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Swedish Style Takes Off

by John McGee

Most travelers dread spending hours waiting in air terminals. The seats are uncomfortable, the food’s mediocre, the bathroom’s too far away, and there’s nothing worth buying in the duty-free shops. 

But everyone loves the new, temporary departure lounge in Roppongi. It’s a destination in itself. After touching down, visitors have a hard time deciding where among the many inviting places to sit first—on the marshmallow white sofa or in a low-slung yellow chair with sled-like base? Both allow you to recline just enough to gaze at the entrancing square cloud lights puffing overhead. Underfoot, a cordless robot vacuum—a shiny maroon lozenge—scurries around tidying up. 

Okay, there aren’t any regular flights in or out of Roppongi. “A Trip to Sweden” is an air terminal-themed interior design exhibition in the lobby of the Swedish Embassy that serves as cafe, information hub and nerve center for Swedish Style, the third annual expo of Swedish design, fashion, food, music and art. 

According to the Swedish Trade Council, the country’s creative industries account for almost ten percent of its GNP. Through next Tuesday, they show Tokyo why and how. Over 40 creators have come from Sweden bringing their wares and ideas to 35 events at 20 locations. The embassy is taking a slightly less active role this year (Swedish Style initiator Ewa Kumlin and her husband, the outgoing ambassador, are leaving). But it’s still one of the main venues for conferences, parties, and of course, kicking back. 

“A Trip to Sweden” curator-designers Monica Förster and Nina Jobs have created a cool, casual showroom of comfortable contemporary Swedish design. Expanses of light, solid colors dominate—beige wood, white and yellow fabric. With a couple of blue four legged stools, the color scheme approximates the Swedish flag. 

But this is no IKEA. Huge black silhouettes of chairs and sofas rake across the white walls like misplaced shadows. Cloud pocket lamps hanging from the ceiling inflate and deflate, dim and brighten with a turn of the rheostat. Eight factories contributed the sleek, attractive furniture. And many, like the trapezoidal plywood coffee table from Claesson Koivisto Rune, won design awards at the Stockholm Furniture Fair last February. 

Lounge is the recurring theme here and those who like to take their relaxation lying down slip into the inflated “Cloud” meditation room installed on the back porch. Like the cloud lights inside, design collective Snowcrash produced this fluffy cocoon. Layers of silky fabric puffed with air billow softly with the fading summer breeze. At least one emerging visitor described the experience as “therapeutic.” 

Lounge applies to the music too. Different DJs and live acts swing through “A Trip to Sweden” everyday bringing chanteuses, metal and pop. To bring the vibe home, visitors can pick up “Nordic Lounge,” a new CD released in conjunction with Swedish Style. It captures some of the hip young things coming out of the north in what Swedish Style project manager Kenneth Hagås describes as electronic lounge—light and melancholic with roots in Swedish folk music. 

If all the lying around makes you peckish, rolling units stock salty black licorice, raspberry bonbons and other sweetish candies. For something more substantial, the cafe serves specialties like smoked salmon, Swedish hot dogs, potato soup and Absolut vodka throughout the day.

A cart carrying a range of Skruf clear glass bowls and white tea cups bears the sign “Fly Free Design Shop.” That’s to remind you that not only the candies and CDs but everything here—the furniture, lights, glassware—is for sale. 

This commercial side of the exhibition is, thankfully, understated. No logos mar the walls and there’s only essential promotional material. Products, like the furniture or Electrolux Trilobyte robot vacuum, advertise themselves through function. Such an approach assures visitors that, whatever the final destination of their Swedish Style flights of fancy, they will go according to the official motto “fun, informal, friendly.”

The Swedish Style exhibition was held in Oct 2002 at the Swedish Embassy in Roppongi, Tokyo, Japan.

©2007 John McGee

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