three nordic studios collaborate to create unpredictable candle holders

dubai design week 2016: 1+1+1 brings together an experimental collaboration from three studios from the nordic countries of iceland, sweden and finland. despite their similarity of being based in the northern hemisphere of the world, the three countries collectively embody a different approach and philosophy to design, which is inherently captured in the collection of candle holders presented at downtown design dubai.

the rare collaboration with no compromises allow each studio to design their objects according to their own
approach
all images © 1+1+1

the idea for 1+1+1 emerged from the three studios –hugdetta from iceland, petra lilja from sweden and alto+alto from finland– deciding to collaborate after finding themselves exhibiting at the same shows around scandinavia. the project examines and re-imagines objects to result in a piece consisting of three distinct parts and combining them to form unpredictable combinations. in the end, the candle holders showcase unusual material amalgamations including: aluminum, wood, wood painted to resemble marble, iron, walnut and wicker.

the designers meet a few days before to discover what each country has achieved

following a simple set of guidelines such as to the exact position of where each section must join together, no other information is shared during the design process until one-to-two days prior to the exhibition.

‘we discussed how can we work together? so we agreed on the simple set of rules and the end product saw the object coming in different sizes, it looked funny! we saw straight away that it would work but we would just have to refine the rules.’ – hugnetta, iceland

wood painted like marble forms petra lilja’s original candle holder design

a set of rules are agreed upon but no information is shared during the process

the original designs (from left); sweden, iceland and finland

a total of 27 candle holder combinations can be made from mixing the three parts

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