Six exhibitions that defined 3daysofdesign 2026

3daysofdesign is a relatively young design festival compared to its more established equivalents, such as Salone in Milan. The festival, although much smaller in scale, has gained a group of loyal visitors and grows its audience each year. The festival’s size is its great asset — it’s big enough to provide unbounded inspiration, but still local and intimate enough to allow visitors to create meaningful connections and slow down. The unhurried approach to design and domestic life was a running theme across different exhibitions this year. I have chosen six highlights that explored themes of heritage, personal rituals, and everyday objects in a meaningful way.

The Heart of Living, TEKLA

TEKLA was founded in 2017 and quickly established a strong position in the home goods market with its uncompromising approach to bedding, towels, and nightwear. For this year's 3daysofdesign, TEKLA presented The Heart of Living, an exhibition hosted in the historic Charlottenborg Kunsthal. The exhibition explored the often-overlooked art of Swedish quilts, drawing on the TEKLA owner's heritage. The quilts, developed in the colorways found in the brand’s archive, were presented on pine box beds, a type of enclosed bed typical of 19th-century rural and working-class Scandinavian homes. The smell of pine wood was one of the first impressions upon entering the exhibition hall, creating the feeling of stepping into another time. The quilts themselves, meticulously created in accordance with historic accounts, were a beautiful reminder of how design can redefine heritage and bring it to contemporary audiences.

The Practice of Bathing, Shop Baina 

I love exploring ways to make everyday rituals even more extraordinary. Shop Baina is a small, online-only Australian brand of bathroom essentials exploring ways to enrich the experience of bathing. Their exhibition, The Practice of Bathing, was a further dive into the topic. Created with a selected pool of artisans from around the world, it was a serene sensory meditation on the ritual of taking a bath, a fundamental routine in everyday life. Guests were invited to touch, smell, and feel the objects exhibited in the space. One of the artists invited to this project was Agnieszka Owsiany, who made a stainless steel bath salt dish holding the scents of vetiver root and Australian sandalwood.

The Mechanics of Scent, Frama 

Frama is a multidisciplinary brand encompassing furniture, lifestyle objects, self-care products, and fragrances, encouraging mindful living. In its exhibition prepared for 3daysofdesign, the Copenhagen-based brand explored how scent can be experienced in a space. Through a series of kinetic sculptures using various Frama products, scents were distributed across the different corners of the old 17th-century pharmacy. Frama’s claim was that scents are part of architecture, whether they can be seen or not, and that they are an inseparable part of the domestic space. The result was a sensory arrangement that invited guests to experience the products beyond their visual aesthetic and to actually feel (or smell) them.

Fat, Powder, Fruit, Sugar at Noura Residency 

Founded in 2024 by photographer Michael Falgren, Noura Residency is a gallery, accommodation, and - as its name suggests - an artist residency located near Ørstedsparken. For the second consecutive year, Noura invited selected brands and artists to create something special in its robust, honest interior. This year, the artist-in-residence was London-based food stylist and creative director Imogen Kwok. In collaboration with Spanish tableware brand Marlot Baus, Kwok created a living, edible exhibition. The dining table became inseparable from its function: not to be presented as an object to admire, but as a real-life experience. Craftsmanship, design, and cuisine are brought together to create another sensory encounter during the festival, this time honoring the act of eating.

Compositions, aarticles 

Founded by Kasia Sznajder and Fred Aartun, who is also Head of Creative at Frama, aarticles is an archive of objects both found and developed with contemporary artisans. Arranged in an apartment at the top of the oval townhouse on Christian IX's Gade, the exhibition provided a thoughtful curation of treasures from around the world. The objects in aarticles’ collection are intimate, surprising and, above all, celebrate honest craftsmanship and materials. Wandering around the exhibition felt like peeking into a collector’s house, each corner uncovering more curiosities.

Finn Juhl's House 

Although not part of the official 3daysofdesign exhibitions, Finn Juhl’s House felt like a natural ending to the festival - after all, it was largely about exploring the possibilities of domestic space. There’s something special about visiting artists’ and architects’ houses, especially when they are left in their natural state, allowing for an intimate experience. A Danish architect and furniture designer, Finn Juhl built his house in 1942 and subsequently furnished it with his own designs. A Scandinavian modernist masterpiece, the house allows visitors to peek into the different living areas as if its inhabitants had stepped out only a few hours earlier. Wandering around the house and the adjacent garden, which displays works by artists such as Olafur Eliasson, offered a chance to reflect on what makes a house a home and why Scandinavian design has become so influential. See you next year, Copenhagen!