FOLKFORM
Anna Holmquist & Chandra Ahlsell
5/7 – 28/9 2025
Most designers turn their nose up at chipboard, synthetic leather and fake marble. But Stockholm-based industrial design duo FOLKFORM like to challenge our pre-conceptions of what we consider valuable.
Their Bench in Three Types of Leather is a patchwork of real and faux, but you wouldn’t know to look at it. Their Marble Cabinet is a collage of doors combining Carrara marble with a laminate look-a-like more commonly used to make kitchen worktops; nearly everyone who sees the piece thinks the fake slabs are the genuine.
“We’re interested in the hierarchies that we bestow on materials,” says Anna Holmquist, who co-founded the studio with Chandra Ahlsell in 2005 after meeting at Konstfack College of Art, Craft and Design in Stockholm.
To build a product, Anna and Chandra work very closely with manufacturing processes. Their Masonite boards, for example, see them invade the chipboard production line to add an element of the hand. They scatter organic matter onto the wet composite boards, so once pressed, a series of “quick fossils” are formed.
The result is a series of mass produced one-offs that see value bestowed on the cheapest wood going. Mass customisation is a goal being pursued by many digital designers, but Folkform’s more craft-based approach demonstrates that we don’t need the latest technology to achieve this; in fact it is their primitive approach that gives their work its charm.
More news from Folkform:
Folkform’s summer exhibition The Museum of Masonite @ Vida Art Gallery
FOLKFORM Anna Holmquist & Chandra Ahlsell 5/7 – 28/9 2025 Most designers turn their nose …
Bruno Mathsson’s prize celebrates 40 years with extensive exhibition @ Vandalorum
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Folkform: The Museum of Masonite @ Landskrona konsthall
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The Plissé table lamp design by Folkform now also comes in red and blue – Örsjö
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Folkform: The Museum of Masonite @ Stockholm Furniture Fair
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Bruno + 35 Mathsson Prize Winners @ Sven-Harrys konstmuseum
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The monochrome jute and wool collection is designed by Folkform in collaboration with Louis De Poortere
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Traditional pleating techniques in focus when Folkform presents new collection for Svenskt Tenn
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Upcoming exhibiton and Online only auction – Folkform: Factory Works @ Bukowskis
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Folkform: Production Stories @ Rian Design Museum, 19/9 2020
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Folkform for Bruno Mathsson International – exclusive collaboration with Bukowskis
In 2020, Bukowski’s 150 years are celebrating! To celebrate this, every month during this anniversary …
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In their new interpretation of the tabouret, Folkform’s ambition is to challenge the classic shape …
Folkform: Production Stories @ Vandalorum
Exhibition 5/10 2019 – 23/2 2020 Vandalorum will be pleased to present the design duo …
Folkform has been awarded the Bruno Mathsson prize for 2019
“The 2019 Bruno Mathsson Award was given to Chandra Ahlsell and Anna Lovisa Holmquist, from …
Örsjö Belysning celebrates its heritage with a Folkform designed-display
The colour red has always had a certain significance to the Swedish lighting brand Örsjö …
Libreria by Folkform – Örsjö
Libreria, designed by Folkform, has a powdercoated steel construction and the glass globe is made …
Skyline by Folkform – Örsjö
Skyline- an airborne city The lamp reminds of a stylized, airborne city, a modern crystal …
The Scale of Things in Milano
An exhibition of experimental work by Jens Fager, Folkform, Färg & Blanche, Jonas Wagell, Lukas …