British designer Faye Toogood wins the Born Classic Award with the Puffy Lounge Chair designed for the Swedish interior design brand Hem. The new award, established by Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair and the Bukowskis auction house, celebrates future design classics and is among the highlights of an unusual edition of Stockholm Design Week 2021

The reasons for a new award

Scandinavian design has among its genetic traits that of being proudly evergreen. An aspect that prompted the 2019 Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair and the historic Bukowskis auction house (1870) to establish an award: Born Classic. The award goes to a new product with the qualities to make it a design classic of the future. Conditions: Must be created by a designer or made by a Scandinavian manufacturer. Surprise: when we talk about new classics, even in Scandinavia, we discover that Italian design remains an essential reference.

And the winner is….

Faye Toogood, Puffy Lounge Chair, Hem. Bukowskis experts Eva Seeman, Björn Extergren and Jonatan Jahn formed the jury this year, decreeing the victory of the experimental and unconventional star of British design. His Puffy Lounge Chair for Hem was evaluated “firmly rooted in our age, but with the connotations of a future classic. With qualities, both aesthetic and material, capable of making this piece of furniture appreciated for a long time. "

And the nominees are….

Peter Andersson, Corso, Lammhults: an armchair that reinterprets the functionalist aesthetic and presents itself as "an updated version of Erich Dieckmann's iconic modernist chairs. Cleverly chosen materials, quality craftsmanship and commitment to sustainability by Lammhults have helped to ensure the nomination ".

Pierre Sindre, Ono, Källemo: a wooden chair for Källemo "with superbly elegant craftsmanship, clearly inspired by Japan, but also by the Military Chair by Gerrit Rietveld and the Orkesterstol by Sven Markelius".

Jenny Nordberg, Accumulations, Olsson & Gerthel: a floor lamp whose jury appreciates “the ambitious recycling process that led to this brilliant product for Olsson & Gerthel. A lamp that stands out as a modern interpretation of the classic Arco by the Castiglioni brothers ”.

Johan Ansander, Maximus, Blå Station: a wooden chair that looks like plastic. "First impressions catapult us back to the 1970s Italian design of figures such as Joe Colombo and Vico Magistretti, and perhaps even Eero Aarnio's Pony. The appearance of Blå Station chair suggests a fused synthetic material, which is why the lovingly crafted wood finish is such a surprise ”.