Malmsten’s world
Furniture designer, interior architect, educator and founder of a number of craft schools. Carl Malmsten was one of the great cultural personalities of the 20th century, and is an icon within Swedish interior and furniture design history.
His public furnishings for Ulriksdal Palace and the City Hall, Concert Hall and Supreme Court in Stockholm are just a few examples of a significant cultural heritage. Many of Carl Malmsten’s pieces of furniture were also part of the creation of the Swedish “folkhemmet” (people’s home) concept.
In addition, he was an educator and initiator of rank. Malmstens on Lidingö, today part of Linköping University, Capellagården on Öland and Nyckelviksskolan on Lidingö, which was funded by Hertha Olivet, all stem from Carl Malmsten’s desire to demonstrate how practice and theory naturally go hand in hand.
Two foundations – the Siv and Carl Malmsten Memorial Foundation and Carl Malmstens hantverksstiftelse – also contribute to keeping his legacy alive. Carl Malmsten AB owns the rights to produce the designer’s furniture, and ensures that the licensees maintain high quality in their manufacturing.
Dining room, Capellagården
During his long and active life, Carl Malmsten set up a number of foundations to oversee his courses and schools. A couple of these foundations are still active today, the Capellagården Foundation and the Carl Malmsten Workshop School Foundation, now the Carl Malmsten Craft Foundation. The Capellagården Foundation is heir to the Nyckelviksskolan Foundation, which was set up to realise a never-implemented school project at Stora Nyckelviken in Nacka. Since 1960, Capellagården on Öland is responsible for a diversity of courses and educational programmes offering professional art qualifications.
At the turn of the millennium, Linköping University became the principal for Carl Malmsten’s internationally known furniture design and craft school in Stockholm, offering education for designers and artisans within cabinet making, upholstery, furniture renovation and guitar building. The two last-mentioned courses have now been discontinued. In 2000, the Board of the previous foundation responsible for the school in Stockolm adopted new statutes and activities and in connection with this the name was changed to Carl Malmstens Hantverksstiftelse. The now academic education is carried out on Lidingö under the name Malmstens, Linköping University.