MÃ¥rten Claesson, Eero Koivisto, and Ola Rune are the trio known as Claesson, Koivisto, Rune. Founded in 1995 as an architectural firm, CKR is a multi-faceted design atelier and visionary creator of all manner of edifi; the company's CV features everything from office buildings to glassware; homes to hotels; lighting and electronics to tables, chairs, and textiles.

Galleri Örsta

There is something exceptionally elemental about their furniture design that could perhaps be mistaken for German precision.

Droplets Seating Islands for Capdell

However, their work has a simultaneously ethereal and effervescent quality. The Rondell Table, for instance, is smooth and streamlined yet somehow playful too. Perhaps it's the celebratory color and the intimation of a jaunty flying saucer.

Roundel Table for Baleri Italia

The Kelly V Stacking Chair is equally light on its feet. Featuring a moulded plywood seat and back reminiscent of classic modern design, Kelly V is long on negative space and high on personality. The distinctive two-toned color scheme distinguishes it from the familiar roster of similar chairs.

Kelly V Stacking Chair for Tacchini

CKR can also go heavy if needed. Not that the Tokio Sofa System is figuratively (or actually) a weighty piece, just that it features commodious proportions and comforting surrounds. The hidden frame and legs belie the large cushions while continuing the theme of effervescence, for Tokio appears to be floating on air, augmenting, accordingly, its intimations of accommodation.

Tokio Sofa System for Arflex

CKR excels at lighting too. Here's the exceptional Optunia. Futuristic yet eminently familiar, Optunia is highly functional and user friendly. One of the companion discs rotates around the other, providing a myriad of opportunities for directing light. The overall aesthetic is streamlined and no-nonsense with just a hint of elegance.

Optunia Lighting Series for Fontana Arte

No stranger to surfaces either, the company conceives of and creates a variety of fabrics, rugs, and tiles, like the clever Stitch. Inspired by sewing and embroidery, Stitch offers options for creative types. As CKR explains, "The apparent pattern is the one you can see at one single tile. The meta-pattern constitutes an additional layer of patterns by using several tiles side by side." Stitch is meta in another way as well-the replication of the sewing stitch achieves the trick of making the tile appear soft underfoot, an agreeable disconnect that provokes an unusual and intriguing textural engagement.

Stitch Tile for Marrakech

No mention of Claesson Koivisto Rune would be complete without referencing their architectural work. The firm has completed multiple projects worldwide, of both large- and small-scales. Fagerström House is a great example of the latter. A quiet modernist masterpiece set unassumingly in leafy Sollentuna, Sweden, Fagerström features a seamless and subtly curvaceous L-shape that establishes an unimpeded interior flow. Vertical siding painted in alternating shades of ochre lends the exterior a distinctive appearance.


Fagerström House

Claesson Koivisto Rune has designed products for more than 80 international manufacturing companies. They have received more than 60 awards for product design and architecture, including Designer of the Year and Best Seating 2014 by Elle D©cor Italia, Chicago Athenaeum International Architecture Award, German Design Award (Gold and Silver) 2011 by the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Red Dot Design Award Best of the Best 2014. Read more at Claesson Koivisto Rune.