In an innovative departure from conventional design exhibitions, the Swedish design firm Form Us With Love has converted its workspace into an experimental showroom, dubbed 'Showroom?', which will remain open for an extended period of four months. This initiative serves as a fresh alternative to the typical high-intensity, brief showcases of design weeks, especially in light of the rescheduling of the Stockholm Furniture Fair and its associated Design Week. The studio seeks to cultivate a more leisurely and profound interaction with design concepts, offering an adaptable environment for a series of discussions, events, and interactive sessions, developed collaboratively with Studio Playground.
Jonas Pettersson, a co-founder of Form Us With Love, highlighted how this prolonged exhibition period fundamentally alters the pace of engagement, enabling a living environment that evolves dynamically. He noted that this approach fosters deeper conversations and allows ideas to mature over time, contrasting sharply with the fleeting nature of event-driven design culture. The 'Showroom?' acts as a continuous feedback loop, a valuable rarity in today's fast-paced industry. The exhibition not only presents the studio's latest innovations, such as acoustic solutions from its sister brand Baux and unique textiles crafted with Byborre, but also challenges the established role of physical showrooms in contemporary culture.
The exhibition's layout is meticulously designed to create three distinct yet ambiguous spaces. A central red zone is dedicated to meetings and gatherings, anchored by a large communal table. Flanking this area are a green-hued material exploration zone and a versatile blue space that can function as either an office or a bar. This configuration reflects Pettersson's vision of a modern showroom, moving beyond a mere physical catalog of finished products to become a dynamic narrative. He emphasizes that today's showrooms communicate values, processes, and intentions, making the 'why' and 'how' of design as crucial as the 'what'.
Integrating these spaces are ceiling-suspended Baux panels, crafted from X-Felt, providing both aesthetic division and acoustic benefits. The bespoke Iris textiles, a collaboration with Byborre, are featured prominently, adorning Form Us With Love's Spine chair for Savo and a knitted event poster. These textiles demonstrate Byborre's advanced 3D knitting capabilities, showcasing various colorways and print sizes, with a broader selection available in the material area. Furthermore, the exhibition includes an ongoing partnership with String Furniture, inviting visitors to participate in workshops and provide feedback on upcoming accessory prototypes. Completing the immersive experience are the Nomad power outlets and lamps from Forming Function, now available in an expanded palette of 130 colors.
This 'Showroom?' represents the latest iteration in Form Us With Love's 'Testing Grounds' series, building upon previous experimental ventures like a pop-up bistro in 2025 and a flexible co-working space in 2024. Pettersson views the biennial rebranding of the Stockholm Furniture Fair as an opportunity for more experimental, community-focused initiatives to flourish. He believes Stockholm's design landscape thrives on diverse voices and scales, and such events can galvanize the local design community by promoting collaboration over competition. The future of Stockholm's design scene, he concludes, will be shaped not by a single major fair, but by how designers, brands, and institutions utilize the interstitial periods to forge more resilient and interconnected networks.