Form Us With Love Rethinks Showroom Experience with 'Testing Grounds' Exhibition

Stockholm-based design studio Form Us With Love (FUWL) is challenging traditional design fairs with its ongoing 'Testing Grounds' exhibition, now in its third year. The 2025 edition, themed 'Showroom?', explores how design can be experienced now and in the future, coinciding with the cancellation of the annual Stockholm Furniture Fair, which will return as a biennial in 2027. The exhibition features a live poll where visitors rate what a showroom should represent, with 'Connect' and 'Network' leading. FUWL's 200-square-metre showroom, leased during the pandemic, is activated for four months with events and workshops. The studio, founded in 2005 by Jonas Pettersson, John Löfgren, and Petrus Palmér (who later left to start Hem), while at Linnaeus University in Kalmar, has created a range of products for clients including String Furniture, BAUX, Byborre, Tarkett, IKEA, Muuto, ateljé Lyktan, Cappellini, +Halle, Samsung, and De Padova. Notable recent projects include the Center Center storage system for String Furniture, a series of three public drinking fountains at Stockholm's Slussen designed as huge taps to discourage bottled water, and the Odger chair for IKEA made from recycled materials. The studio emphasizes human-centric design, experimentation, and sustainability, often working with local craftsmen in Småland. Co-founder Löfgren hopes for a return to pre-pandemic optimism in the industry, criticizing the current slow economy that favors cheap, fossil-based materials.