Editor’s letter FRONT RIGHT Rugs made from waste denim by Flétta Francesca Perry Editor I E T T H O R P E H A R R : I T / P O R T R A I R I G U R ÐA R D ÓT T S AGA S : I M AG E Spring 2022 AND SO WE kick off a new year at ICON, and there’s a lot to look forward to. Firstly, our partner – the team behind Clerkenwell Design Week and Design London – is launching a brand new contemporary design festival in Finland this summer: Design Helsinki. Taking place 24-25 August across the Finnish capital, the inaugural event will bring together the most exciting and creative brands from the country with a range of international talent. It’s a perfect opportunity for us at ICON to look at design and architecture in Finland and the wider region – so welcome, then, to our Nordic issue. In the design world, ‘Nordic’ has become shorthand for a kind of mid-century, minimal aesthetic – but there is so much more to the region’s design story than this. For this issue, Riya Patel delves into the world of a new wave of maximalist designers from the region – creating riotously colourful, joyful objects that buck expectations – and Allyssia Alleyne meets an emerging generation of innovative fashion designers from Helsinki, creating both subversive and sensuous clothes. Tara Okeke, meanwhile, revisits an unexpected Nordic design villain: the plastic shopping bag, which was developed by Swedish engineer Sten Gustaf Thulin. Despite this climate-unfriendly creation, the region now seems to be a leading centre for circular design. Nordic designers and architects are busy pushing the bounds of how we can better embed the circular economy in everyday creativity and our built environment. We meet Icelandic design duo Flétta, which transforms discarded materials into unusual new objects, as well as Norwegian architecture practice Mad Arkitekter, prioritising recycled construction materials. We also find out more about the furniture designers working with food waste, and look back to a surprising Nordic pioneer of upcycling, Jens Risom, who used discarded parachute webbing from wartime supplies to create his iconic Lounge Chair in 1943. A realisation I made while putting together this issue is that the first woman to officially become an architect – Signe Hornborg, in 1890 – was Finnish. It is fitting, then, that our ICON interview this issue focuses on a female architect currently making waves across the Nordic region: Dorte Mandrup. Interviewed by Debika Ray, she discusses how her work – from a visitor’s centre in Greenland to a museum in Berlin – is deeply rooted in social and environmental context. Mandrup’s upcoming project, The Whale, is located on the Norwegian island of Andøya, 300km north of the Arctic Circle. Indeed, the Nordic region is home to some of the most extreme climates, sparsely populated landscapes and hard-toaccess locations; in this issue, Ellinor Thunberg takes us on a journey to some of the most remote architecture in Iceland and Norway, and the stories and architectural feats behind their realisation (would you take a horse three hours each way just to build a house?). There’s so much more in here: JKMM’s Dance House Helsinki, Swedish product designer Simon Skinner, the innovative Danish projects tackling urban flooding, Sámi-Norwegian architect and artist Joar Nango, the transformation of Alvar Aalto’s Toppila Silo, Icelandic swimming pools, Sigurd Lewerentz – and plenty more besides. francesca.perry@icon-magazine.co.uk 15