The Kaaja Collection Gets Ahead by Slowing Down

It is always hard to make a name for yourself as a designer, but Spaniard Carlos Jiménez has hit the ground running with his debut furniture collection for the Swedish firm By.Enströms. Influenced by both Scandinavian and Japanese classics, the Kaaja Collection seeks to honor the wood making traditions of the past that mass produced products have earmarked as too costly, with every piece being finished and assembled by hand in a small factory in Tibro, Sweeden. This factory has been used to produce wood furniture for over 100 years, and that tradition seeps into each of these unique pieces as one can feel heart put into the countless hours of planing and sanding necessary to create such works. But besides being beautiful objects, the cabinets are instilled with the Swedish modernist sense for innovation and adaptability, with a modular system that allows you to choose the sizing of your unit; including the legs, dimensions of interior modules, colors and even the oil finish for the wood. This helps make the client a real part of the process, permutating a few basic elements into a huge number of potential products. For me this recalls the bespoke quality that makes the world’s finest suits and bikes possible, and is a good sign of what great designs can still be in our age of assembly lines and instant gratification. This collection succeeds by balking the need to produce as large a quantity as quickly as possible, slowing down to make sure each piece made is of the same high quality standards of the last. One can only assume that the Kaaja Collection will be only the beginning of a very successful career in furniture design.