Danes have design in their DNA. Professor Per H. Hansen’s masterly history of Danish modern furniture history 1930-2016 presents a refreshing perspective from a business historian who weaves together ideas about image, branding, and national identity to reposition the standard narrative of modern and thoughtful Danish furniture design.
Minimalistic
Scandinavian design has a spare elegance rooted in minimalist principles. Everything in the space is selected with care and serves a defined purpose. The resulting effect is calming—with the visual field free of clutter, the mind can focus on other things, making it easier to relax and unwind.
Scandinavian furniture designers have become famous all over the world, but Denmark has emerged as the standout leader in the region. Hansen’s book recasts the story of Danish furniture in terms of cultural entrepreneurship and explores how tastes and fashion were shaped by cultural brand narrative.
Neutrals never go out of style
Finn Juhl was the Scandinavian master of color. Bold designs are the focus of the room – drawing eyes from the minute people enter and demonstrating how a light background provides timeless support for colorful prints and patterns. Hansen’s comprehensive business history of the rise, fall, and rise again of Danish Modern design is for academics, design professionals, critics, and enthusiasts alike.
Functionalism
Scandinavian rooms traditionally run small, so the use of space is vital. Removing unnecessary items, and replacing them with pieces that have multiple uses, is key. “We understand design on so many levels in Denmark. It is so deeply rooted in us through everything we are exposed to, from the cycle lanes to the signage,” said Maria Bruun, one of the new and award-winning stars of Danish furniture design in an interview with the prestigious magazine Monocle.
Professor Per H. Hansen’s book on Danish modern furniture design sheds new light on what has become an internationally well-known phenomenon. While scholars and others have offered different explanations of Danish Modern’s success, Per H. Hansen’s great achievement is the combination of a number of approaches and his close reading of original sources.
Durability
Because of their simple, versatile design, Scandinavian furniture works with the space in which it finds itself, rather than against it. One visible magnification was the rise of furniture and homeware companies such as Hay, which brought high-quality Danish design in the high street in the 2000s (subsequently bought by a US furniture giant).
From the combination of business history, design history, material culture and sociology a new understanding of Danish Modern’s rise, decline and re-emergence as a cultural market category comes to light in Hansen’s book.
Cozy homeliness
Scandinavians choose items that align with their style, rather than chasing trends, which come and go. Danish ‘hygge’ is the perfect example of this. The shift to a more academic oriented design education might explain the simultaneous rise to prominence of the social sciences within design and architecture in Denmark.
“I have been a big fan of Danish modern furniture for many years. Then, one fateful day in the late 1990s, I decided to write about it from a perspective inspired by my professional background as an economic and business historian. Combining hobby and professional interest – passion and academic distance – proved a challenge and much harder than I envisioned. The first result was published in Danish in 2006 and ever since I have wanted to publish an English edition. Here it is, at last, in a thoroughly revised version, which, I believe, has benefited from my getting older and wiser, on Danish Modern anyway, in the decade that has passed,” writes Professor Per H. Hansen in the preface of the English version.
Thoughtful Danish Design, edited by Tor Kjolberg
Feature image (on top) © Kaizenaire