Copenhagen’s 3daysofdesign has been touted as Milan Design Week’s little sister. On the surface, it’s a natural comparison: With hundreds of showrooms and galleries open to the public, an electric energy surges through the city as visitors explore launches from both Scandinavian stalwarts and renowned international brands. Like the city’s late June sun, which almost refuses to set, the crowds spill out onto the street at Palæ Bar, a local watering hole, late into the evening (though beers stand in for Bar Basso’s signature negronis).
But there is something quieter here, more humane than Milan, whose relentless pace often leaves visitors more depleted than when they arrived. Its sheer volume of attractions, which only grows year by year, is impossible for one person alone to take in. 3daysofdesign instead embraces the sweet slowness of Copenhagen’s laidback culture, where bikes rule the streets instead of cars, lunch is a sit-down affair, and design is something to be appreciated as an experience, not reduced to an Instagram post. The result is an event that is as energizing as it is healing. The city itself is a playbook for how to live.
One could be forgiven for coining Copenhagen as Milan 2.0, given the many standout launches from Salone and Euroluce that made a 2025 encore at 3daysofdesign. But brands weren’t resting on their laurels. Instead, they seized the opportunity to showcase their products in new and exciting ways. Italian lighting brand Flos, for instance, set up shop at the Martin Asbaek Gallery in central Copenhagen, where collections from Michael Anastassiades and Konstantin Grcic hung in the windows like the art pieces they are. Fewer crowds meant I could get up close and personal to examine their intricate details (I was particularly taken with the delicate connections between the modules of Anastassiades’ aptly named Linked collection).
Lee Broom, meanwhile, took his Copenhagen debut as an opportunity to reflect on his journey as a designer, highlighting some of his most famous works from the past decade. “We called the exhibition From Here Now because some of these pieces are in new iterations and finishes,” he explains. “It’s kind of like how I would design the pieces if I were to redesign them again now.” Taking over Asia House, which used to serve as a shipping hub between Denmark and Asia, Broom’s poetic installation saw his pieces displayed in shipping crates, nodding to the history of the building. “I wanted to evoke this sense that when you walk into this space, you stumbled across an explorer’s abandoned home and unearthed all these artifacts and sculptures and objects that they’ve collected from the globe,” he continues. The exhibition fosters a sense of discovery, encouraging visitors to see familiar products in a new light. Of course, it wouldn’t be a design week showing without a product launch, and Broom delivered with the latest evolution of his Chant series: a stunningly simple, portable table lamp that draws inspiration from the architectural glass blocks of the 70s.
With a design heritage as strong as Copenhagen’s, it’s no wonder that many brands went back to the archives in planning their 2025 launches. At the top of the list was Fredericia’s reissue of the Bench for Two, originally designed by Nanna Ditzel. Sculptural and graphic, the design stood out amongst a sea of neutral wood tones and clean lines. Originally debuted in black in 1989, the relaunch is made fresh and modern with three vivid colourways: red, yellow and pink.
The Paradigm sofa, relaunched by Montana Furniture, was another clear standout, marking the brand’s first foray into soft seating. Originally designed in 1969 by Danish designer Erik Rasmussen for Paustian, the versatile modular system is both practical and playful, with its cartoon-like curves and colourful upholstery. “This modularity is part of our DNA,” says Montana’s managing director Joakim Lassen, “It’s this flexibility that allows you to use things for a lifetime.” Despite being over a half-century old, the timeless design feels right at home in contemporary interiors.
In a design culture that overwhelmingly celebrates and rewards novelty, 3daysofdesign’s reluctance to contribute to an endless churn of new products, and the short-lived trends they inspire, was refreshing (not to mention, a far more sustainable approach to design fairs). And yet, there was still plenty of fresh inspiration to be had. Showing for the first time in Copenhagen (though founded in 2019), Venice-based lighting brand Fucina Frammenti presented their circular lighting collections which repurpose what they call “noble waste,” semi-finished results from the production cycles of other companies. Using the galotta, the rounded piece cut away when creating traditional Murano blown glass, the company has designed captivating chandeliers like Gemma (shown) while helping find a home for the 1000 tons of glass waste produced annually in Murano. “We’re not trying to change the world,” explains co-founder Clara Accebbi, “We’re just trying to do our thing in a more responsible way.” Because waste serves as the starting point, each collection is a limited run — and when a new galotta is found, the existing base pieces can be adapted to create nearly endless iterations.
Local design house Formarkivet was (literally) the new kid on the block, inaugurating its Nordhavn showroom during 3daysofdesign 2025. Based on the public reception, it’s clear the brand made a strong first impression. From the warped Aglow table lamps to the chunky Cubio tables, the collection begged for tactile engagement. Despite being a young player in a sea of established brands, Formarkivet expressed a clear and distinct point of view that set it apart from the traditional language of other Scandinavian furniture producers.
