The ArkDes Museum Stockholm is Sweden’s national center for architecture and design. It is a place of study and arena for discourse about the future of the field. Housed in multiple buildings, ArkDes hosts and funds exhibitions, education programs, research projects, events, and debates at the museum and across Sweden.
As design lovers, we like how they combine landscape, products, interior, digital, urbanism, and architectural design to showcase our field’s past and future. We especially love the Boxen temporary exhibition space designed by Dehlin Brattgård Architects. We find Boxen to be an exhibit-worthy showcase in its own right because of its magnetic structure.
As devotees of innovation in architecture and design, we are awed with the museum’s newest space Dehlin Brattgard called A Room With a View. Designed in a functionalistic style, every inch of the interior can be used for some purpose but done so, the functionality blends into the design.
Located inside the Boxen is a large white steel room with another exhibit room inside, holding two shows in the same space. The overall aesthetic of Boxen creates a blank canvas for displays while also serving to delight the senses with its unique ramp, cantilevering around the interior room, and accessed by multiple points. The ramp traverses the gallery, allowing various perspectives of the innovative and thought-provoking experimental exhibitions.
We explore two exhibits: Architecture in Sweden and WEIRD SENSATION FEELS GOOD: an exhibition about ASMR.
Architecture in Sweden highlights dozens of famous Swedish architect’s best work with a collection of more than 80 of ArkDes’s most unique and stunning models, drawings, and trade tools throughout the interior’s parameter.
The works range from the golden age of Swedish modernism. They tell the story of design ideas, methods, and materials, from the making of simple summer homes to the complex engineering of the Katarina elevator and more. The exhibition is designed by Anna von Schewen, a progressive, experimental designer of furniture, interior design, architecture, and Björn Dahlström, a contemporary designer known for furniture and industrial design.
The interior room houses WEIRD SENSATION FEELS GOOD, a first-of-its-kind interactive exhibit that pays homage to the sensory video sensation taking the world by storm. The exhibition is made up of materials and sets that emulate Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response videos popularized online. The display features a blending of the physical and sensory with microphones, mannequin parts, and headsets to draw your eye and immerse you in a physical experience.
In combination with the videos playing around the room, the objects evoke the world of ASMR and create a feeling of either euphoria or calm. Our senses are triggered by sounds, touch, and movement throughout the interior, creating a physical reaction entirely derived from technology. It is interesting to see how a digital concept can transcend its platform’s confines and be brought to life in the real world and merged with interior design. The result does not disappoint. It is a riveting experience to feel a physical reaction provoked by a revolutionary technology-driven craft.
The works are contributed by over a dozen artists and curated by ArkDes Curator of Contemporary Architecture and Design, James Taylor-Foster, who specializes in architecture, design, e-culture, and technology.
The work of ArkDes Museum Stockholm has helped to influence the great discussion in interior design through their exhibitions, campaigns, and research. It continues to give us new ways to look at design innovation through new platforms and perspectives. Visiting ArkDes is a stimulating experience that brings an international perspective to how we will live in the future.
