On June 13 The Nordic House will host a seminar on current trends and concepts in interior design, seen from both the perspective of practising designers and design education. The focus will be on sustainable solutions and design for alternative future lifestyles that we might be facing sooner than we expect.

Keynote speaker is the Finnish industrial designer Ville Kokkonen (1975), who already has had a long and distinguished career working with leading Nordic and international brands, such as Artek, Nokia, Iittala and UPS. Ville also holds the position of Professor of Practice at Aalto University, School of Arts Design and Architecture in Helsinki.

The seminar is organized by The Nordic House in collaboration with the Iceland Academy of the Arts and Iceland Design Centre. The participation of the Art Academy is coordinated by Garðar Eyjólfsson and Thomas Pausz, who like Ville are both practicing designers and forward-looking strategists within the field of design education. Garðar and Thomas hold the positions of Programme Directors for MA Design, Department of Design and Architecture.

The seminar will be conducted in English.

Entrance is free of charge and no registration is needed.

17:00-17:05, Welcome by Kristín Ingvarsdóttir

17:05-17:45, Ville Kokkonen, keynote: Designing for the future

17:45:17:50, Garðar Eyjólfsson Associate Professor at Iceland University of the Arts: Brief introduction on Sustainability, Design Studies in the Icelandic context.

17:50-18:00, Auður Innez Sellgren, Product Designer: “The Icelandic Apple”

18:00-18:10, Sigrún Thorlacius: Product Designer: “Healing Earth”.

18:10-18:20, Inga Kristín Guðlaugsdóttir: Product Design Student at IUA “Lupine Project”.

18:20-18:35, Thomas Pausz, Assistant Professor at the Iceland University of the Arts: “Korpa Project”. A a cluster in the outskirts of Reykjavík dealing with smart farming, bio material and circular economies.

18:35-19:00, Panel discussions led by Halla Helgadóttir

19:o0-19:30, Mingling