Designer and gallery owner
Stockholm
When there is no room, you have to create space! The Swedish Government puts huge sums into design. Despite this, young, not-yet-established designers still find it hard to keep their heads above water. Sara Lüdtke is a designer who tired of the fact that there was no gallery for new design in Sweden. She changed that through Büro, the only design gallery in Sweden.
Sara Lüdtke studied design at Beckmans College of Design in Stockholm. Her final exhibition at the College won her the Swedish Elle Interiör Extraordinary Scholarship. Some years later, Lüdtke would return to her old school as Head of Department. In the intervening period she had designed and made a whole string of products and her work had been seen at many exhibitions.
Lüdtke’s big breakthrough came with her exhibition at Agata, the design and handicraft gallery, now sadly closed. It was there that she showed her cowboy-inspired furniture, coat hook and slippers in pop riveted, dyed leather, a genre that resulted from the studies she had made into leather crafting and cowboy style since 1997. Many of the products made by Lüdtke have been shown at joint exhibitions in all parts of Europe, including the Milan Furniture Fair. She has designed shop interiors and offices, and done scenography and costumes for Stockholms Stadsteater. In many of her projects she has collaborated with her colleague Frida Wanselius.
As for Büro, Sara Lüdtke says that she wants to create space for the designers who are moving forward, for designers who want to do something new. In short, she is not content with just criticising the Swedish design establishment, but has provided a solution to the problem.
AWARDS
Estrid Ericsons Stiftelse Scholarship (several times) and the Swedish Elle Interiör Extraordinary Scholarship.
ONGOING
Although Lüdtke is very much involved with her gallery, Büro, she freelances as a designer, as a guest critic at design colleges, and as a project manager.
