Sandra Backlund is a Swedish fashion designer specializing in sculptural knitwear. Graduating from Beckmans College of Design in Stockholm in 2004, Backlund set up her own eponymous label that same year. Since then she has won many awards and accolades, In 2007 Backlund was the Grand Prix Winner of the Festival International de Monde & Photographie In Hyeres, France. In 2010 she won the Swedish Elle Award and in 2009 won NewGen sponsorship from The British Fashion Council. Backlund also won the admiration of the international fashion community, collaborating with Louis Vuitton (A/W 2007) and Emilio Pucci (A/W 2009) on several knitwear pieces for their collections in addition to being selected as a protege by Italian Vogue's Franca Sozzani on the Protege Project in 2008 and again in 2009 for the Cittadelarte Fashion B.E.S.T. project. In 2010 Backlund launched her first solo collection, her Spring/Summer 2011 collection marks the third collection that has went into production.

Backlund's design aesthetic is sculptural, architectural and dynamic. Striving to exaggerate and accentuate the female form, Backlund fluctuates proportions, producing designs that are simultaneously sci-fi and warm, as she works with heavy wool, paper and more recently hair. By fusing futuristic design with tactile and familiar materials Backlund has manged to transform the very meaning of knitwear into a piece of sculpture, a piece of moving art. Backlund approaches her work in a manner akin to an artisan. Instead of creating her garments by using traditional patterns, she designs whilst knitting, producing a more organic and streamlined result. Keen to immerse herself in her work, Backlund knits for unprecedented hours in her Stockholm studio, but has accepted that she can not produce an entire collection by herself and now incorporates machine techniques in addition to looking into focusing on accessories or collaborating with an Italian knitwear specialist to ensure her clothes become more commercially available.

This article is part of the Nordic Design: Now & Then series.

Voted the world's best restaurant for 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2014 by the San Pellegrino World's 50 Best Restaurant awards, Noma is a two Michelin star restaurant run by chef René Redzepi and Claus Meyer in Copenhagen, Denmark. The name being a contraction of two Danish words nordisk mad, or Nordic food. René Redzepi and Noma have reversed the direction of food creativity, insisting that nature, and the exploration of nature should be the foundation of cooking. Known for using foraging techniques to find his produce, and only using ingredients found on Nordic countries, Redzepi is considered to be the founder of the Nordic Cuisine movement. Redzepi operates at the cutting edge of gourmet cuisine, combining an unrelenting creativity and a remarkable level of craftsmanship with an inimitable and innate knowledge of the produce of his Nordic terroir.

Each dinner at Noma is introduces to Nordic cuisine via its inimitable series of 20 servings that include the likes of sea urchin toast and caramelised milk and cod liver, before the meal is rounded off with a stunning array of 'treats'. Redzepi's food can at times be shocking – visceral even – but diners who are prepared to put themselves in the kitchen's hands rarely leave disappointed. With flavour to the fore, there are dishes here that slap you in the face and make you feel glad to be alive.

Housed in an old warehouse converted building, the restaurant's interior is re-designed by Space Copenhagen. The original interior of taupe, cream and brown hues has been replaced by a muted, slick white, grey and black colour scheme. A new oak floor has been laid, along with a new bar and a new, brick wall running through the restaurant. The biggest change is to the lounge area, which has a cosier, "more Nordic", feel. ""It is as if the restaurant has moved 1000 kilometres north," according to chef René Redzepi.

The chairs and tables in the restaurant are the same design as in the original Noma, but the surfaces and colours have been changed. In the lounge the furniture is all new featuring the new Ren Chair and Sofa recently designed by Space Copenhagen "We felt a great importance in protecting the honest, earthy feel of the restaurant and balancing it with refinement of detail and elegance," says Space Copenhagen's Peter Bundgaard Rützou and Signe Bindslev Henriksen. "It was very much about using organic materials such as wood, stone, eather, brass and linen in a new way; materials that age beautifully over time."

Never content to sit still, Redzepi and his crew are shipping the restaurant out to Japan in early 2015 for two months, where they will seek to apply their philosophy to Japanese ingredients.

This article is part of the Nordic Design: Now & Then series.

In 2014, Norges Bank held a competition for the re-design of Norway new banknotes. The purpose of the competition was to arrive at a proposal that can be the artistic basis of the new banknote series and communicate the theme "The Sea" in an appropriate manner. 

Eight teams were selected for the final round. And the jury have concluded that two proposals stand out- Beauty of Boundaries by Snøhetta Design, and Norwegian Living Space by The Metric System and Terje Tønnessen. 

The front-side of the new Norweigan krone banknote will features design from The Metric System, Norwegian Living Space while the reverse sides will be the pixel motifs submitted by Snøhetta Design, Beauty of Boundaries. The design from The Metric System are very well suited to the incorporation of necessary security elements. The expression is open, light and typically Nordic. Using the pixel motifs from Snøhetta Design as the reverse will give the notes both a traditional and a modern expression. 

While the new kroners are cool, Norges Bank pointed out that the new banknote will only made available in 2017 at the earliest. The motifs and designs may "differ somewhat" from the proposals, as security and machine-readable elements are introduced into the banknotes.

This article is part of the Nordic Design: Now & Then series.

54 years after the SAS Royal hotel's (now Radisson Blu Royal Hotel) iconic Room 606 by Arne Jacobsen, furniture maker Fritz Hansen asked the world-renowned Spanish designer Jaime Hayon to create a total design for Room 506 to match Arne Jacobsen's Room 606.

Room 506 is created with great respect for Arne Jacobsen's original design from 1958. It is different from Room 606, but the kinship is unmistakable. Jaime Hayon is clearly inspired by the classic Arne Jacobsen palette of subtle colours with a few well-placed bright accents. And like Arne Jacobsen, Jaime Hayon has created a total design for the room, including furniture, works of art, bedspreads, lamps etc. A range of existing Hayon designs for Fritz Hansen including the 'Favn' sofa, 'Analog' table and 'Ro' easy chair are complemented by a number of accessories such as a statement low-hanging ball light, lamps, cabinet, mirror and vase.

Another strong link between Room 506 and 606 is the Drop chair, which has been a sleeping beauty for the past 50 years. Although the Drop chair was originally used both in the cocktail bar and in all the rooms, today it is only found in Rooms 606 and 506. The Drop was originally produced along with the Swan and the Egg, but it was created exclusively for the hotel and was never put into standard production. This year it is back in production and available to the public for the first time. Jaime Hayon has given the Drop a new, sophisticated upholstery, which lends the chair a different expression and makes a perfect match for the beauty and the ambience of Room 506. Together with all the other furniture it beautifies the room and gives it a touch of Nordic aesthetic.

Room 506 can be rented for EURO 735 per night.