For the second consecutive time, the Product Design Department of Estonian Academy of Arts will join the lineup of Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair from 4 to 8 February, 2020. Alongside 31 design schools and 34 young, upcoming designers and design studios, EKA will be exhibiting at the Greenhouse section of the fair.
On view are six furniture designs that variously engage with the students’ observations of limestone landforms, local craftsmanship, industrial production techniques as well as community-based archives.
Devised and co-led by designer Nick Ross, the course – titled Dig Where You Stand – investigated the history of limestone in Estonia. “The premise of the course was that by researching and learning about our own history, we would be able to regain some control over and understanding of our lives,” says Ross.
“We asked students both to acknowledge the legacy of one of the country’s largest dolomite quarries,” he explains, “while also contesting its historic contribution to the present-day limestone industry that uses the stone mainly as a finishing material – for countertops, flooring, cladding, and facades.”
The title of the course – Dig Where You Stand – has been taken from Sven Lindqvist’s 1978 manual that explains how to study our own history and work life; in other words, to dig where we stand.
Following the example of Estonian limestone industry that from the 1960s onwards has used the stone merely as an aggregate for building and construction – also because of an historical regulation that ordered the replacement of bricks as building material with limestone – students attempted to reclaim limestone as raw material.
As an example, one of the projects proposes six seat designs, each in a different variety of limestone. Grey and dull at first sight, the designs expose stone coloration that ranges from pure white to coral and dark brown due to the geological origins of the stone. A hands-on material exploration, the limestone used is either scavenged above-ground or collected as factory leftovers.
These and other design outcomes of the 7-week course at EKA will be on view at Greenhouse section of Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair, open until 8 February, 2020.
Designers: Hanna-Liisa Haukka, Sandra Jõesaar, and Mõtus Lõmaš Kama (2nd year BA, Product Design), Oliver Kanniste, Henri Kaarel Luht, and Siim Simmermann (final year MA, Product Design)
Concept: Nick Ross
Faculty: Nick Ross, Mihkel Mäll
Graphic & Set Design: Mai Bauvald, Diandra Rebase (Graphic Design, Class of 2019)
Photography: Laura Ruuder (2nd year BA, Phtography)
Project Lead & Research: Anna-Liisa Laarits
Texts: Anna-Liisa Laarits
Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair 2020
https://www.stockholmfurniturelightfair.se/?sc_lang=en
Stockholmsmässan
Mässvägen 1
125 30 Älvsjö
Sweden
Hall C, Booth 06:50
4-8 February, 2020
Opening hours:
Tuesday 9-18
Wednesday 9-18
Thursday 9-18
Friday 9-18
Saturday 10-17 (open for the public)
For more information or images, please contact anna-liisa.laarits@artun.ee.
Estonian Academy of Arts, Department of Product Design, has been generously supported by the Architecture Endowment of the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and European Regional Development Fund.
Sight Unseen
Our Favourite Launches from Stockholm Design Week 2020, Jill Singer, 13.2.2020
Dezeen
Estonian Academy of Arts students create furniture from raw limestone, Amy Frearson, 22.2.2020
Dig Where You Stand archives+booklet available here