3 Days of Design

Day 1: Materials, Process and Personality at 3 Days of Design

We began our first day at 3 Days of Design at the Designmuseum Danmark, joining a conversation with Spacon & X, who discussed their exploration of materials borrowed from outside the traditional design canon.

Their conversation explores materials like recycled HDPE plastic and seaweed-based boards from Søuld, which were paired with stained timber and mycelium-filled cushions. This showcases not only material innovation but also a strong commitment to local partnerships. It’s an exhibition that speaks to playfulness, contrast, and collaboration.

From there, we visited FLOS, where a strong showing of works by Michael Anastassiades, Ronan Bouroullec, Tobia Scarpa and Konstantin Grcic framed the studio’s evolving language of form and illumination.

At USM's 60th anniversary launch, a new soft panel was introduced, bringing texture and modularity into the language of their iconic metal system. It was a subtle yet bold new design element.

Inside Frederiksgade 1, Kristina Dam unveiled her full 2025 collection, a continued homage to Japanese restraint and Nordic practicality.

We stepped into Adorno’s “PERSONA”, a compelling exhibition exploring identity through design. Set across three immersive rooms—The Romantic, The Perfectionist and The Eccentric—it invited visitors to move through moods and material landscapes with scent, sound, and light.

On Bredgade, we caught up with local and visiting designers at nau, hosted by Galerie Mikael Andersen and CULT - a great way to see their latest pieces in context, and connect with the Australian design community abroad.

Later, New Works marked its 10th year at the festival by transforming its residence into a quiet, tactile boutique hotel in collaboration with Lotta Agaton Interiors. The new Kantarell Pendant Lamp Ø55 was a standout - softly sculptural and atmospherically precise.

We ended the day with a panel hosted by ArchDaily and Holder. The panel brought together Latin American voices, including David Basulto, Matteo Fogale, Rodrigo Bravo, and Alexandra Arias. The discussion bridged architecture and identity, food and memory, anchored in reflections on MoMA’s “Crafting Modernity” exhibition.

A final stop at Kvadrat’s Frequency installation, suspended above the water, offered a sensory close to the day. From curtain textiles to rugs, the collection explored the rhythms of light, sound, and motion in woven form.

More from Copenhagen to come.

Day 2: Craft, Context and Creative Dialogue

We opened the day with a panel hosted by Dezeen, featuring Ronan Bouroullec, Kvadrat’s Anders Byriel, and Vaarnii’s Antti Hirvonen. The conversation centred on the Maasto range - how material decisions, supply chains and practice can align with longer-term sustainability thinking. Not a trend talk, but a strategic view on how legacy and experimentation can co-exist.

From there, Meta’s session unpacked its upcoming roadmap across AI and product design. The focus was on the Ray-Ban Meta collaboration - how to embed intelligence into objects people already wear. Their take: AI isn’t just a layer, it’s a material in its own right.

Project Materia at Tableau was a standout. Bronze, marble, and glass weren’t just shown - they were treated as subjects. Sculptural, functional, referential. Every room invited you to slow down. Glass was blown with candy-like colour, marble with deliberate restraint, and bronze with real reverence for its weight. Less an exhibition, more a material dialogue.

At Fredericia, the rooftop hosted Intersections - a launch and retrospective celebrating the work of Mogens Koch and Hugo Passos, and the relaunch of Nanna Ditzel’s Bench for Two, now in collaboration with A. Petersen. Furniture as story, and as lineage.

Fritz Hansen’s installation was tactile and process-driven. The PK25™ chair, made on-site, was built from a single piece of steel and handwoven flag halyard. Seeing it constructed live stripped the object of its polish and put the focus back on construction and intent.

Then: YSG x Bankston. Their hardware collaboration Streaks introduced a tightly edited range of door levers, pulls and joinery accessories in FSC-certified timber and cast bronze. As expected from Yasmine, the detailing is assertive but refined - form-led, and tactile.

Weaving by Anni Albers, presented by Dedar in collaboration with The Josef & Anni Albers Foundation. Set in the Women’s Building - originally designed by Ragna Grubb in 1936 - it was a fitting context. The exhibition explored Albers’s original textile works through five reinterpreted pieces. Material, pattern, structure - treated as language, not just decoration.

At Normann, the Unframed collection took over their Copenhagen showroom. Less a launch, more an installation. Across multiple floors, it blurred product and exhibition, testing what happens when design steps outside its commercial context. Lots of modular repetition, altered scale, softened geometry—rooted in material research, but with a graphic sensibility.

We closed the day with the Dezeen x Programa partnership launch - a dinner to mark our jury role for the 2025 Dezeen Awards. Among those in the room: Yasmine Ghoniem, Adam Goodrum, Lee Broom, Spacon & X, Claesson Koivisto Rune, Moroso, Neri&Hu. A group defined by rigour and imagination - and a perfect note to end the day.