Trends & Traditions is a design trade fair that seems to be, after just a couple of years, a strongly-established and important event in the annual calendar for design in Copenhagen.

The venue is the old workshops in what was the railway yards and repair shops of DSB - the Danish state railway - and is out to the south west of the city centre. Most of the railway works have gone and this is now a major redevelopment area but curiously, although it is alongside the main railway as it runs out of the central station, for trains heading for Roskilde or for the airport at Kastrup and then on to the bridge over the Sound and then to Sweden, it is not the easiest site to reach by public transport although the event laid on shuttle buses. Because it was a warm and sunny day, the walk is pleasant and fascinating as a chance to look at the abandoned railway buildings.

There were just under 130 design companies listed on the event web site for this year and, although I did not take a check list to tick them off, all the big Danish design companies were here and a fair few from Sweden and elsewhere including Vitra.

Trends & Traditions is promoted as a furniture design “meet and greet” and certainly seems less competitive and more relaxed than the very big international shows. Generally, the area for each company is small and the stands themselves relatively simple with furniture set on the floor but usually with a few good information panels or display counters. It really is a good chance to meet designers and representatives from the companies.

The locomotive works has a good area outside and there were food and drink stalls there and a lot of coffee carts inside and many of the companies offered snacks and drinks so it feels like a fairly relaxed and very friendly set up.

There were also talks and discussions arranged through the day and this year speakers included Tom Dixon and Svend Brinkmann.

Several companies used the event to present newly-launched designs and there were some clear themes with several of the stands focusing on sustainability and reuse. The furniture consultancy and trade furniture supplier HolmrisB8 had a large area at the centre of the space to show reutilised office furniture and table tops and so on made from recycled wood or recycled textiles. Several companies showed solutions for sorting materials to be recycled from the home or in the office.

Trends & Traditions
Lokomotivværkstedet
Otto Busses Vej, Copenhagen
3 May 2023

including the FRAMA stand, an original option for a black and white version of the Panton Flower Pot lamp that has been reissued and details from the HOLMRIS8B stand

sorting waste to be recycled from Cube-Design

Sustainability is not just about which materials we use and how we use them but also about salvaging and reusing materials and about restoring or repurposing what we already have or, simply, making sure that what we buy has been made well so that it lasts.

Nearly ten years ago, for an early post, I wrote about Artek 2nd Cycle in Helsinki where the Finnish design company takes back it’s furniture for resale if it comes with it’s back story. I have just checked and I’m glad to say that 2nd Cycle is still going strong.

It was interesting at Trends & Traditions to see that Fritz Hansen, to its credit, is now offering a service to supply new shells for some of its chairs and also offers a service on it’s web site where you can buy spare parts for chairs including spacing blocks and new castors or wheel sets.

Too often, a small break or damage to one part of a chair or table has, in the past, meant that the whole thing has to be replaced …. it is inevitable that in day-to-day use parts like handles or hinges get broken but for too many large, international companies, keeping and selling spare parts has not been to their advantage …. why sell a small rubber block and tell a customer how to replace it if you can either sell a complete replacement piece of furniture or save yourself the hassle and cost of maintaining a stock of spare parts.

One of the clear selling points for Danish design is the quality of production - with the presumption therefore that the furniture will have a long life - but also Danish furniture companies have a strong sense of continuity …. Chair 7 has been in the Fritz Hansen catalogue continuously since 1955 so that is a lot of chairs that might simply need a new set of plastic caps for the legs.

Sometimes, restoring or upgrading furniture needs specialists or the work requires equipment or specialist tools so there has to be work for a workshop in a city like Copenhagen where, for instance, the metal frames of chairs or tables could be professionally cleaned and then repainted to a high standard to be reunited with an original shell or high-quality top in ‘real’ wood or where a new colour or new upholstery can give furniture a new and equally long second life.

Fritz Hansen SPARE PARTS