
Inspiration from 3 Days of Design 2026
Last week Copenhagen opened its workshops, courtyards, showrooms, and historic townhouses for 3 Days of Design, transforming the city into a living exhibition of contemporary design. Over three days, we wandered between districts, stepping into spaces both familiar and unexpected, discovering the work of established names alongside emerging voices.
What stayed with us were not the loudest statements, but the quieter pieces - designs that revealed their value through thoughtful craftsmanship, material honesty, and longevity. A chair built to serve for decades rather than seasons. A cabinet designed to age gracefully alongside its owner. Lighting that treated illumination not as an afterthought, but as a material in its own right.
Here is our round-up of the brands and pieces that left a lasting impression.
Vipp
One of the standout installations from the fair was at the Vipp Garage, where the Barcelona-based studio Mesura transformed the space into an ephemeral guest house. A steel framework wrapped entirely in a vibrant plaid textile extended from walls and furniture into the courtyard, creating an immersive environment that announced itself before visitors even stepped inside.
At its centre sat a conversation pit formed from modular Loft sofa sections, reinforcing the studio's exploration of home as a shared experience. The installation was accompanied by a limited-edition Vipp x Mesura Swivel chair, developed specifically for the project and carrying the distinctive material language of the installation beyond the three-day event.

Alongside the installation, Vipp showed the Swivel chair in its two newest forms, models **454** and **455**. Both bring a higher backrest and a more spacious seat over the original, developed for long days at a desk or in a meeting - the 454 sits 61.5cm wide, with a 50cm seat depth, on a polished aluminium base available with castors or gliders, upholstered in aniline leather (camel, black and a bosco green among the finishes) or fabric, with elastic webbing beneath for give.
The 455 reads as the more considered variant of the same family. Both are intended to pair with Vipp's Studio Desk.

Vipp also previewed a new, larger desk and two new striking dining tables.

Finn Juhl
The home of Finn Juhl is its own argument for why thoughtful design matters. Walking through the rooms, you are reminded that Juhl never viewed furniture as simply functional objects. Instead, he saw them as part of a larger conversation about how we live, move, gather, and find comfort in our surroundings. Every room feels carefully considered yet deeply personal, revealing a designer who understood that the best interiors are not staged compositions but lived environments.
At the Finn Juhl showroom, a new silver cabinet was introduced - a piece very much in the Heirloom register, made to be kept and handed on.

Formakivet
At their Nordhavn showroom, FORMARKIVET presented New Dualism - an exhibition that felt like a precise statement of intent. The Copenhagen design house has always worked in productive tension: industrial materials held to a refined standard, classic forms recast in contemporary language. That contradiction was most legible in the Cubio collection, which grew again this year with the addition of a bench. Cast aluminium, offered in raw or semi-gloss light beige, each bench develops its own patina over time - the brand treats the micro-scratches and surface variations as part of the material's character rather than something to be corrected.
Alongside Cubio, the Ion upholstered seating was shown in full. Dining chairs and armchairs in fabric families ranging from cotton chenille to wool bouclé, and the Marmacén home scent collection, a fragrance range drawing on the woody warmth of oud and benzoin with top notes of frankincense and pine, lent the space an atmosphere that felt imoressive and considered.

PP Møbler
During 3daysofdesign, PP Møbler invited us inside the Flagship Store to mark two significant milestones. The Circle Chair celebrates 40 years, presented with a dedicated focus on its demanding construction and refined details.
At the same time, the Papa Bear Chair marks its 75-year anniversary, shown in special variations and with new additions to the collection. Together, they framed an exhibition centred on material understanding, precision and the ongoing work in the workshop.

Malte Gormeson
At the Cabinetmakers Gallery in The Conary on Dronningens Tværgade, Malte Gormsen presented new work from the Herlev workshop, combining traditional cabinetmaking with contemporary production techniques. The result was a collection defined by precision, material quality, and understated craftsmanship.
Three pieces stood out. The Abar stool from the Skt. Annæ series by Space Copenhagen brought a sculptural simplicity that highlighted the beauty of the materials. The Trapeza chair by Christian+Jade offered a clean, architectural presence with carefully considered proportions. A taller version of the MG406 stool by Norm Architects completed the trio, extending the versatility of the original design while retaining its refined character.

Anour
At its showroom on Bredgade, ANOUR used this year's festival to deepen a single idea: light treated as a material rather than a fitting. The PARS series was the anchor - a modular system in natural onyx, each piece carrying its own veins and tones, paired with refined brass so the stone seems to hold the light as much as pass it on.

A-N-D Lighting
One of the most considered presentations this year came from Vancouver-based studio A-N-D, which used 3 Days of Design to open its permanent European home - a former commercial printing press in Copenhagen's Latin Quarter.
The three-floor space, titled North Quarters, felt more like an inhabited interior than a trade show stand: on the ground floor, pendants from the Contour and Pebble collections hung in a necklace-like formation above a 16-foot dining table by Canadian designer Christian Woo; in the basement, the original industrial surfaces were left largely intact, letting floor lamps and sconces speak quietly against raw walls; upstairs, rows of Column floor lamps anchored a contemplative room with an audio installation built around sound waves.
Founded by designers Lukas Peet and Caine Heintzman, A-N-D has always approached lighting as a long-term proposition - every LED across their range is replaceable, and the studio designs for a lifespan of 20 to 30 years. It's the brand we return to when a project calls for something that earns its place in a room rather than announces it.


