Tools for Everyday Life

Tools for Everyday Life
Cover image missing

Tools for Everyday Life is a project showcasing the community of practice surrounding the BA Furniture and Product Design programme at Northumbria University. This community has evolved through a dialogical approach to teaching and learning, where academic and technical staff act as facilitators in an ongoing process of shared inquiry with students. The project sets design briefs to create everyday objects that bring joy in use, proposing artefacts that recognise and celebrate the innumerable skilled actions that shape daily life. The aim is to draw inspiration from materials and processes that not only define the objects people interact with but also shape the relationship with the surrounding environment.

During 3daysofdesign, Northumbria University presents the latest iteration of its Tools for Everyday Life project. The exhibition presents products and prototypes that encourage users to viscerally engage in commonplace activities. The question asked is: “What are the results of a designer treating people as skilled and active users of functional artefacts rather than passive witnesses of a designed experience?” Everyday objects presented in Copenhagen include rulers, pencil holders and money boxes. The designers are academics, alumni, Designers in Residence and students all connected to the BA Furniture and Product Design programme at Northumbria University based in Newcastle upon Tyne.

Related Exhibitions
Picture the north. Rugged landscapes, breathtaking scenery, mountains, fjords, endless woods, and clear blue waters. Rough winters for contemplation. Bright summer nights for socializing. This is Norway. Focus on Oslo. A tiny urban culture with friendly vibes. Diverse people. A mix of talent, peace, and vibrancy. A place to feel at home. Northern, born in Oslo in 2005, is a small Norwegian producer crafting the very best in furniture, lighting, and design accessories. Blending creativity with traditional craftsmanship, is what makes Nordic design cooler and ever more beautiful—by continuously improving and challenging ourselves, and making the Northern collection more unified in spirit and style. From Oslo, with love.
Northern
February 28, 2022
Part of 2022
Part of 2023
Accessories
Furniture
Lighting
BREAD AND BUTTER is an itinerant exhibition platform for young designers. Each edition takes place in different cities, transforming everyday spaces—such as bookstores, salons, restaurants—into stages for collaboration. Set against the backdrop of daily life, designers engage in creative dialogues with local communities and explore sustainable and relevant solutions for the future. BREAD AND BUTTER seeks to redefine the value of simplicity in a world obsessed with the exceptional by reimagining the universal and the understated as extraordinary. During 3daysofdesign, BREAD AND BUTTER presents its inaugural exhibition in collaboration with OURI, the newest restaurant by KOPAN, Copenhagen’s leading Korean culinary brand.
BREAD AND BUTTER
February 3, 2025
Furniture
Part of 2025
Founded in 2018, the curtain studio &Drape create atmosphere and well-being through made-to-measure curtains in private and professional spaces. With a background in design and roots in an old curtain family, &Drape represents a contemporary and curated aesthetic approach to made-to-measure curtains. 

The founders Julie Vendal & Nadia Al Zagir Balling and their team, customize each curtain styling solution with care to the specific project, creating curtains that shape atmosphere, spark emotion and enhance the personal identity and spatial experience of a space.
&Drape
January 23, 2024
Wall & Surface
Part of 2022
Part of 2023
Part of 2024
Part of 2025
Founded in Copenhagen in 2006, Mater is a pioneering green-tech design brand with sustainability and circularity at its core. From the outset, the ambition has been to inspire a global design audience and encourage sustainable thinking. Using cutting–edge production technologies, Mater transforms waste materials into furniture. Through collaborations with both established and emerging design talents, the brand creates timeless designs in a responsible and sustainable way. Mater remains committed to developing new waste materials and innovative techniques that make it possible to create more from less.
Mater
February 24, 2022
Part of 2022
Part of 2023
Furniture
Lighting
Part of 2024
Other Exhibitions
Dagmar brings the timeless beauty of classic 20th–century Scandinavian furniture to the modern home. Rooted in the ethos of Scandinavian Modern design, Dagmar captures the perfect balance between aesthetic elegance, quality craftsmanship, and practicality—core principles that defined the golden era of Scandinavian design from 1930 to 1970. During this period, visionary designers and skilled craftsmen laid the foundation for a movement that continues to resonate today, nearly a century after its inception.
Dagmar
February 15, 2024
AKUART seamlessly integrates high–performance acoustics with a strong commitment to sustainable and visually compelling design. Its solutions are meticulously engineered using environmentally responsible materials and production methods, ensuring exceptional sound performance while minimising environmental impact. By combining acoustic excellence with refined aesthetics and sustainability, AKUART elevates acoustic solutions into integral elements of thoughtful, future–proof architecture and interior design.
AKUART
January 8, 2024
SACKit designs furniture with a focus on comfort, quality, and longevity. Each piece is carefully constructed using durable materials and a thoughtful design approach. The Danish brand prioritises sustainability by incorporating reusable and recycled materials, staying true to its commitment to responsible production. SACKit presents both in–house designs and collaborations with Danish designers. Rooted in Northern Denmark, the brand blends honesty and craftsmanship to create furniture for the home, office, and outdoor spaces, designed in quality materials and made to last.
SACKit
January 31, 2024
AKABA explores the relationship between people and the furniture, creating furniture for collectivities. Versatile pieces with character and ergonomics that contribute to creating comfortable atmospheres.

AKABA was born as a deeply social and inclusive company, and those values endure and lead the way. They guide AKABA's management model, and also the way of understanding creation. AKABA manufactures furniture for communities, which seeks social encounter starting with the individual. AKABA creates furniture for spaces with a human dimension that invite people to talk, relate and create collectively.
AKABA
March 8, 2022

Explore Districts

×
Tools for Everyday Life
Check back soon!