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Stokke and the art of sitting

by Elena Guarneri last modified 2008-08-12 14:32

A warm soul in a cold country

To mark the visit of King Harald V of Norway, Milan will host ‘The importance of design in international marketing’. The seminar, which is to be held on October 26th, will give Italian and Norwegian designers the chance to reflect on their work and how their image influences marketing strategies. For many it will be the opportunity for two very different schools of design to come together.

GardenWe were sitting on it
If Norwegian design is thought of as functional and Italian design as creative then you'd be for thinking that put together the two balance and complement each other. We racked our brains for days trying to come up with of an example of the perfect combination of these two design tendencies until we realised that we were sitting on it all along.

Tripp TrappGrowing with you
One of Norway's greatest design exports is undoubtedly the Stokke range of chairs. The name Stokke is synonymous with comfort and flexibility as well as distinctive quality and design. The products are all made with natural materials and are multifunctional allowing them to 'grow' as your children grow or 'change' with your changing needs.

Move your body
Whenever we speak about natural or healthy options for our homes and offices, Stokke's range of chairs come immediately to mind. They are recommended by the Associazione Italiana Terapisti della Riabilitazione (Association of Italian Rehabilitation Therapists) and are a must in all body-conscious workspaces throughout the world.
"Our bodies are not meant to be sitting still all the time"- says Peter Opsvik, designer of Stokke's acclaimed Tripp Trapp range and one of Norway's most famous design architects. "Our body craves movement, movement and variation. Even while asleep we continuously shift position. (...) My most important contribution has been to create products where it is possible to shift among a large variety of positions while using the same chair (...)The human body is soft, while its surroundings are hard. A proper chair should therefore function as an intermediary between the soft human body and its hard, architectural surroundings."

MultiA healthy body lives in a healthy world and Stokke, and its designers, are also renowned for their commitment to the environment. Peter Opsvik has just finished work on Butterfly, a prototype car that runs on solar energy. For Opsvik the project reflects both his endless creativity and his childlike enthusiasm. Peter Opsvik and his work are proof that it is possible to design with a warm soul in a cold country.




Categories
Links
Stokke.com - - the official website
Peter Opsvik - - the Norwegian designer online
Brancoweb.com - - Norwegian design
Butterfly - - Peter Opsvik's solar energy car
Handicrafts in Norway - - all about Norwegian crafts
 

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