The Architect's Chair

Sebastian Alberdi is a Spanish-Argentinian industrial designer. Former co-founder of the international design collective Outofstock (2006-2016), today Sebastian runs his own studio, Sebastian Alberdi, in Barcelona.  Between both practices, he's been creating furniture, objects and conceptual installations in collaboration with international brands and institutions including Ligne Roset, Blå Station, Missana, The Josef & Anni Albers Foundation, Bolia, Ekobo, Warm Nordic or Clear Gallery Tokyo, among others.  His work explores the boundaries between materials, technology and craftsmanship, seeking new functional and visual codes. Since 2007, he has been a professor and advisor at IED Barcelona product design faculty.

Torbjørn Anderssen was born in Elverum in 1976 and grew up in a creative family, the son of a musician and a teacher. He studied at the Bergen Academy of Art and Design and later at the Oslo National Academy of Art, establishing a solid foundation in form, materials, and design culture. In 2000 he co-founded the design collective Norway Says, a group that played a significant role in drawing international attention to the new wave of Norwegian design. Building on this momentum, he co-established the Oslo-based studio Anderssen & Voll in 2009. Anderssen’s work spans furniture, lighting, home accessories, textiles, and interior design, created for leading European brands and for notable spaces including Trattoria Popolare, Nedre Foss gård, and the design bar at the Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair in 2019. His approach is characterized by an openness to process and an interest in emotionally resonant design, allowing each piece to take on its own personality as it develops. Anderssen has also contributed to the creation of Nedre Foss Collections, an in-house brand launched in 2015 dedicated to sustainable homeware rooted in Scandinavian design and the idea of the “century product.” His work has been recognized with numerous international awards across furniture, lighting, and home accessories.

Boris Berlin is a Designer and Partner of Copenhagen-based Boris Berlin Design, as well as KOMPLOT Design & ISKOS-BERLIN Design and a member of the Danish Design Council. He began his career in 1975 as an industrial and graphic designer at VNIITE in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg, Russia). In 1983 he moved to Denmark and founded Boris Berlin Design, in 1987 co-founded Komplot Design, and in 2010 co-founded partnership Iskos-Berlin Design. In his designs he focuses on experimenting with new technologies and materials exploring their possibilities and impact on design of everyday objects. The geography of his clients spreads from Denmark and Sweden to the USA and Japan including such companies as Gubi, Hay, Normann, Muuto, Fritz Hansen, Källemo, Tendo Mokko, Stylex Seating, Jot.Jot, Collect.studio, Icons of Denmark and others. He has received numerous design awards and his works are represented in design museums around the world, among them: Design Museum Denmark, Die Neue Sammlung - The International DesignMuseum Munich, Museum of Modern Art, New York, Vitra Design Museum, V&A Young, London. He was awarded The Thorvald Bindesbøll Medal by the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts for excellence in the fields of applied art and industrial design and received The Lifelong Honorary Grant of the Danish Arts Foundation. He has curated, designed and participated in numerous design exhibitions, led master classes in several design schools and was invited as a key-note speaker at several design conferences and as a juror of several national and international design competitions.

Ashley Hicks was born in 1963 and trained at the Architectural Association in London. He worked briefly for his father, interior designer David Hicks, before starting his own design practice, Ashley Hicks. In 1997 Ashley Hicks designed his first furniture collection, named Jantar Mantar, starting with his interpretation of an ancient Greek Klismos chair. Ashley wrote a personal memoir of his father, David Hicks: Designer, in 2002, with a foreword by Tom Ford. Starting in 2003, he created the David Hicks by Ashley Hicks collections of fabrics, carpet and wallpaper. In 2009 he published David Hicks: A Life of Design, and in 2018 David Hicks Scrapbooks, published by Vendome. In 2023 he published David Hicks in colour with Cabana Magazine. In 2018, Buckingham Palace: the Interiors with photographs and text by Ashley, was published by Rizzoli, as was his review of his own work, Rooms with a History: Interiors and their Inspirations, 2019. He has photographed the historic interiors of Knole and Burghley House for further books from Rizzoli, as well as other places for Cabana Magazine. Ashley has designed architecture and interiors in the UK, Europe and the United States, mixing private residential projects with larger-scale commercial work. He has his own line of fabric, Ashley Hicks Textures. In 2012 Ashley Hicks started to make furniture and decorative objects with his own hands in his Oxfordshire studio, carving and gilding furniture, making mirror frames in painted resin, and creating Totem sculptures in resin, clay and gilt bronze.

