Back to the Roots – Experimental Furniture
On view from June 4 to September at the IKEA Museum, in collaboration with Möbeldesignmuseum.
This exhibition presents a stool, chair, and table made from bark, sawdust, and mycelium—materials typically discarded by the wood industry. Developed as part of the master’s thesis Back to the Roots, the furniture explores new bio-based design methods inspired by forest ecosystems, traditional carpentry, and posthumanist thinking. Each piece embodies a low-tech, circular approach to architecture and interior design—rethinking waste as a resource for future making.
On view from June 4 to September at the IKEA Museum, in collaboration with Möbeldesignmuseum.
This exhibition presents a stool, chair, and table made from bark, sawdust, and mycelium—materials typically discarded by the wood industry. Developed as part of the master’s thesis Back to the Roots, the furniture explores new bio-based design methods inspired by forest ecosystems, traditional carpentry, and posthumanist thinking. Each piece embodies a low-tech, circular approach to architecture and interior design—rethinking waste as a resource for future making.
JUBELFONDEN stipendium
Olle Sahlqvist reinvents the chemistry of wood using traditional methods while experimenting with the tree’s leftover raw materials as a resource.
The tree has been studied from many perspectives – historical, environmental, biological, and industrial – with an ambition to harness forest materials in various processes.
Olle has built a personal library of materials that he can draw upon in his future design work, offering exciting possibilities for innovative and forward-thinking design.
PLAZA INTERIOR
Winning the 2024 Honorary Award in Sustainability
Olle Sahlqvist takes mushrooms as a furniture material to new levels – and even dares to take a bite.
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SUPERORGANISME
Invited to Munkeruphus museum exhibition, Denmark, 2024.
API CHAMBER - Group Work Project leader: Anna Maria Orrù. Architects: Jenna Gillinger and Olle Sahlqvist with help from Industrial design M1, Konstfack.
The exhibition SUPERORGANISM is the result of a long collaboration between poet and visual artist Morten Søndergaard (DK), architect and curator Anna Maria Orrù (IT), anthropologist and curator Annesofie Becker (DK). The trio has invited contemporary artists and a wide range of other contributors to create an installation about bees that cross-pollinates art, literature, film, sound with cultural-historical stories and materials from the world of bees.
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The Beekeeper’s
Room
As part of the SuperOrganism exhibition, Olle Sahlqvist designed a Kenyan beehive for wild bees, showcased alongside artists from around the world. The hive follows traditional Kenyan beehive measurements, featuring wooden slabs between its wax walls.
Inspired by the Api chamber, the hive mirrors the aesthetic of a bee cell, with a front-facing window that can be opened. Its design starts small at the back and gradually expands toward the front, reflecting the natural behavior of wild bees, which prefer confined spaces and gradually enlarge their habitat as they build.