What the fuck matters
… is a fusion of Make This Moment Matter, the official title of the 3daysofdesign festival that was held in Copenhagen last week, and the heading – Design, What the Fuck – of a well-attended talk between the architect Jan Gehl and the designer Pil Bredahl in the garden at Designmuseum Danmark on the first day of the festival, combined with my equal enjoyment of and concern over how we talked, snacked, drank and partied our way from street to street, showroom to showroom with the 2008 hit Dance Like There’s No Tomorrow looping in my mind.
June 2026
Copenhagen has so much to offer, even if it is getting a bit crowded and, for some, a little too polished, and I can understand why visiting design aficionados from all over the world enjoy our seemingly relaxed attitude and morning-after visits to one of the many cafés with sourdough rolls and good coffee. Not to mention the focus of the festival: anything from exclusive artistic collector’s items to well-made furniture and lamps that could easily become future heirlooms, to furniture and objects that have no value apart from briefly satisfying our greed and fleeting desires.
And then there are all the material experiments. They both numerous and necessary. We can no longer uncritically use virgin materials as if they were in infinite supply.
You can look forward to a closer look at this theme in the HÅNDVÆRK bookazine no. 15, which comes out in September. In that issue you can also meet Pil Bredahl, whose talk with Jan Gehl was one of the highlights of the event. They talked about what design really is and what it can do, and let me reveal here that they were not talking about the colour of sofa upholstery but about how design and architecture can help drive change and improvement. Jan Gehl, who has designed urban spaces all over the world, highlighted the creation of conditions for community as one of his highest ambitions.
When I try to understand what it was that we were all chasing during the three-day event – what it was that made these moments matter – well, it was community. All the hugs I received, all the conversations I had, that’s what lingers in my memory. And when we met in streets and lanes and in front of jam-packed showrooms, where no one could see anything because of the crowds, we all asked each other, ‘Have you seen anything interesting?’ – and nine times out ten, the answer was, ‘I’m mostly here to meet people.’
And meet we did. Danes, Swedes, Japanese, Australians, Germans, Italians, the list goes on, and many of the furniture pieces and design objects had arrived in advance, one lorry load after the other. So this is where I wonder, could we maybe find a smarter way to meet, so that we didn’t have to haul so much furniture around to create the settings for these encounters?
On the other hand, here are some of the things I’m glad I didn’t miss!
Overskriften What the fuck matters – er en fusion af Make This Moment Matter, som er den officielle overskrift på 3daysofdesign, en festival, som løb af stablen i København i forgangne uge, og overskriften Design, What the Fuck, som på festivalens første dag indrammede en velbesøgt talk i Designmuseum Danmarks have mellem arkitekt Jan Gehl og designer Pil Bredahl – tilsat min ligelige nydelse ved og bekymring over, hvordan vi har snakket, spist, drukket og festet os fra gade til gade, showroom til showroom, mens jeg for mit indre øre har hørt hittet Dance Like There’s No Tomorrow fra 2008.
København har så meget at byde på – omend her er ved at være lidt trangt og, for nogens smag, også lidt for poleret –jeg forstår godt, hvorfor tilrejsende designinteresserede fra hele verden nyder vores tilsyneladende afslappede attitude og morgenen derpå på en af de mange caféer med surdejsboller og god kaffe. For ikke at tale om festivalens omdrejningspunkt: alt fra eksklusive kunstneriske samlerobjekter over møbler og lamper så solide og gedigne, at de kan købes nu og med stor sandsynlighed blive til morgendagens arvegods – til møbler og ting, som ikke ejer nogen værdi ud over at de ganske kortvarigt tilfredsstiller vores begær.
Og så er der alle materialeeksperimenterne – og dem er der mange af, og dem behøver vi. Vi kan ikke længere ukritisk bruge jomfruelige materialer, som om de fandtes i uendelige mængder.
Dette tema kan du glæde dig til at dykke længere ned i i HÅNDVÆRK bookazine no. 15, som udkommer i september. I dette nummer kan du også møde Pil Bredahl – hun og Jan Gehl var et af ugens højdepunkter. De talte om, hvad design egentlig er og kan, og jeg kan her afsløre, at de ikke talte om farven på den nye sofa, men om, hvordan design og arkitektur kan være med til at skabe forandring og forbedring. Jan Gehl, som har formet byrum overalt i verden, fremhævede det at skabe forudsætningerne for fællesskaber som et af sine fremmeste formål.
Hvis jeg skal forstå, hvad det var, vi alle løb rundt efter i de her dage – hvad det var, der made these moments matter – så var det netop fællesskaberne. Det er alle de knus, jeg fik, og alle de samtaler, jeg havde, som står tilbage i erindringen. Og når vi mødtes på gader og stræder og foran stopfyldte showrooms, hvor ingen kunne se noget som helst på grund af det overvældende fremmøde, så var det, vi sagde til hinanden: “Har du set noget interessant?” – og svaret var i ni ud af ti tilfælde: “Jeg er her jo mest for at møde folk.”
Og vi mødtes – danskere, svenskere, japanere, australiere, tyskere, italienere, fortsæt selv rækken – og mange af de udstillede møbler og designobjekter var kommet i forvejen, lastbil efter lastbil. Og nu er det, at jeg spørger mig selv: Kan vi finde en smartere måde at mødes på, så vi ikke behøver at køre så mange møbler rundt for at skabe en kulisse?
På den anden side, her ser du noget af det jeg nødigt ville være gået glip af!
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