A neutral, minimalist apartment in Copenhagen curated by Karakter and Ark Journal

I recently went to Copenhagen for 3 Days of Design – Denmark’s annual design festival showcasing the best in Scandinavian design. The event is free and open to everyone – design lovers flock to the capital to get a peek inside showrooms and galleries, and see the latest exhibitions and design talks. It was so nice to finally be able to see design up close and personal, after two years or so mainly stuck at home thanks to the pandemic. There’s nothing like seeing a piece of furniture in person, touching the materials with your own hands and seeing the craftsmanship in detail.

One of my favourite shows of the festival was Co/Work by Danish design brand Karakter and design magazine Ark Journal. Their exhibition, impeccably styled by Pernille Vest and set in a neutral, minimalist apartment in the city centre, focused on the interplay between home and work. Featuring new designs and relaunched classics, it presented a refined, elegant world that blurred the boundaries between formality and comfort.

Karakter’s furniture has a sculptural quality that lends itself to a creative way of living. The space presented could be a sculpture’s atelier, but it could also equally be an artist’s home or a collaborative work studio. It presents the question, are Karakter’s designs a piece of art or a functional piece of furniture? Perhaps they don’t need to be one of the other. But rather this is proof that you can curate your home like your own personal art gallery, and style your office as you would at home.

All images Cate St Hill

I first discovered Karakter during Milan Design Week and later at 3 Days of Design in 2018. Karakter’s ethos pairs the Scandinavian design tradition with an international outlook (they’re part of the same company as Italian brand Cassina).

They work with contemporary designers such as Aldo Bakker and PlueerSmitt, but they also have the rights to a range of design icons by the likes of Bodil Kjær, Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni, Paul McCobb and Joe Colombo. It’s this meeting of old and new that gives the brand a timeless aesthetic that defies time periods or trends.

For 3 Days of Design, in the setting of this minimalist apartment, Karakter showcased the GB Lounge chair by Dutch industrial designer Gijs Bakker. Designed in 1972 and inspired by a competition held by Dunlop, Bakker created a comfy modular chair by bending a piece of foam and securing it with a metal frame. First upholstered in denim, it was originally dubbed ‘the Levi’s Chair’. Just like a pair of well worn jeans, Bakker wanted to create a relaxed, easygoing design that expressed the freedom of the Seventies.

The GB Lounge can be arranged in a variety of ways, using connectors to transform it from a one-seater chair to a generous multiple seating system.

The simple lines and refined forms unite Karakter’s furniture into one family. I love how the black frame of the GB Lounge is mirrored in the black legs of the desks, the floating black shelves and the black task lighting. It helps create a cohesive space that feels calm and controlled.

My favourite Karakter pieces are the TriAngle stool by Aldo Bakker, the Bronco stool by Guillaume Delvigne, and the Libreria Pensile shelves by Achille Castiglioni and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni.

You can find out more about the beautiful furniture and individual pieces in this minimalist apartment at karakter-copenhagen.com.