Hästens Bed makers

When we teamed up with Hästens to devise the 'Re-Imagining of Sleep’, one of our core beliefs for this creative foray into the aesthetics of dreamland was that good design can always make things better. Hästens has long been a premier purveyor of a good night’s sleep, providing sumptuous beds for 160 years. Its ability to weave horsehair, flax, pine, steel, cotton and wool into a structure that will give you a lifetime of good slumber shows it knows a thing or two about design and craftsmanship.

Our four collaborators on this search for the most serenely soporific also demonstrate great ability at enhancing the world around us. But rather than energise and excite, the four are looking for innovative ways to calm and soothe. The Re-Imagining of Sleep takes in four distinct senses; food, light, smell and feel.

Arabeschi di Latte is a creative collective dedicated to turning the pleasure of food into a major experience. Throughout the collective’s history, it has used food as the basis for experimentation and provocation, making a creative link between cultures, flavours, diet, design and the whole experience around eating and entertaining. The 'Twist Spoon’ shown here is a quasi-surrealist object, something to stir up some debate.

Carefully controlled artificial lighting can ease the transition into sleep. Moritz Waldemeyer’s work exists at a very contemporary junction of art and engineering. From his earliest collaborations with the likes of Zaha Hadid, Audi and Ron Arad, Waldemeyer has worked with light, using LEDs, lasers and projections to form architectonic experiences that change our perception of place and time. Waldemeyer’s speciality is translating text and information into dynamic, flowing ribbons of light.

Olivia Giacobetti is a creator blessed with uncanny sensory skills. The French perfumer, currently fragrance designer at Paris’ esteemed Parfum Lubin, has built her career out of the extraordinary olfactory experience. The Diptyque Philosykos eau de toilette scent, shown here, illustrates the scope of her work, conjuring up images of warmth, nature and freshness.

Finally, no night-time experience would be complete without the bedding and headboard, the physical textures and visual patterns that envelop us as we drift away. Stefan Scholten and Caroline Baijings are product designers with a broad portfolio, from soft textiles to hard-edged forms carved from natural materials.

In the next few months, our four designers will take to their studios to develop new ways of shaping the way we sleep. Wallpaper* and Hästens hope the results, showcased in September’s issue, will eventually trigger a yawn. For all the right reasons, of course.