Swedish studio Front designed the customisable Button sofa to be as suitable for aged-care environments as it is for the home of a young person.

Launched at Stockholm Furniture Fair, the Button sofa was designed for Swedish brand Swedese, who requested a sofa tailored for hospitals and homes for the elderly, as well as the usual office and domestic settings.

For that reason, Button is designed to be easy to get in and out of, and to support the body during sitting – all while appealing aesthetically to younger people.

Front dotted the sofa with wooden buttons that can be used to customise the furniture to the owner's needs. Accessories such as cushions, baskets or magazine holders attach to leather straps that hook onto the buttons.

The seating is quite shallow, for elderly users, and the studio designed the sofa's wooden legs to arch up and into a handle that can be used for assistance when sitting down or getting up.

"Despite all these special requirements we still wanted the sofa to look good and give a homely, warm, contemporary feeling," Front co-founder Anna Lindgren told Dezeen. "We worked with the craftsmen at Swedese, who are very skilful in bent wood to make an arched wooden structure."

The studio – best known for creating the lifesize Horse Lamp for Moooi – also took Swedese's more than 70 years of history into account. The designers delved into its archive to research techniques, materials and forms the brand had used in the past.

"We worked in bent wood and were inspired by some of the details in the famous Lamino lounge chair by Yngve Ekström from 1956 and also other details from the history, especially materials," Lindgren said.

The sofa was launched at Stockholm Furniture Fair, which took place from 7 to 11 February 2017. Also unveiled at the fair was a modular sofa designed by Thomas Bernstrand and Stefan Borselius and made from narrow segments, and a relaunched Hans J Wegner dining chair.