Welcome to a fresh edition of RUM International, where we explore the essence of craftsmanship.

This issue, themed around the irreplaceable art of craftspeople, is a celebration of the timeless, an ode to those who shape materials with their hands, bringing objects of profound beauty and utility to life. It’s a testament to our love for hands-on creativity, skill and dedication. This dedication is what unites the creatives featured in this issue, from woodworkers to ceramicists, glassblowers and textile artists.

Cracing the cover is the home of one such craftsperson, the Danish weaver Trine Ellitsgaard, who lives in Oaxaca, Mexico. She beautifully weaves two cultures – her Danish roots with Mexican materials and traditions – into her art. Ellitsgaard’s story, like many others in this issue, illustrates the profound connection craftspeople have with their work, bridging cultures and history through their art.

Join us, as we step inside her amazing home as well as the homes of other inspiring creatives throughout this issue, from the colourful, eclectic villa North of Copenhagen to the light-filled classic 19^th century apartment in Lisbon imbued with Parisian sophistication.

In this issue of the international edition of RUM we explore the theme ‘The Future’. Our cover is a case in point – the rooms have been created using AI while the furniture and objects have been photographed the old fashioned way. A scenario reflecting what is happening around us. How will all this new and ground-breaking technology change our world, our working lives, the way in which we see reality?

We put those questions to six creatives who process their hopes and fears for the future through their work, which in many ways reflects both the old and the new world. Craftsmanship and high tech, side by side. Whether it’s experimenting with bio-based building materials, making furniture from offcuts or planning an actual moon landing, the current generation of designers, architects and artists are acutely aware of the future.

In uncertain times our home becomes more important than ever to us modern people. Here we can find healing and comfort, as trend forecaster Sara Ingemann explains, and we take a closer look at the concepts of the healing home, the planet positive home, the inclusive home and the AItopic home and learn more about how long table dinners, arty interiors, natural materials and AI technology will shape our everyday lives in the future.

And talking about amazing homes – in this issue, we invite you inside the homes of Copenhagen creatives, who very much inspire, and visit a four floor Brooklyn townhouse, which is an exercise in contrast and calm and a masterpiece in flow and textures.

Enjoy!

Welcome to an issue in which we have dedicated a large part of the magazine to architecture and its voices as Copenhagen is the World Capital of Architecture for 2023.

Working with architecture comes with great responsibility: a responsibility for quality of life, community, climate, and the future. Architecture can help save lives and solve global challenges, as the nine Copenhagen-based architects we meet in this issue are well aware of, each of them cleverly and creatively embracing their multifaceted role as creators of our cities.

On the cover of this issue, we have visited one of Denmark’s most significant artists, Kirstine Roepstorff, in her home and in her adjacent bright and spacious atelier, which she has had built to her specifications. Come on in and meet the artist and many other cool creatives as we visit them in their amazing homes and studios – enjoy!

In this edition of RUM International we have explored what heritage means as the makers of the past form a huge part of design, architecture and art. We meet the creatives who work with legendary brands and designers, standing on the shoulders of a rich heritage and creating through a contemporary lens. One such true legend is Danish architect and designer Knud Holscher, who greeted us in his home north of Copenhagen. Built in 1972, the house stands as a monument to his oeuvre and is today thought of as one of Denmark’s most authentic modernist building works from the 20th century. 

Another great character who leaves behind a monumental life’s work is Danish artist Peter Bonnén, who sadly past away this summer. RUM was kindly allowed a rare look inside a true artist’s home, where he lived for 54 years.

Also, come on in as we visit a factory space turned into an open-plan home with a rooftop view in Copenhagen and a five-storey townhouse in New York, elegantly curated with art and iconic vintage pieces from top to bottom – plus read the interview with floral designer Julius Værnes Iversen, founder of multidisciplinary studio Tableau, who grew up among the flowers in his father’s shop and now takes the world with breathtaking botanical installations.

We filled this issue of RUM with powerful double acts and let the dynamic between two people who have a strong connection speak for itself across the pages of the magazine. Whether bound by a creative relation, a romantic relationship or a familial one – often in combination – the energy, magnetism and devotion are evident.

