Sawdust toilets and chairs that crash cars: inside

The 11th edition of 3daysofdesign favours family businesses over tech startups, with over 400 designers (including a Norwegian postman) exhibiting work

At the Verpan showroom, a space dedicated to the work of Verner Panton, the renowned Danish designer’s daughter Carin Panton von Halem regaled a rapt audience with an anecdote. Apparently when Panton’s cone chair was displayed in a New York shop window in the late 1950s, it had to be removed by the police after drivers distracted by the tomato red seat got into a road accident. She also had stories about how the neighbours of the Pantons’ famous Hornbæk summer house started a petition to get him to change the bright green exterior of the holiday home.

Over at the Hem furniture shop, Finnish designer Yrjö Kukkapuro’s daughter Isa gave an equally personal speech at the launch of the new edition of Kukkapuro’s experiment chair. She explained how the original launch of the chair coincided with the birth of her daughter Ida. Two wonderful creations.