Stockholm-based product and interior designer Daniel Svahn established his eponymous studio after graduating from Beckmans Collage of Design in 2009 with a BFA in product design. Crediting his inspiration to the everyday things we see all around us – whether ‘small or big, relevant or irrelevant, nice or ugly,’ he feels anything can be made into something new if you’re observant enough and keep your imagination awake. True to his word, A New Paradigm – an evolution of the New Goodies but Oldies project he presented at the 2020 Stockholm Furniture Fair – is a collection of six pieces of contract furniture made from furniture discarded by the same sector.
Tell me a little bit about your childhood, education, and background in terms of how you first became interested in creativity, design, and sustainability.
I come from a typical Swedish working-class home. My parents had non-creative jobs but were creative anyway. Dad liked to paint and create sculptures for our backyard and mom would constantly reimagine our home, making countless hand-drawn floorplans. That was my first encounter with interior design, spatial contexts, and art. I, too, created a lot as a child and young adolescent, but it wasn’t until my early 20s that I started to think about pursuing a creative career. Funnily enough, my interest in design, furniture, and interiors started after I got a job at IKEA – I was exposed to such a range of furniture and interior products and my interest grew, but it was also a reality check as I learned more about industrial-scale production and the impacts of our contemporary lifestyles – something that has stayed with me ever since. But it was actually a supervisor at IKEA – Pernilla – who urged me to apply to art school. I studied painting, photography, sculpting, design, and installation art at various preparatory schools, before taking my BFA in product design. And now, after almost ten years of working freelance and teaching, I have just completed a Master’s in spatial design at Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts and Design in Stockholm. I used this time to experiment with concepts around sustainability – an opportunity I am incredibly grateful for.
How would you describe your projects: A New Paradigm and New Goodies but Oldies?
They are both all about material reuse and upcycling – and are also a commentary on the production industry, ‘wear and tear’ consumption, and a common, widespread disrespect for material. They argue for material reuse and upcycling as part of any new production. They are projects that enable me to experiment, educate, and show the potential material can have if it is allowed to live out its full lifecycle. Even if a product is old, broken, or obsolete, the material in it still has so much more to give.