The formal and material exploration continued at group shows across the city, featuring both emerging and established talent. Take Optical Flow, for instance, an exhibition staged by Taiwanese gallery Fanzi. Here, five young designers were challenged to turn everyday objects into works of art, from yoga mat storage devices to shelving systems. The highlight: a series of pendant lights by Chialing Chang, which utilize conductive stainless-steel wires both as structural elements and as the power source for LED tubes that appear to float in mid-air. Lighting was also the star at Material Matters, an exhibition first launched in London, where local studio 91-92 designed a series of 3D printed lamp shades whose visual lightness belied their material composition.
A quintessentially Scandinavian focus on craftsmanship was the throughline at Design/Dialogue, a group show curated by Ark Journal, now in its second year. Japanese brand Time & Style presented a plethora of hand-crafted wood furnishings in glass cases, choreographing an almost museum-like ambience. Elsewhere, an imaginative series of rugs by cc-tapis, dubbed Monograph and designed by destroyers/builders, evokes strips of paper haphazardly held together by adhesive tape. The rugs’ unique forms are created using their own version of collage, folding and stitching together raw pieces of jute and wool to shape a pleasingly tactile composition.
And then there was Other Circle. Conceived as Copenhagen’s answer to shows like Alcova and Capsule Plaza, and operated independently from 3daysofdesign, the newly launched exhibition felt like a revelation. Hosted at The Lab, a photography studio just outside the city centre, the multidisciplinary show gathered participants from design, art, music, fashion and food to create a platform for exchange and dialogue. Established players like BD Barcelona (who unveiled a collection with Muller Van Severen), showed alongside more experimental brands like NM3; even Noma Projects made an appearance with a fermentation-based installation that filled the space with an umami aroma. Outside in the courtyard — a convivial social setting anchored by Pompette’s pop-up wine bar — Muuto’s sculptural new Dream View benches encouraged visitors to lay back, look up and take pause. There was a certain kind of magic here, one of genuine presence. Instead of being glued to their phones, people engaged with each other.
There is temptation, as in Milan, to lean into theatricality. But in Copenhagen, experientiality takes a more subdued form. In lieu of elaborate spectacles that chase social media virality, exhibitors instead seek to craft intimate and authentic experiences. Nowhere was this more apparent than at Home From Home, an installation curated by Charlotte Taylor and Maeva Massoutier at Noura Residency. Staged as a lived-in apartment, mess and all, this exploration of domestic space engaged all of the senses — from moody music by Yu Su and Chantal Michelle, to signature scents, both from Aesop and local olfactory artist Lena Norling.
Brands also sought to capture this same experiential quality. &Tradition, for instance, created a 70s-inspired listening lounge inside its century-old townhouse turned showroom to host its new HiLo sofa by Oslo’s Anderssen & Voll. And in a library walled with its recently launched Rombe shelving by Industrial Facility, visitors could browse the shelves to get book recommendations from &Tradition’s many collaborators. Downstairs, guests could experience products in action at the Lille Petra café, one of the brand’s hospitality ventures (its new Petra Hotel is set to open its doors shortly). Speaking of coffee, Swedish rug brand LAYERED popped up at Kismet Café, serving coffee and sweets while showcasing its latest collaboration with American artist Heather Chontos in a studio-inspired setting filled with canvases and process sketches.
Meanwhile, at Vipp, Studio KO has imagined an experience all its own. Inside a restored garage in the courtyard of Vipp’s HQ, the architecture practice has crafted a moody, monolithic space that harnesses the design language of its native Morrocco, from the textiles that clad the furnishings to the Vipp V1 Kitchen, rendered in copper and shrouded by a circular shou-sugi-ban partition. I visited the guesthouse as part of a walking tour of the Vipp grounds with third-generation owner Sofie Christensen Egelund, who shared heartwarming stories of her grandmother in the company’s early days. There was something deeply personal about the whole encounter, a peek behind the curtain. This idea of hospitality comes naturally to Vipp, whose headquarters is somewhat of a cultural destination: it hosts supper clubs out of a former 100-year-old pencil factory just around the corner and even has an on-site concert hall that can hold up to 300 people. They don’t wait for 3daysofdesign to roll around to engage the public, it’s a vital part of the brand’s ethos all year round.
The sense of community in Copenhagen appeals to designers and visitors alike. “I was really enamoured by the way that work is presented here,” shared Lee Broom at his exhibition. “It was really about design and meeting the designers. Everything was accessible.” This point was driven home for me at Vipp. On my tour, I got to chatting with the woman next to me. I had assumed she was in the industry, but it turns out, she had no connection to design other than personal interest (she worked for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs). “It’s always been my dream to visit Vipp,” she told me.
There is a deep-rooted appreciation for design that runs through all walks of life in this city, and the industry responds accordingly. In Copenhagen, good design isn’t a rarified luxury that few can afford or access, it is the norm. Copenhagen is not Milan, nor should it aspire to be. Both 3daysofdesign and Milan Design Week serve a clear and unique purpose within the design ecosystem. The industry requires a commercial engine like Milan to keep it running, a place for business and fanfare and spectacle. Quieter and more intimate, but no less vital, 3daysofdesign 2025 is a celebration of design for celebration’s sake — and there ought to be space for that, too.
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