Located within a historic four-story building in the center of the city, the new Maria Nila Salon is a vision in soft pastels, evoking the relaxing sensual pleasures of high-end salon services with fluid organic shapes. Giant MDF and plexiglass cut-outs in dripping shapes call to mind endlessly flowing hair products and introduce a youthful, playful, and creative feeling. The whole salon is awash in dreamy shades of lavender, mint, turquoise, pink, and peach.

ASKA wanted to give the building itself a voice in the design, as well. They chose colors and design elements that would complement original features like floors made of checkered marble and wood laid in a herringbone pattern. At the entrance, the purple plexiglass installation hanging from the ceiling frames the antique wooden door for a contrast of old and new.

The salon is designed to show off the company’s products while doubling as office space. Softly undulating product shelves are spread throughout each room, their shapes taking inspiration from natural elements like water, trees, caves, and coral reefs in a nod to Maria Nila’s nature-centric approach.

“The concept of the House of Maria Nila is to always be inviting, have an air of friendliness, and encourage a modern way of expressing beauty,” states Maria Nila. “While the townhouse Maria Nila now calls home is located in Lärkstaden, an area fully built on the design that dominated Swedish architecture in the early days of the 20th century, it’s clear that the inside speaks young-at-heart and playful.”

“With a wish to not compromise with the old soul of the house, Maria Nila asked the new and upcoming architecture firm ASKA to take on the mission to create an interior that would mirror the values of the brand: friendly, curious, and honest. A task that fitted well with the philosophy of the trio. ASKA’s belief is that styles, design expressions, and epochs will pass with time. But the essential architectural qualities, the residuals – aska in Swedish, will always remain. With the use of pastel colors, round shapes, and soft materials, ASKA has mixed the old soul of the building with the young spirit and energy of Maria Nila.”

ASKA visited the space often throughout the renovation to fine-tune certain elements as necessary, like adding their own custom acoustic panels when a particular room was found to be too noisy. They designed and crafted much of the furniture seen throughout the salon and brought in objects made by hip young creators like furniture designer Gustaf Westman and LED artists Josefin Eklund and My Zachrisson.

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Through her series “Alien Autopsy,” Swedish artist Åsa Stenerhag experiments with these feelings. The artist, who taught herself sculpting techniques by watching YouTube videos, engaged in an unusual collaboration with design firm Massproductions for the installation, which opened at the firm’s showroom in Stockholm.

The series of stoneware sculptures was designed to be displayed atop Massproductions’ new Landa table, a minimalist design with the unusual ability to support a long surface with just four to six wide-spaced legs. The design uses two parallel steel beams to support the long tabletops, creating “significant and comfortable voids” underneath. The result is streamlined and lightweight, leaving plenty of room for chairs and objects atop the table to shine.

“It’s easy to make tables, but we decided to make it difficult by developing a system that can make very long tables, with fewer table legs and without visible fittings” says Chris Martin, Design Manager and Co-Founder of Massproductions.

The designers took inspiration from NASA’s lunar module for the table, which in turn guided Stenerhag’s creative direction. Looking at the ceramic sculptures, you can see why the installation is called “Alien Autopsy” in a nod to a controversial 1995 short film by Ray Santillis. Stenerhag used unconventional media and methods of coloring them, like gouache, shoe polish, and linseed oil, so they soaked up the color unevenly.

“It started with a request to do something in connection with the launch of Landa,” she explains. “The name of the installation challenged and helped me to further develop the design language. It’s like lighting a spark. When parameters are set, ideas are triggered. The idea started from the long table. How we could tell a story, create a feeling, an exciting one, unified together. For me, creation is primarily about intuitive work though also about channeling a feeling. In this case, it is a life energy, which is shaping and explor[ing] itself. Both on the inside and the outside.”

“My work usually starts with a feeling, an energy and desire that then comes down to material, surface, and shape until it becomes a whole. It’s also about being fully present in what I do. Clay is a living material and must be taken care of in different ways throughout all stages of the drying process. It is a constant collaboration between me and the clay. For me the process is as important as the result. That’s what drives me.”

Whatever your feelings may be about Stenerhag’s sculptures, there’s no denying that “Alien Autopsy” is an interesting way to bring fine art and product design together around a fun, albeit somewhat odd, narrative.

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