“Like a cross between a Volvo 745 and a Fiat 500”, designer Matti Klenell describes his latest creation, Origin.

The series includes a sofa, armchair, and ottoman with rounded forms resting on molded wooden legs—at once restrained and lively, Swedish and Italian at the same time.

In a courtyard of a 1920s building on Södermalm in Stockholm lies Matti Klenell’s studio. “Architect’s office,” it says on the glass door leading into the large industrial space. It used to be an old garage, Matti explains.

Large task lights extend on long arms from the walls, spreading light across countless glass artworks. Matti carefully sits down on a chair prototype to talk about his latest creation: Origin.

“This sofa and armchair really capture Swedese, I think. A longing for something bigger, a longing for Italy, while still keeping your feet firmly in the soil of Vaggeryd in Småland. There’s something beautiful about that duality.”

Origin is a furniture series with soft, rounded forms. The sofa may look light and petite, but when you lean back it opens up generously, enveloping the body in comfort.

“Origin is both restrained and lively. It’s many things at once, while also being quite minimal. It’s not very large in scale, but it’s extremely generous when you sit down. Speaking of the duality between being Swedish and Italian, it’s like a mix between a Volvo 745 and a Fiat 500.”

The rounded shapes rest on molded wooden legs that peek out at the bottom and become part of the overall expression, just like the detailed stitching on the armrests.

“We worked a lot on achieving upholstery that created reliefs and sculpted the form. Once we got that right, we wanted to create the same kind of relief in the legs, to establish a sense of cohesion between the base and the seat shell.”

Origin is also an homage to origins themselves: to Swedese, Yngve Ekström, and the factory in Vaggeryd.

“I tried to capture Swedese’s expression: the molded wood, the softly constructive quality found in many of their pieces. But Origin is also about the factory in Vaggeryd, about craftsmen who stay late in the basement building things after hours.”

“The product developer Stefan Toth sits in the office during the day making CAD drawings, but in the evenings he builds fly-fishing nets in the workshop. Origin’s legs have a bit of the same construction as his nets. There’s something very beautiful in that, in what this factory is and what it’s capable of. That’s the origin of the sofa.”

Matti constantly moves between art and the commercial world, between glass shown in galleries and furniture produced in factories.

“For me, it’s important to articulate the context. My starting point has always been about place, space, people, and situation. Context is what links everything I’ve done. If you have that approach, you can really work with anything.”

Images and content courtesy of Swedese.

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