To mark two decades since Kristian Byrge and Peter Bonnén founded Muuto in 2006, the Danish furniture brand has crafted a new piece in collaboration with Copenhagen studio Spacon: the 'Close to Heart' chair, launching at 3 Days of Design on 10 June 2026. Produced in a limited edition of 150 pieces, each made in Denmark from extruded aluminium, the chair is equal parts rational and romantic, with each of its profiles shaped like a heart.
The brief was framed around Muuto's anniversary theme, 'Next Chapters in Scandinavian Design', and thus came with a clear warning: avoid nostalgia. Rather than looking back, the question posed was what tradition becomes when designers push at its edges – a question that led the Spacon partners, Nikoline Dyrup Carlsen, Malene Hvidt and Svend Jacob Pedersen, to the chair's motif.
The heart emerged not just as a symbol, but as geometry. 'It has that perfect triangle on one side and then the double curve on the other,' says Hvidt. 'So the shape itself has this beautiful contrast between sharpness and roundness.' Immediately legible, it grows increasingly complex the longer you study it. 'The shape goes from something very simple and quite childish into something diverse and sophisticated when you really dig into what it offers.'
From left to right, Svend Jacob Pedersen, Nikoline Dyrup Carlsen and Malene Hvidt
The choice to realise the chair in extruded aluminium echoes this conceptual tension – a material typically associated with industrial coldness, pressed into the service of one of culture’s warmest symbols. The designers, however, do not see this as a contradiction to be resolved. 'The warmth of the heart and the coldness of the aluminium should join together as you get further into the project,' says Pedersen. 'Aluminium has a lightness to it. It's mouldable, so it fits very well with the heart typology and its curved lines. So in the end, it makes more sense than the immediate contrast suggests.'
The aluminium has also been anodised – a finish that shifts the material's character even further: 'It's a bit more exclusive, and it has that quality where it absorbs all the surrounding light and colours in a beautiful way, which gives it a softness that we were very fond of,' explains Carlsen.
The 'Close to Heart’ chair sits within a broader strategic project that Spacon has been developing with Muuto around the anniversary and its 'next chapters' – one centred on the relationship between technical rigour and emotional resonance. 'Muuto has a highly professional team that constantly works with innovation in manufacturing. Meanwhile, they also have a love for aesthetics and sensory experiences – the feelings we can create through design,' says Hvidt. 'So this furniture is really about the meeting between system and feeling – or as we put it, "How can we make a system learn to feel?"'
Spacon's own philosophy runs along similar lines: a deliberately interdisciplinary practice spanning architecture, interior design, art and craft. 'We’re not being bound by one tradition or one historical way of doing things; [we try to be] more expressive and culturally open,' says Carlsen. For her, this is the 'next chapter in Scandinavian design': 'It's about taking inspiration from the core values of Scandinavian design – pioneering, thinking in new ways, building and creating – but being less restricted by traditional design language.'
The heart – that most universal of motifs – turns out to be an unexpectedly rigorous design proposition. Yet for Hvidt, the ambition behind the chair is ultimately a simple one: 'We're looking forward to people sitting in the furniture and hopefully having it bring smiles to their faces and spread some love.' As far as next chapters go, it’s hard to argue with that.
3 Days of Design runs in Copenhagen from 10-12 June