Made to matter: highlights from Copenhagen’s 3daysofdesign 2026

At Møntergade 19, Karimoku Case and Dynaudio took a more meditative approach in Dynaudio’s first permanent European flagship, designed by Norm Architects across three levels connected by a smoked oak staircase. At its centre was Opus One, a high-performance sound system distilled into a single sculptural object, its handcrafted wooden elements made in Japan by Karimoku Furniture Inc. New Karimoku Case furniture, designed specifically for the space, was shown here for the first time.

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At Fredericia, the reissue of Nanna Ditzel’s Trisse stools and tables, first designed in 1962 and now returning in FSC-certified solid- oak incarnations, made a strong case for reconsideration. Ditzel remains one of Danish design’s most unsung figures internationally, and the Trisse, with its playful geometry and material honesty, has lost none of its relevance. Also on the Fredericia floor: the Post Lounge Chair by Cecilie Manz and the travelling exhibition A Chronicle of Danish Design, which arrived directly from its debut at Triennale Milano

Louis Poulsen’s tribute to Poul Henningsen at Kuglegården was among the festival’s most considered presentations. The centrepiece was Into the Shades, a large-scale installation by Penny that interpreted the three shades of the System PH through open construction and fabric, inviting visitors inside to experience light and shadow as Henningsen had originally conceived. The festival also marked the completion of the full PH Centenary collection, with the launch of the PH 3/3 pendant and PH 2/2 wall lamp centenary editions in aged brass with amber and opal glass shades.

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Copenhagen-based startup Everyday^ launched Air^ at this year’s festival, a home-heating, cooling and air-purification unit designed to sit in a room as architecture rather than equipment. Founded by former Space10 CEO Kaave Pour and Morten Meisner-Jensen, the company’s premise is straightforward: the systems that run the modern home have been engineered and hidden, but never designed. Air^ uses interchangeable surfaces in textiles and natural stone and runs on EverydayOS, the company’s home intelligence platform. Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) joined the company as both design partner and investor, working with Everyday^ on how the system reads across different home typologies. Water and energy storage are next.

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Muuto’s 20th anniversary presentation was one of the most emotionally engaging of the festival, a reminder that Scandinavian design at its best is not just about form, but also feeling. Across three floors of its Copenhagen headquarters on Østergade, the brand showed previews of coming designs and unveiled two numbered-edition pieces in runs of 150 each.

The Inner View Object by Lise Vester, a mouth-blown Murano glass object that shifts with the light, invited visitors to slow down and look differently. Then there was Close to Heart by Spacon, an extruded aluminium chair in which each structural profile is shaped into a heart. The detail could easily read as a gimmick, but the execution is precise enough to carry it, representing warmth embedded within a rational system.

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If the festival had a single presentation that captured what Make This Moment Matter asked of heritage brands, it may well have been Royal Copenhagen’s relaunch of the Arje Griegst Triton collection, staged at the brand’s city-centre flagship under the curatorial hand of writer and curator Dan Thawley. Griegst, a trained goldsmith who has worked across jewellery, homewares and sculptures, originally designed Triton in the 1970s to confront his fear of the waters surrounding his native Denmark. 

The result was a collection of tureens, bonbonnières, dishes and plates drawn from seashell and wave forms, baroque in its instincts, precise in its execution, and unlike anything else in Royal Copenhagen’s 250-year archive. Now relaunched to mark its 50th anniversary in new colourways Sand, Ocean and celadon, alongside the original pinkish tone, the collection is being produced by seasoned craftspeople using archival drawings and complex multi-component moulds.

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Textiles had a strong showing at this year’s festival, with two presentations treating cloth as a design subject in its own right. Kvadrat’s Three collection, designed by Isa Glink, approached the curtain as an architectural element. Across various designs in natural monomaterials including hemp, wool, organic cotton and linen, the collection explored how fabric shapes space as it moves through it. Magnet, constructed from a geometric warp-knit in 100 per cent recycled polyester, was among the most striking, its open-net structure creating angular, graphic shadows as it draped. 

At Charlottenborg, Tekla staged The Heart of Living, an exhibition exploring the craft and tradition of Swedish patchwork quilts. Set against pine box beds built in Copenhagen, the quilts used the log-cabin pattern in colourways drawn from Tekla’s own archive, each strip arranged around a central square historically understood to represent the heart of the home. The reference point was Old Swedish Quilts by Åsa Wettre, which documents a textile tradition that flourished but was never fully claimed as part of Sweden’s national craft identity.

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One of the quieter but more telling choices at this year’s festival was how many brands opted out of the conventional showroom floor altogether, choosing instead to present their work in lived-in domestic settings across the city, where pieces found a different kind of life than they would behind glass. At Frederiksgade 1, Karakter x Cassina furnished six rooms in a historical city-centre apartment with archival classics and new pieces from the 2026 collection. The domestic setting gave pieces like the Soriana by Afra and Tobia Scarpa and Le Corbusier’s 4 Chaise Longue a context that a showroom rarely can.

Australian brand NAU presented at The Social House on Store Regnegade, where its collection of furniture and lighting, including Adam Goodrum’s sculptural Soft Spot sofa and Tom Fereday’s Nami shelf, sat with unexpected ease in a Scandinavian setting. It turns out that Australian and Scandinavian design have more in common than geography might suggest. 

Swedish design house Dusty Deco took a different approach, transforming a historical 18th-century Copenhagen residence into a fully realised Dusty Deco home. Tiger-inspired patterns, warm yellow textiles, new lighting collaborations and works from V1 Gallery made for an interior that was layered and deliberately rich in character, a counterpoint to the restraint found elsewhere in the festival.

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A centenary is only as interesting as the work it illuminates, and Verner Panton’s held up to scrutiny from every angle at this year’s festival. Vitra took over its Nordhavn showroom with a limited worldwide release of 2,000 Panton Chairs in community-voted colourways Electric Blue, Bold Orange, Bright Turquoise and Flash Red, alongside the Panton Chair Classic Gold, a limited edition developed in alignment with Verner Panton Design AG and distinguished by an elaborate production process with several stages executed by hand. The revival of the modular Panton Cubes system from 1975 completed the picture, while visitors could customise and print their own miniature Panton Chair on site.

Across town, Verpan staged the Living Verner Panton exhibition at Designmuseum Danmark, where the full arc of his practice was on display: the sculptural Welle series, the Fun series lighting, the Spiegel lamp and exclusive previews of the forthcoming New Wave lamp and System 1-2-3 chaise longue. &Tradition’s contribution came through Traces, an exhibition exploring the evolution of Panton’s most iconic designs. The centenary edition of the Flowerpot VP1 in Pewter was among the standouts, alongside the latest additions to the Wire series, a reminder that Panton’s appetite for material experimentation was as much a design philosophy as an aesthetic one.

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