A bridge between Swedish design heritage and the future

As Museum of Furniture Studies prepares to open in Älmhult in February 2027, its collection continues to grow. For Jonatan Jahn, Head of Collections, that also means looking beyond the familiar names of Swedish furniture design.

“There are so many designers who worked outside the mainstream and are more or less forgotten today. We want to tell some of those stories. By bringing their work into the museum, we can offer new perspectives on Swedish design and give young designers more of its history to draw from.”

One designer Jonatan is particularly fond of is Margareta Köhler, who ran the design studio Futurum in Stockholm with Marie-Louise Idestam-Blomberg in the early 1930s. Together, they created furniture in what became known as the Swedish modernist style.

Another example is Axel Einar Hjorth. His pine furniture has attracted considerable international attention in recent years, yet his work has had a relatively small place in accounts of Swedish design history.

The museum will continue to collect Swedish furniture design, including work by designers whose stories are less well known. At the same time, the collection already has a strong international profile, which will continue to develop.

For Jonatan, understanding furniture history also means being able to get close to the furniture itself. The open collection will give design students the opportunity to study objects first-hand and look closely at materials, construction and how furniture has been made and used.

Learning from what has already been made can also open up new ways of thinking about what comes next.

“I believe that by connecting our history with future ideas and today’s design scene, we can build something unique and valuable for the design industry. That’s why we want to bring all parts together under the same roof here in Älmhult,” says Jonatan.

Museum of Furniture Studies will bring together design history, the contemporary design scene and future designers and their ideas. It will be a place for designers, students, and producers to meet, while opening the collection and its stories to anyone curious about furniture and design.

Museum of Furniture Studies opens in Älmhult in February 2027.

At Museum of Furniture Studies, design students will be able to study furniture from the collection up close, with access to details, materials and construction that can be difficult to understand from images alone. The open collection will also be part of the museum experience for anyone curious about furniture and design.