Relationships, art and interiors, is something we speak about with Tal R, one of the most acclaimed Danish artists of the 21st century, and filmmaker and writer Emma Rosenzweig. Read their open and honest interview about their life together, bridging generational gaps and building a family in Copenhagen. In their first-ever interview as a couple, the Rosenzweigs also open their home to RUM. The apartment, which also contains Tal’s downstairs atelier is a vibrant, beautiful and captivating home as unique as their love story.

Fien Muller and Hannes Van Severen, partners in business as well as in life, are two people who have been incredibly influential on the international design scene. As Muller Van Severen they have enriched us with their universe of marble benches, hybrid steel and leather furniture, and a colour palette as intuitively appealing as candy. We shot the duo in their studio and at Design Museum Gent, which has only recently dedicated a retrospective exhibition to the couple’s directional design to mark Muller Van Severen’s 10-year anniversary.

Also we visit six creative duos who all confess to the same thing: having someone else to bounce creative and personal ideas off turns them into better versions of themselves.

Enjoy many more amazing couples and inspiring homes in this issue of RUM.

Choose between two covers

The materials that fundamentally frame our homes and lives – the surfaces that our hands touch every day – are of the essence. For this issue of RUM, the importance of great materials became our starting point.

Wood is a much-loved material in the Nordic countries, where our bond with nature is strong and our proud design traditions excel in this material in particular. We speak to Danish designer Cecilie Manz, one of the most prolific and celebrated industrial designers working today, who shares her story with us and talks about her love of materials – especially her fondness for wood. Together with artist Cathrine Raben Davidsen we venture into a world of bronze, as she tells us about one of her most comprehensive commissions to date; creating 16 larger-than-life bronze vessels with dreamscape-esque motifs for J.C. Jacobsens Winter Garden in Copenhagen..

We also meet seven craftspeople and creatives working with materials like clay, stone, mycelium, foam, sand and glue, who are looking ahead, experimenting, thinking outside the box and researching new resources.

And of course we pay visits to fantastic homes filled with amazing materials – the raw, the refined and the resourceful.

Choose between two covers

The materials that fundamentally frame our homes and lives – the surfaces that our hands touch every day – are of the essence. For this issue of RUM, the importance of great materials became our starting point.

Wood is a much-loved material in the Nordic countries, where our bond with nature is strong and our proud design traditions excel in this material in particular. We speak to Danish designer Cecilie Manz, one of the most prolific and celebrated industrial designers working today, who shares her story with us and talks about her love of materials – especially her fondness for wood. Together with artist Cathrine Raben Davidsen we venture into a world of bronze, as she tells us about one of her most comprehensive commissions to date; creating 16 larger-than-life bronze vessels with dreamscape-esque motifs for J.C. Jacobsens Winter Garden in Copenhagen..

We also meet seven craftspeople and creatives working with materials like clay, stone, mycelium, foam, sand and glue, who are looking ahead, experimenting, thinking outside the box and researching new resources.

And of course we pay visits to fantastic homes filled with amazing materials – the raw, the refined and the resourceful.

For this international edition of RUM, we would like to advocate something as banal, obvious and – within the world of design – essential as the art of collaboration. 

It’s a simple constellation between people and yet such a vivid force of creativity and unified human energy, and in the past year we have truly come to appreciate the company of others and the sharing of thoughts and ideas. We have visited some of the many creative people around us and spoken to them about their collaborative creative process and how it strengthens their work, among them the Danish art collective SUPERFLEX, who actively work with the concept of collectiveness and cross-disciplinary collaborations.

On the cover is one of the fantastic homes we feature in this issue, an apartment in Stockholm, where interior designer Louise Liljencrantz has worked her magic with warm mahogany against light, cloudy colours. Also, we invite you into the Copenhagen home of Danish chef Bo Bech, where immaculate craftmanship, showstopping art and a spectacular view compete for your attention.

We visit architect Poul Høilund, co-founder of architectural studio Norrøn, and feel enlightened by his experimental approach to his home as a garden as well as his unique pieces of objects and furniture – a result of his close collaboration with a handful of artists.

In this issue of RUM we are celebrating colours. Colours in interiors are what umami is to food. That savoury, fifth element, which makes all of the other ingredients come together, this according to one of eight creatives we visited in this issue to find out how they employ colour as a primary driving force in their work.

The cover of this issue is, of course, a case in point, graced by founder of File Under Pop, Josephine Akvama Hoffmeyer, who has always worked with colours in a bold and inspiring way. We take a look inside her beautiful new showroom.

