Escape: Stockholms Style Factory

It might have been a surprise move to those who still associated Sweden with budget furniture stores, sensible cars and 1970s pop groups. But as the visitor to the Swedish capital soon realises, the city's obsession with design means that Stockholm was always destined to be the magazine's spiritual home. Design comes into play here at a level that it doesn't reach in most cities. Despite being scattered among 14 islands and consisting of architectural styles that range from graceful, fin-de-siècle buildings in the central harbour to gabled roofs and narrow lanes in the old town and the almost brutal simplicity of Sodermalm's 20th-century office and apartment blocks, somehow it all fits together to form one efficient urban space. But it doesn't just look good....