The Mindcraft Project 2026 puts material obsession on show in Copenhagen

A pedestal built from leftover superyacht steel and a pagoda-like sculpture stacked from wooden trays anchor the latest edition of The Mindcraft Project, on show at Charlottenborg Palace in central Copenhagen from 23 to 27 September.

Curators Christian Hammer Juhl and Jade Chan of studio Christian + Jade have installed works by ten Denmark-based designers in a fresco-covered room with a bare wooden floor, a setting that makes the pieces read as artworks. The annual exhibition launched in 2008 to showcase Danish design.

The curators did not set formal parameters for selection, but a pattern emerged as they built their list.

"We wanted to include designers at different stages of the career from different parts of Denmark, but also international designers who have been a part of shaping the Danish design scene," Chan told Dezeen.

"As our list grew, a very obvious red thread started to appear – there is a strong commitment to a special material or technique."

While Danish design enjoys global recognition, the curators want the platform to spotlight its less commercial, more craft-driven side.

"We've always admired the platform and seen it as very important in Danish design culture because it gives a stage to more experimental and less commercially driven works," Juhl told Dezeen.

"It gives a platform to people who are diving into craft and sort of lies in-between the craft and the design."

Some participants showed existing pieces; others produced entirely new work. Fashion designer Freya Dalsjø fell into the second group with her Basket and Match Seat, painstakingly woven from thin strands of leather into a sculptural yet functional basket and seat or pillow.

"I was really honoured that they asked me; it's first and foremost an interior-focused exhibition, so it's super nice to be a part of it," Dalsjø told Dezeen.

"[Christian and Jade's] idea to ask me for these pieces was really good because the material worked – you can really see it in this context, in something other than fashion."

Designer Sigurd Nils Schelde also debuted work: three pewter lamps drawing on architectural lighting.

"These works focus on different observations of architectural lighting from unfinished buildings; I was interested in how you see the light within a building," Schelde told Dezeen.

"It's like you're looking into the belly of the beast, and I was trying to adopt that into a more industrial language."

Where Dalsjø and Schelde pursued a polished, designed finish, other designers exposed their raw materials. Hans Severin Jacobsen's Untitled sculpture pairs a rough-hewn 90-kilogram quartzite stone, sourced from a gravel pit next to his studio in Jutland, with a sleek oak base. He cut and squared the stone's sides to reach its final form.

"I usually work with found stones where I leave some or all of the stone untouched, but with this piece I've worked to impose geometry on this natural stone," he told Dezeen. "So this is man-made geometry."

Daito Takefusa's Fragmented Signs (Double Touch B) also resembles stone at first glance. It is ceramic. Takefusa shaped the surface with a rock, then experimented with different glazes, multiple layers of clay and oxides to build an unusual, rough texture.

"What's interesting for me is the process of firing and coming up with the final product – it resembles archaeology," he told Dezeen.

"I cover [the clay] with a material that doesn't melt, and after the firing, I brush it off. It's akin to archaeological research; I never know what it's going to look like after the firing."

At the centre of the exhibition sits a room divider by FOS, made from cast bronze with an organic pattern worked by hand tools. In contrast, Anton Hendrik Denys built his console and pedestal from readymade leftover stainless steel from the furniture and shipping industries, drawing on his experience making custom pieces for art galleries.

"The small chunky piece [in the pedestal] was for a bar stool for a super yacht, where they just needed a very thin piece of chunky stainless steel, and these pieces were disregarded afterwards," Denys told Dezeen.

"I asked what they had left and how we could put that together, and then the shape and the thickness of the material defined the end result. I haven't changed the shape of the leftover pieces; I only put them together."

Glass artist Lene Bødker spent months on The Well, melting glass in a kiln and shaping it through lost wax casting. The design draws on the wells of Rome and the healing powers of nature.

"This specific work is called The Well," Bødker told Dezeen. "It has no bottom; you can imagine it goes deep, deep down into the ground, and you can pull up this magical, healing holy water."

Nearby, Thomas Woltmann's ceramic-clad water fountain Helligkilden features glossy tiles dyed with natural ochres. Wood appears too, in Anna Søgaard's functional elm pieces. Her Curved Work, a set of trays and boxes cut with a table saw to create a curved profile, stacks into a form resembling a pagoda.

"I like boxes, storage that can contain things, but for me, it's about the sculptural way of working – I actually don't work with what you're putting inside, just the form of the box," Søgaard explained.

"It nearly looks like architecture, but this pagoda is actually just a single box and you can continue stacking it."

Nicholas Shurey closes the exhibitor list with his joyful Trio of Stools, Ziggy Pattern, seats that stack into a sculpture. The pieces draw partly on designer Kansai Yamamoto's jumpsuit made for David Bowie, and they bridge the sculptural and the functional, craft and design, encapsulating this year's theme.

The Mindcraft Project 2026 runs at Charlottenborg Palace, Nyhavn 1, 1051 København K, through 27 September, with photography by Benjamin Lund. Its material-first curatorial stance aligns it with a broader current in European design shows, including Hanging Baskets and One Tool One Stool at this year's London Design Festival.