100% Norway exhibition returns to the London Design Festival

Now in its sixth year, the annual 100 percent Norway exhibition returns to the London Design Festival with a mission to bring the best of the country’s furniture manufacturing to an international audience.

StokkeAustad, one of Norway’s most talented young design duos whose new dining table from Nora of Norway will be on display, has also designed the stand this year. Taking inspiration from the ‘hjeller’, a scaffold structure that for centuries has been use to dry fish across Norway, they have constructed the simple A-frame architecture over theentire exhibition space.

The hjeller is a traditional Norwegian structure, found all along the coastline of a country known to boast some of the most beautiful landscapes in the world. The stand is built from Kebony, a revolutionary new wood which has been treated using biowaste from the sugar industry, making it not only aesthetically wonderful, but also as hardwearing as teak, maintenance free, and environmentally sound.

Inside the hjeller, many of the best and most prominent contemporary Norwegian manufacturers such as LK Hjelle, Fora Form, Varier, Håg and Fjordfiesta will exhibit new designs for furniture and home accessories by home-grown designers, including Norway Says and Tveit&Tornøe.

New exhibitors for 2009 include Biri Tapet, whose beautiful contemporary take on traditional straw wall coverings are already much loved by Scandinavian architects. Returning to London with new wallpaper designs is the all female design team Scandinavian Surface whose products are inspired by their local surroundings in Bergen.

The homely, down to earth feel is one found in many of the products throughout the exhibition, but perhaps nowhere more so than in the Aksel chairs by Aksel Hansson, a traditional seat seen in many Norwegian homes for decades, and now available to see in the UK for the first time.

One off pieces by young glassware stars Tanja Sæter, Kjersti Johannessen and Anne Haavind will also be on display, as will new porcelain collections to rival Scandinavian’s oldest and finest from up coming duo Wik & Walsøe, and first
time exhibitor Sara Skotte.

A host of launches from lamp manufacturer Northern Lighting are also expected to be a big draw at 100 percent Norway this year, while gorgeous new polar-bear inspired rug designs from Permafrost are sure to make an impact on the ground. Although most of this year’s exhibition features items already in production, prototypes from one of Norway’s most exciting new designers, Petter Skogstad, will also travel to the UK for the first time.

It all amounts to what is unequivocally the best collection ever seen at 100 percent Norway so far according to curator Henrietta Thompson; “Over the last few years an exciting contemporary design scene has emerged in this part of the world, and despite that the design industry in the country is relatively young compared to that of its Scandinavian neighbours, it is fast proving itself to be both world class in standard and very firmly rooted in Nordic culture.”

100% Norway will occupy stand G30 at 100% Design, Earls Court, from 24 – 27 September.

100% Norway 2009 is organised by the Royal Norwegian Embassy in London, the Norwegian Design Council, Norsk Industri – The Association of Norwegian Furniture Industry, and Innovation Norway.