As always we invite you inside truly amazing homes and nowhere is the magic of colours more evident than in a private 400 square metre family residence from 1912 in the Carlsberg area in Copenhagen, where interior architect Nadia Olive Schnack has helped the owners return their new home to its former glory.  

We also talk to designer Margrethe Odgaard, who has dedicated her life to capturing the language of colours as well as the impact they have on us – a journey that began some twenty years ago. “We need to understand the nature of colours before we start using them. Colour is the emotional part of a structure,” she notes.

We are heading inside the archives in this issue of RUM – spatially as well as spiritually. In RUM’s universe, archives are an inescapable source of inspiration. We visit creatives who work with archive material or are in the process of producing it themselves. The archive at Georg Jensen, as one of the treasuries we pay a visit to,  is according to its chief creative officer Nicholas Manville of the utmost importance for the company to truly understand its’ contribution to design over the past century. And at GUBI Creative director, Jacob Gubi Olsen explains what it’s like to work with the archives and heirs of some of the world’s late, great designers.

Showcasing incredible homes is one of the most important cornerstones of RUM’s DNA and in this issue the Copenhagen-based Bülow-Askari family invite us inside their wholly unique house, which is the result of a very personal process.

We also take a trip north to Stockholm, where the Swedish fashion house Acne Studios have made their new headquarters in a 1972 brutalist building. Creative director Jonny Johansson tells us about the work on the building, which alongside original features has centred on close collaborations with a number of international artists.

In our big interview we talk to Mette Hay, who for the past 20 years has left her mark on Danish design history as one half of the global design success HAY.

The Scandinavian art scene is currently going from strength to strength and in this issue of RUM International we have tried to include as many art world players as possible whom we admire. You can meet gallery owner Nicolai Wallner in his incredible listed home north of Copenhagen designed by the architect Arne Jacobsen and the art collector and head of Sotheby’s Denmark, Nina Wedell-Wedellsborg, whose enthusiasm for art is truly contagious. We’ve also met up with Tove Storch, a rising star in the art world. And we’ve followed one of the great female talents of Danish art, Evren Tekinoktay, in the lead-up to her exhibition If 6 was 9 and visited her in her atelier as well as in her home. 

We talk to Louisiana’s visionary director of 20 years, Poul Erik Tøjner, whom we’ve interviewed for this issue about the magic of Louisiana, and we continue north from Louisiana and across to Sweden to Wanås castle, which is surrounded by one of Europe’s most incredible sculpture parks. In this issue the Wachtmeister family, who manage the Wanås Foundation, have exclusively invited us inside their private home and shown us how they live with art.

The waters that surround Denmark are filled with around 70 populated islands, each with its own unique history, spectacular nature and intriguing people. 

To most, island life is synonymous with summer in Scandinavia. This is what we’ve wanted to capture the mood of in our eight international edition of RUM. We’ve travelled across Denmark to Møn, Seierø, Ærø, Bornholm and Fanø and found wonderful hidden treasures for you in the shape of beautiful homes, passionate creatives, awe-inspiring nature and cultural experiences.

Spring is a very special time of year in Copenhagen. With rain and long, dark days winter here can seem almost endless and as soon as we get a tiny glimpse of spring and sunshine we become quite elated, brimming with energy. At RUM we are celebrating spring in our seventh international edition by focusing on everything that’s bursting into bloom and flowering, not only literally but also in the creative spheres within art and design, along with the new talent we believe are worth keeping an eye on.

The Nordic countries are shrouded in cold and darkness for more than half the year. The year’s closing issue of RUM International honours this blackness and we embrace the melancholy mood of the season as a creative premise that defines and drives the Nordic soul. From the wistful solitude of artists like Vilhelm Hammershøi, inspired by the gulf between darkness and light, to modern filmmakers like Lars von Trier, renowned for his deeply dark dramas, Nordic Noir has become known beyond the borders of the northerly countries. But how is it reflected in our interiors and in our minds?

