Scandinavian Design: Alternative Histories
Ebook
Overview
Scandinavian design is still seen as democratic, functional and simple, its products exemplifying the same characteristics now as they have done since the 1950s. But both the essence and the history of Scandinavian design are much more complex than this. Scandinavian Design: Alternative Histories presents a radically new assessment, a corrective to the persistent mythologies and reductive accounts of Scandinavian design.
The book brings together case studies from the early twentieth century to today. Drawn from fields as diverse as transport, engineering, packaging, photography, law, interiors, and corporate identity, these studies tell new or unfamiliar stories about the production, mediation and consumption of design. An alternative history is created, one much more alive to national and regional differences and to types of product.
Scandinavian Design analyses a century of design culture from Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden and, in so doing, presents a sophisticated introduction to Scandinavian design.
Examines the last century of Scandinavian design to reveal how the region’s design culture is very different from popular assumption.
A radical reappraisal of one of the most productive and influential design regions in the world
Examines Scandinavian design through a range of diverse examples, from sofas and trams to reverse vending machines and chocolate bars
Brings together leading scholars from Scandinavia to explore multiple alternative design histories
Also available in hardback, 9781847889126, £55.00 (February 2012)
Introduction, Kjetil Fallan, University of Oslo, Norway
1. A Historiography of Scandinavian Design
Kjetil Fallan, Anders V. Munch, University of Southern Denmark, Pekka Korvenmaa, Aalto University, Finland; Espen Johnsen, University of Oslo, Norway, Sara Kristoffersson and Christina Zetterlund, both Konstfack University College of Arts, Crafts and Design, Sweden
PART 1: NETWORKS
2. ‘What’s Worth Copying Is Worth Protecting’: Applied Art and the Evolution of Danish Copyright Law, Stina Teilmann-Lock, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
3. Hand-Woven Fabrics by the Yard: Unveiling Modern Design Industry of the Interwar Period, Leena Svinhufvud, Design Museum Helsinki, Finland
4. Designing the ’Consumer in Infinity’: The Swedish Co-operative Union’s New Consumer Policy, c. 1970, Helena Mattsson, Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden
5. Designing a Hole in the Wall: The Reverse Vending Machine as Socio-Technical System and Environmental Infrastructure, Finn Arne Jørgensen, Umeå University, Sweden
PART 2: APPROPRIATIONS
6. Just Decoration? Ideology and Design in Early Twentieth Century Sweden, Christina Zetterlund, Konstfack University College of Arts, Crafts and Design, Sweden
7. Goldfish Memories: Recounting Oslo’s Streamlined Aluminium Trams, Kjetil Fallan, University of Oslo, Norway
8. Creature Comforts: Soft Sofas and the Demise of Modernist Morality in 1970s Finland, Minna Sarantola-Weiss, Helsinki City Museum, Finland
9. Jacob Jensen and the Lifa Kitchen: Branding the ’Lifestyle Kitchen’ with Designer Personality and Mythology, Hans-Christian Jensen, University of Southern Denmark, Denmark
PART 3: MEDIATIONS
10. Something Old, Something New, Something Stolen, Something Blue: Designing a Chocolate Bar, Stig Kvaal and Per Østby, both Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway
11. Exhibitable Furniture: Interpreting Images of Design, Malene Breunig, University of Southern Denmark, Denmark
12. The Advantages of Being Swedish: Volvo in America, Jeff Werner, Stockholm University, Sweden
13. From Policies To Politics: Finnish Design on the Ideological Battlefield in the 1960s and 1970s, Pekka Korvenmaa, Aalto University, Finland
Epilogue, Kjetil Fallan
Bibliography
Index
Most 20th-century accounts of Scandinavian design have depended on clichéd descriptors such as ‘humane’, ‘democratic’, ‘organic’ and ’blond’. The authors of the twelve highly stimulating essays in this new anthology on the subject, skilfully assembled by design historian Kjetil Fallan, overtly reject those tired terms and, instead, offer 21st-century readers a reinvigorated account that is richer, more diverse and, most importantly, more analytical and scholarly. The book brings together new information, new approaches and a new set of narratives that make us look again at the idea of Scandinavian design. These alternative histories challenge existing orthodoxies and, as such, are guaranteed to become key design historical texts of the 21st century.
This landmark book nudges our understanding of Scandinavian design beyond IKEA and Hans Wegner’s teak chairs. Heralded for some time, the subject has, until now, offered a frustratingly limited selection of literature in English. From the Reverse Vending Machine’s ’Hole in the Wall’ to Oslo’s streamlined ’Goldfish’ trams, design stars like Jacob Jensen to the Swedish Cooperative Union’s plastic grocery bags and ’graffiti board’, Scandinavian Design covers material that will appeal to casual readers. But its smart, knowledgeable essays make this book a first stop for anyone interested in the full story of Scandinavian design.
- Title: Scandinavian Design: Alternative Histories
- Author: Kjetil Fallan
- Publisher: Berg Publishers
- Print Publication Date: 2013
- Logos Release Date: 2024
- Pages: 288
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Ebook
- ISBNs: 9780857852182, 9781847889119, 1847889115, 0857852183
- Resource ID: LLS:9780857852182
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2025-04-22T10:04:35Z
Kjetil Fallan is Associate Professor of Design History in the Department of Philosophy, Classics, History of Art and Ideas at the University of Oslo, Norway, and the author of
Design History(Berg, 2010).