The sofa from Skåne challenges the globalized furniture industry – tradition meets innovation
As a counterpoint to globalization, I wanted to see how locally a sofa can be produced and investigate how outsourcing affects Swedish production. Inspired by Skåne and the small village I grew up in, with its local initiatives and small businesses, the project was shaped around three themes: locality, the consumer's relationship to the product and "design for disassembly".
The result is a dissemblable sofa made of Scanian wool, pine from the local lumberman and linen from the last active weavery in Scania. The sofa’s production radius (the echo of our production and consumption) is presented at the exhibition, and both local and global production are discussed.
The project also includes an “open-source” scenario, where the sofa’s blueprints are included in the purchase. If a part of the sofa breaks, the consumer can not only order a replacement from the manufacturer but also build a new piece themselves or have it made by a local carpenter.
With this project, I aim to showcase a new-old way of producing, where modern challenges can be addressed through a combination of traditional and innovative thinking. I also seek to challenge and highlight the friction between profit, sustainability, and consumption needs, while exploring possible answers to what the future of production should look like.