Gudmundur Ludvik trained as a carpenter and sculptor in Iceland before studying at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, grounding his work in a hands-on understanding of form, structure, and material precision. In 2012 he co-founded the Copenhagen-based studio Welling / Ludvik, bringing his sculptural sensibility and technical intuition into an industrial design practice defined by restraint and clarity. His background informs a focus on proportion, tactility, and construction, allowing the material and the making to guide each final form. Ludvik’s work reflects a commitment to removing the unnecessary and shaping furniture that is honest, durable, and thoughtfully made.

Thomas Lykke trained as a fashion designer in Copenhagen and San Francisco before turning toward the design industry, where he began his career working as Interiors Editor at Wallpaper Magazine and collaborating with leading international brands. With more than two decades of experience, he has built a strong reputation for his passion, precision, and commitment to creating work with real impact. In 2003 he founded OEO Studio, where he serves as Head of Design and works daily as concept creator, designer, creative director, and leader of the studio’s international team. His practice spans the creation of spatial experiences, interior concepts, and products that are welcoming, sensory, and defined by a refined aesthetic quality. Lykke’s work is informed by a deep engagement with culture and craft-based design traditions, bringing together conceptual clarity and material sensitivity. Through OEO Studio, he continues to develop environments and objects that express a nuanced balance between atmosphere, craftsmanship, and contemporary design thinking.

Lorenz Noelle is a product designer based in Germany. He studied art at high school, where he discovered his passion for design. He graduated with a master's degree in product design from the École cantonale d'art de Lausanne and a bachelor's degree from the University of Applied Sciences in Munich. For a short time he worked for Jehs+Laub in Stuttgart. In 2021 he founded his own studio working in various fields, from industrial design of everyday objects to furniture design and exhibition projects. In projects, Noelle searches for the essence of form through a reduction to the essential. The works embody contemporary values based on a careful research of the context, a respectful use of materials and his practical approach. His creativity leads him to collaborate with a wide range of international clients.

Sofie Østerby is a Copenhagen-based designer working in various creative areas spanning from furniture and interior design to producing unique sculptural works. Her creative process combines both physical and digital aspects and frequently involves collaborating with local workshops and furniture manufacturers. 3D printing, casting, cutting, and milling are recurring techniques using mainly metals, stone, glass and wood as final materials. By merging traditional crafts and materials with modern techniques each product is obtaining a unique corporeality. She describes her design method as “a constant intuitive balancing between material presence and shape”. She finds beauty in the imperfect and as a result the individual irregularities of a given material and traces of production are highly valued in final pieces. 

Espen Voll was born in Trondheim in 1965 to a ceramist mother and an architect father, a background that shaped his early relationship with craft, materiality, and form. He studied at the Bergen Academy of Art and Design and the Oslo National Academy of Art before co-founding the design group Norway Says in 2000. The collective became one of the early ambassadors for a globally oriented Norwegian design culture, helping to establish international recognition for the country’s young designers. In 2009 he co-founded Anderssen & Voll, the Oslo-based studio that continues this trajectory. Voll’s practice encompasses furniture, lighting, home accessories, textile design, and interior projects for prominent European brands and notable venues such as Trattoria Popolare, Nedre Foss gård, and the design bar at the Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair in 2019. His work embraces openness rather than a fixed stylistic doctrine, focusing on emotionally driven objects that balance functionality with character. In 2015 he also helped launch Nedre Foss Collections, a sustainable homeware brand rooted in Scandinavian principles and centered on objects conceived as long-lasting sculptural utilities. His work has received numerous international awards, including recognition from Dezeen, Wallpaper*, Red Dot, and iF, among other accolades.

Hee Welling studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, developing a strong foundation in craftsmanship, industrial design, and functional thinking. After establishing himself within the Danish design tradition—known for clarity, simplicity, and respect for materials—he co-founded the Copenhagen-based studio Welling / Ludvik in 2012. His practice focuses on creating practical, timeless furniture that integrates seamlessly into everyday life, guided by a belief that design should support use through thoughtful proportions and material honesty. Welling’s work consistently explores the relationship between simplicity and function, resulting in pieces that feel both contemporary and enduring.