The fifth edition of RUM International fuses interior design with fashion and art, where strong silhouettes and sculptural designs mark a new era of creativity and talent. We visit a colourful Copenhagen crowd — including a designer, an architect, a florist and a furniture dealer — in their inspiring homes and workspaces to talk to them about their visions, passions and love of their city, currently on the rise as a new cultural playground. We chat with one of the individual’s behind Copenhagen’s monumental upswing: Marie Nipper, director of Copenhagen Contemporary, the city’s impressive new art space that recently reopened its doors in the historical shipyard on Refshaleøen, imparts her belief that art makes us whole as humans, and tells us that one of the founding ideologies of Copenhagen Contemporary is our common need to spend more time together instead of living behind screens. She celebrates the Danish art spectator’s more courageous and curious approach to the art world – two adjectives we hope are imbued in the pages of this magazine.

The spring 2018 issue of RUM International is two magazines in one and destined to be a collector’s item. One magazine is a special 68-page tribute to Jørn Utzon in the centenary year of his birth while the other is the fourth edition of our acclaimed Scandinavian edit of design and interiors.

In RUM X Utzon100 we celebrate the creative genius and deeply humanist approach of the Danish architect whose masterpiece the Sydney Opera House changed the image of a nation and whose other works left an indelible mark for their originality and vision. ‘I like to be on the edge of the possible,’ Jørn Utzon said. The energy, ambition, scope, and, not least, inspiration expressed in that statement are echoed in the pages of this special magazine which contains never before published archival material that gives a fresh insight into how his travels informed his work.

For RUM No. 4 ‘Space Matters’ we get an exclusive tour of the New York apartment of Bjarke Ingels, one of the new generation of Danish architects making his mark on the world. He shares his thoughts on making a home for himself and for others, what he calls creating a framework for our lives.

We also meet six creative Copenhageners discovering how they express their personalities in their own extraordinary homes and we showcase the latest in furniture, ceramics and sculptural objects with a minimalist Nordic idiom. Plus acclaimed photographer Jette Jørs turns her lens on the country haven she and her husband Brian Kirk have created for themselves and we hear how three generations of the Griegst jewellery family live happily under one roof amidst a mix of Baroque, Oriental and modern style. And we travel to Water Mill, Long Island where Robert Wilson has created an artistic playground that is home to a mindboggling collection of design and art spanning 5000 years.

The theme of the latest issue of RUM International is The Scandinavian Edit and we reflect on what makes the Nordic way of living so special. Drawing on our global community of contributors we visit six creative people in their homes and studio spaces in Stockholm and show inspiring and atmospheric homes from Copenhagen to New York.

We also profile the new face of Balenciaga, the model and documentary maker Emma Leth, the architect and designer Jonas Bjerre-Poulsen of hot Danish firm Norm Architects and we get an exclusive preview of creative consultant Oliver Gustav's new design gallery housed in a former art museum in Copenhagen.

The second edition of RUM International is full of fantastic residences, inspiring designs, and all the exciting furniture news.

We bring a feature and interview with a creative Danish couple from the fashion and advertising world who transformed their 1960s house into a modern, which references American, Indian, as well as Japanese architecture. It makes most passers-by do a double take. Step inside a unique home, which is the result of a very personal process.

We pay a visit to a family whose historical, seven-storey townhouse features a breath-taking view of Copenhagen's towers and steeples. And we travel to Lake Como, Italy, where four generations of the Sarattis, a family of designers, gather in their atmospheric summer residence. 

Apparatus, the successful American lamp duo, recently decorated their enormous showroom in New York, and RUM was invited into their dazzling world of art, lighting design, and vintage furniture.

We bring interviews with three of today's cool female artists, Ana Kraš, Cathrine Raben Davidsen, and Evren Tekinoktay, and pay a visit to their studios in Manhattan, central Copenhagen and Østerbro, respectively.

The big international issue of the magazine RUM is now available. In it you will meet several creative Copenhageners who live in, work in and are inspired by the spaces in the city and the casual and cool atmosphere that defines Copenhagen. We invite you to visit jewellery designer Sophie Bille Brahe, the design duo Mette and Rolf Hay, the photographer Noam Griegst, designer Stine Goya and lionized fashionista Pernille Teisbæk among others. You will also find our own personal guide to our favourite hangouts in the city. We turn the spotlight on our Nordic design heritage and give homage to the masters of the past and share with you what pieces of furniture we believe are the classics of the future and which talented people we believe in.

In RUM we also look towards other horizons. As a special treat exclusively in RUM we would like you to join us in a unique visit to the artist Donald Judd’s iconic home and studio in New York.