biodegradable seaweed composite material. The key to the process was to combine sustainable thinking with aesthetics while preserving the unique seaweed texture. The jury says: “It's unique. It has a mission, and it is a stunning conversation piece".

No more objects

The vote in Katowice was the final stage in a competition that started in September when national rounds resulted in a total of 98 entries. Five chairs, one from each Nordic country, have been on display for two weeks at COP24.  Everybody attending the climate summit was invited to vote for the 'People's Choice' award, and the winner was revealed at a special design event on 13 December.

Mary Gestrin of the Nordic Council of Ministers chaired the event, at which Hans Christian Asmussen of the Danish Crafts & Design Association and Mats Widbom of the Swedish Society of Crafts and Design discussed the importance of sustainable thinking in the design industry.

“Today sustainability is part of the design process. The world does not need more objects, it needs the right objects. The lifespan and quality are important since we can’t stop consumption,” says Mats Widbom, CEO at Swedish Society of Crafts and Design

New SDG

All five of the chairs have some relation to the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals, but it seems that 17 is not enough. Hans Christian Asmussen introduced a new goal at the event: SDG0: Global Ethics.

“The UN Youth Representatives represent a soft yet insistent force of will. They put pressure on us all to act now. SDG0 (zero) is dedicated to the coming generation. To remind us all that we have an enormous obligation to the coming generations,” says Hans Christian Asmussen.

The Nordic Design Competition was run by the Nordic Council of Ministers’ international branding project, The Nordics, in collaboration with the Danish Design Centre, DOGA, Iceland Design Centre, Ornamo in Finland and Swedish Form.