At the time, design group Front was comprised of four women who had known each other since their days at the University College of Arts, Crafts and Design in Stockholm: Anna Lindgren, Katja Pettersson, Sofia Lagerkvist and Charlotte van der Lancken. They quickly made a mark with their bold, imaginative design, always in combination with respect for old techniques. IKEA PS SVARVA was developed using wood turning, one of the oldest decorative techniques there is.
The idea was to make a “lamp with a strong personality”. The design group explained on the product’s launch: “We realised that if we split a turned wooden pole into several pieces, we could create bends that were otherwise impossible with wood. In that way we could produce a whole new impression: a bendable, turned wooden pole!” The designers wanted the lamp to feel like a “good friend reading over your shoulder”.
IKEA PS SVARVA has read over many a shoulder since its launch. The floor lamp was sold at IKEA for a full seven years. It is now on display at Nordiska Museet – Sweden’s largest museum of Nordic cultural history – and is very popular on the second-hand market. SVARVA was also made in a smaller, desk-lamp version.
