Fredrik Färg has been designing steadily over the past few years, but really seemed to burst onto the global scene with Coat, an armchair that represented the idea of slow fashion that could be updated gradually, and RE:cover, a series of chairs that borrowed from the past. Lately Färg has turned to current fashion as inspiration for his Modus Cover cabinets that incorporate fashion magazines. And if you'd prefer to read them, well, then there's the newly released Skyscrape magazine rack. How could we resist asking Fredrik a few questions?

A stand that caught my eye by way of its sheer simplicity was at first puzzling: two rows of vertical tubes set upon two white, narrow ledges were the booth's only items. This was clearly not furniture, but what sort of product could it be? As it turned out, Passage for Peace is neither furniture, nor product, but a public installation project meant to bring together people on opposite sides of the globe for moments where they can be connected through communication, sound and peace. The small-scale version of an installation that has yet to come to fruition stayed with me, as did the explanation by Akbar Dhanaliwala of Pocobor who worked with Knoend's Ivy Chuang to bring Passage for Peace to Milan. Visitors to the stand touched the tubes, watched them light up and cause tubes on the opposite side of the room to vibrate, adding sound to the mix. A simple gesture, a lot of technology and countless smiles. Ivy Chuang takes the time to explain further.

Brikolör, a new furniture design studio in Göteberg, launched its first collection at SaloneSatellite in Milan this year. The furniture, especially the pieces in pale colours and untreated wood, may have a calming effect, but Brikolör has strong ambition. Victor Alm, Fredrik Hansson, Mathias Eriksson and Sami Kallio, from left to right above, intend on manufacturing furniture that will last 300 years, from both a technical and emotional standpoint. This young company aims to leave a lasting impression.

A Prague design studio had no qualms about taking their tableware to Milan for the world to knock off. Koncern, a team made up of Jiri Pribyl and Martin Imrich, used Fake It Easy as the theme (or invitation) to their work. The attitude was "Hey, we'll be knocked off anyway, why not serve it up and have some fun?" So they started with beautiful Czech glassware. Then they borrowed heavily from other sources, such as joysticks, rear view mirrors and a variety of handles, for embellishment. Would anyone still want to knock off the work? Raised lettering was also part of the work, both to easily identify the designs and the idea, as well as to say, "Look, already labeled! Why change a thing?" Their elegant installation was beautifully presented, so it was fun to watch visitors trying to make sense of it, especially the rubber stamps that allowed one to identify oneself as fake, of course.

Fake It Easy was the theme of your exhibit in Milan, which pokes fun at the notion of knock-offs and acknowledges that most design has been inspired by the work of others. Do you know whether any of your designs have been pirated?

Of course! We have been working for Cybex Industrial Ltd. for more than 6 years, and we design children safety car seats for them. Two years ago, we counted 3 Chinese producers at one fair who presented fakes of our products. Some were very similar and also some that were inspired. Seven years ago we also designed a lighter for Marlboro, and then six months after that we held copies of it in our hands. But what we felt was more pride for our work than hate for those who copied it; it was the pride of someone who can influence the aesthetics of this world.

We thought Tuttobene was strictly a venue for Dutch design, but had a pleasant surprise when we saw that Calgary-based Joel Tobman had also set up at this FuoriSalone exhibition. Two of the designs Tobman was presenting showed much creativity in terms of innovative materials. Guitar strings become the surface of one coffee table, while bog-standard chunks of packing Styrofoam (yep, the kind that cushion large appliances in their boxes) made up the base of another. Precisely the sort of thing that leads to a few questions.

You must be a musician, given the design of the Decon Table you did with Gillian Russell. Although the guitar strings allow the table to function beautifully as a magazine rack and a surface for large, flat items, how do you respond to people who scoff at Decon's functionality?

Indeed I am a musician, though music was not our starting point for the design of the Decon Table. The original intent was to see how much material we could remove from the table's surface while retaining its function and we had the idea to use tensioned strings to accomplish this. The guitar strings were ideally suited to this, since they are strong enough to hold the high tension, attractive, and will stretch a bit rather than fail catastrophically like aramid fibers.

Gothenburg's Creators Inn by Elvine has taken couch-surfing to the next level. Visiting creators can take advantage of totally free short-term accommodation during their stay. Jesper Larsson of Next Century Modern (and a MoCo contributor) partnered with Elvine to offer accommodation to creatives when in Gothenburg, an idea that will spread to Stockholm this August. Shown above are Daniel Mänd of Elvine ("sophisticated clothes for unsophisticated behavior") and Jesper Larsson in Elvine's showroom in Gothenburg. We asked Jesper to tell us more about this very interesting concept in creative travel.

Creators Inn is a terrific idea. How do you define creators? Are there any limitations to this?

We have a very wide definition of creators. The reason for coming to town is more important than the title on your business card. We try to support up and coming creators of different kinds, the ones that would normally end up on someone's couch. To find them, Creators Inn by Elvine works first and foremost with local independent organizers offering their guests a place to stay. But everyone is welcome to register and explain why they should be granted a stay. Foreign visitors are prioritized. But you need what we call a "valid reason" to stay at our Inn. A valid reason is some sort of creative activity, preferably together with local creators or something that incorporates the city in some way. For instance, meeting up an old Swedish friend to go clubbing is not a valid reason to be granted a free stay.