Eldvarm and Daniel Rybakken Introduce Niche

An architectural niche that makes space for the objects that matter

Eldvarm Niche

Eldvarm and designer Daniel Rybakken introduce Niche, a powder-coated steel structure that creates a place at home for objects worth keeping close. It can hold a candle, flowers or a treasured memento, or provide a practical spot for keys and other everyday essentials.

Referencing the architectural niches found in buildings across the world, its faceted sides and roof frame whatever is placed inside. “Items placed inside become elevated and highlighted, as if on a pedestal,” says Rybakken. “When used with a candle, the walls scatter but also confine the light, illuminating the inner space of the niche rather than the wall on which it hangs.”

Niche is made from folded and welded sheets of steel, with gently curved edges that lend a paper-like delicacy to its familiar alcove shape. Despite its simple appearance, aligning and welding its individual sections requires a high level of precision, a testament to Eldvarm’s expertise when it comes to sculpting steel.

The concept emerged during a visit to Rybakken’s Gothenburg studio, where a conversation with Eldvarm founder Louise Varre led to a sketch remarkably close to the finished design. Its pared-back form leaves room for different interpretations: it can stand empty as an object in its own right, hold a single meaningful possession, or become a changing arrangement of postcards, photographs and keepsakes held in place with magnets.

Akin to a home altar, Varre believes Niche can give cherished photographs and objects of personal or spiritual significance a place of their own. It speaks to a renewed interest in making room for reflection and memory at home: a small, intimate corner where the things we keep close can be seen and lived with intentionally, rather than tucked away.

“Many older houses have architectural niches built into their walls,” says Varre. “Niche isn’t quite a shelf or a candleholder. It feels like part of the wall, a way of changing the architecture of your home without changing the building itself. There’s an intention behind what you place inside it, and something anchoring about having a space for the things that mean something to you.”

Available in two sizes and two colours – a warm grey and an off-white – Niche can be mounted on a wall or stood on a surface. The smaller version can also rest inside the larger one to create a layered composition.

Niche follows last year’s Reflet candleholders as the second design in Rybakken’s ongoing collaboration with Eldvarm.

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