Introducing 'Ildhane' from Anderssen & Voll

Founded and backed by Anderssen & Voll, Nedre Foss emerged organically from the pair’s work redesigning the interiors of the restaurant and brewery Nedre Foss Gård in central Oslo, completed in May this year. Over the course of the project, Anderssen and Voll began to formulate product ideas inspired by the heritage of the building and the nature of the redesign – and they soon realised that to make them a reality, they’d need to look beyond their usual manufacturing channels and set up a dedicated design label.

"Dating back to 1802, the main building is the oldest in the borough of Grünerløkka,” says Torbjørn Anderssen: “In working on this historic building, we found we had to look further back than Bauhaus – it was quite liberating for old neo-rationalists like us!”

The Ildhane candleholder is the first Nedre Foss product to emerge from the project. Designed in cast iron and finished with powder coating, Ildhane has a heavyweight materiality and an expressive birdlike form (‘Ildhane’ translates as ‘fire rooster’ in English).  

“What we like about Ildhane is its lasting materiality,” says Anderssen: “It has a good body, for lack of a better word. For us it’s quite obvious that it is an object of today but at the same time, it could be something very old that you dug out of a field on Norway’s west coast. It wouldn’t be misplaced in an old log cabin or in a Bulthaup kitchen. This is the quality we want to transfer onto Nedre Foss’s future products."

Ildhane has already been picked up by design stores and distributors throughout Scandinavia and across the world, and is available to buy at Norway Designs, Norsk Folkemuseum and Collected By in Oslo; Mjölk in Toronto; Casashop in Copenhagen; Epal in Iceland; The Finnish Design Shop, Haus and twentytwentyone in London; The Lollipop Shoppe in Brighton; Le Bon Marché and FLEUX in Paris; Unikko in Trondheim; Møbelgården in Skien; Stavanger’s Kunsthall in Stavanger; Henie Onstad Kunstsenter in Bærum.

Built in 1802, Nedre Foss Gård is a historic farm complex situated in the heart of Oslo by the river Akerselva. The site was occupied by a grain mill from the mediaeval era until 1986, when the buildings were transformed into offices. In the mid-2010s, the buildings were transformed once more and were reopened to the public in May 2015 by businessman and restaurateur Nevzat Arikan, now home to a restaurant and a brewery. The interior was designed by Anderssen & Voll, who set up their studio in the south wing of Nedre Foss Gård during the renovations.

 



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Anderssen & Voll was established in 2009, and its work spans textile design, tableware, lighting, furniture and electronics. The studio is led by Torbjørn Anderssen and Espen Voll, both graduates of Bergen Academy of Art & Design and Oslo National Academy of Art. In 2000, they co-founded the design group Norway Says, aiming to help Norwegian designers reach a global audience, and increase international interest in the country’s emerging design scene. Norway Says was awarded the Söderberg Prize in 2007, and its work culminated in 2009’s 10-year retrospective at the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design in Oslo.Inspired by Europe’s varied industrial cultures, from the mountains of Norway to the plains of Venice, and fuelled by the possibilities of large-scale industrial thinking, Anderssen & Voll has become synonymous with New Nordic Design. They have frequently collaborating with some of the most celebrated design brands in Europe, including Muuto, Kvadrat, Erik Jørgensen, Wrong for Hay, Jøtul, Røros Tweed, LK Hjelle, Magis, Foscarini and LaPalma.

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