inga sempé: stockholm furniture fair lounge 2012

designer nga sempé portrait © designboom

for the ninth year in a row, the stockholm furniture and light fair presents an international guest of honor with the challenge of creating a welcoming lounge within the event’s west entrance hall. this year french designer inga sempé was selected to complete the task.

having visited the fair for the last eight years, sempé is delighted to have had the opportunity to tackle the entrance to the venue. ‘in my opinion, this has often been a far too barren and open space, so I have now taken the opportunity to create a cozy, comfortable and sheltered environment where you can really take a break and collect your thoughts for a while,‘ she says. ‘as this is an egocentric exhibition, I have of course furnished it with my own classics – lights, sofas, chairs and maybe a few beds,‘ the designer said of her lounge concept. ‘the aim is for people to feel they are entering another world, a quiet, relaxed oasis where you can recover for a while before heading back into the throng again with renewed energy.’

lounge at the west entry hall of the stockholm furniture fair image © designboom

the installation from the outside appears as if a room has been placed in the middle of the entrance hall. the walls, made of light textiles, offer a translucent appearance which gives visitors a little glimpse into the space before entering. within the airy structure, sempé has created the feeling of a large, open space apartment, furnished with small and large chair, and sofa arrangements. placed on various platforms, offering a heightened sense of space, these ‘room scenarios’ offer visitors a nice place to sit and relax amidst the hustle and bustle of the busy fair.

view from the outside – light textile walls give visitors shelter from the happenings of the fair image © designboom

‘österlen’ chair and table for gärsnäs image © designboom

inga sempé’s iconic designs are arranged in groupings, forming ‘room-like’ settings image © designboom

‘österlen’ chair and table for gärsnäs image © designboom

‘ruché’ sofa for ligne roset and lampe vapeur for moustache image © designboom

‘ruché’ bed for ligne roset image © designboom

‘w103s’ LED pendant lamp by inga sempé for wästberg, arranged on a rail above a long table image © designboom

‘w103s’ lamp (close-up) image © designboom

‘w103s” pendant lamp image © designboom

general installation view image © designboom

on display within the lounge that is furnished with her most iconic designs, is sempé’s most recent lighting product ‘w103s’ developed in collaboration with swedish company wästberg. making its debut at the fair, the suspension lamp can be hung as a single shade or in a combination. they can be attached on a long rail for linear combinations, or on smaller rails where they can be joined together like meccano to create polygons. the framework structure is thin enough to avoid the feeling of a heavy, hanging object, the lines softened by the round shapes of the shades. these are available in seven different tones – bright, soft, clear, dark – and can be arranged in any color combination.

two elements of the ‘w103’ range sempé previously designed for the company, are here used in suspended lamps. the shades are identical, and the hook of the clamp is moved to the top of the shade. this then becomes the assembly piece of all of the various shade combinations.

see designboom’s article on inga sempé’s ‘w103’ table lamp for wästberg.

‘w103s’ lamp for wästberg – the individual shades can be attached to rails of differing lengths

individual lamp shades which are available in seven different colors

the ‘w103s’ rails can be joined together like meccano to create polygons

top view of a polygonal arrangement

inga sempé (born 1968) works in paris. she graduated in 1993 from the les ateliers-ENSCI design school in paris. she started her own studio in 2000 and, among other things, has created furniture, lighting and textiles for companies such as ligne roset, moustache, domestic, luceplan, hjelle, cappellini, edra, david design, almedahls, wästberg, gärsnäs and svenskt tenn.