To get to “the heart of Sweden’s ‘kingdom of furniture,'” travel 450 kilometers south of Stockholm, where you’ll find the headquarters of Lammhults. Their factory, offices, and showroom are all located in the village of Lammhult, where “one hundred or so local craftspeople ply the trade of their birthright.” Lammhults is proud of employing generations of workers; they view furniture making as “an inherited skill in these parts.”

Club Sofa. Designed by Peter Hiort-Lorenzen and Johannes Foersom for Lammhults.

But Lammhults is not completely nationalistic. More and more, their designers hail from different countries. For example, they have employed Danish duo Peter Hiort-Lorenzen and Johannes Foersom since the mid-1980s, which makes them the “elder statesmen of Lammhults design.” After their 2008 Club Armchair proved so popular, Hiort-Lorenzen and Foersom were challenged to produce a sofa version of the chair. For 2010, in time for both Salone Internazionale del Mobile Milan and Stockholm Furniture Fair, the designers showcased Club Sofa. “Designed to be used in environments where people meet to for conversation and work,” Club Sofa retains the comfort of the Club Chair, which originated as an “alternative to stiff, formal meeting chairs.”

Club Sofa is a fully upholstered, steel frame piece with a low back. Seat and back are constructed of molded polyurethane, “using differing densities of foam.” The base comes in powder-coated or chromium-plated steel tubing. Not overly large, Club Sofa is the kind of furniture that generates “spontaneous exchanges of ideas and information.” Like many furniture manufacturers worldwide, Lammhults is responding to the changing nature of work and office environments, where less formal, more relaxed negotiations and meetings are becoming the norm. Creative, flexible pieces such as Club Sofa answer the call for companies who are welcoming varied brainstorming techniques. Like the Sela Lounge Chair by KI, which nearly put me to sleep at NeoCon Chicago 2009 (that’s a compliment to its designers, Patrick Fricke and John Blomstrom, and a testament to its amazing comfort), Club Sofa is available with an optional tablet arm–because we’ve all got to put our laptops (and our lattes) down somewhere.