The Danish way; designing for circularity
Collaboration with The Ellen MacArthur Foundation on what we can learn from the Danish design heritage
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I love danish design and the tradition it represents. To me that is taking the time to care and revere high quality of both materials, aesthetics and craftsmanship. That’s why I was really happy to collaborate with The Ellen MacArthur Foundation and write a piece about it for them and to share a shorter version of it with you here.
Luxurious, high-quality, handcrafted design, built to last, and made to be made again — created using scrap from your local landfill. Doesn’t exactly sound like your traditional premium-product description, does it? Yet, in the not-too-distant future, it might be just that.
One of the core goals of a circular economy is to eliminate waste generation and stop materials from ending up in landfill or being incinerated. This is a task carried out in two different ways. In the medium to long term, we need to, and will, design our way out of the problem from its root by making sure that new products are made and used in ways that prevent them from ever becoming waste. But first — right here and now — we have to find smart ways to make use of the immense amount of waste we have already generated and will most likely continue to create in the transition period to a circular economy. How many of the products you own now, for example, will end up as waste within the next ten years?
The challenge here is to carry out the two tasks at once: to address the problem of waste in the short term — with waste-to-resource innovations that will be used for a long time and can be reused, remanufactured, or recycled — without forgetting the long-term goal of designing out waste from the start. Most importantly, we must not repeat the mistakes of the past by getting stuck in a temporary solution where the financial incentives connected to production and management of waste slow us down.
Learning from Danish design
In the late 1940s, when the world was recovering from the second world war and busy with rebuilding our cities, businesses, and society, the likes of Finn Juhl, Hans J. Wegner, and Børge Mogensen made their best and most treasured pieces of furniture. Today, Danish design is globally renowned for its high quality of both materials, craftsmanship, and aesthetics. But it was in the post-war years that the Danish design industry — as well as the global design industry — really did thrive, creating iconic designs we still revere today.
Most of the designs from that time have never become waste. Quite the opposite. Due to their use of high quality materials and their timeless look, the pieces are still in use, passed down from generation to generation, and even bought and sold at higher prices than when they were first produced. They are a clear example of how desirability and creativity can lead to business that thrives in a post-crisis environment.
Recently, one of the last traditional cabinetmakers and a true craftsman of the post-war period, Ejner Pedersen, passed away. He was responsible for bringing many of Hans J. Wegner and Poul Kjærholm’s designs to the world and will be remembered for having said: “I usually say we make free furniture. If you give so much money for a chair today, then in many years — when you’re done using it — you will be able to sell it for the same.”
For him, it was not a matter of designing for circular economy. It was a matter of quality — of both material and design. Making sure that it would stand the test of time and still function well and be aesthetically appealing many years later.
Good design thus has durability at its core because design is deliberate. There is an inherent value in the design process due to the choices we actively make. A colour, an object, a specific shape — our decisions are never random but always thought through, made with both eyes open, and by questioning the status quo. Therefore, design is functionality. It enables intentionality. It is design that enables us to change the rules of the game in order to create a regenerative society for all to thrive in.
Congratulations you made it through the first half! If you want to read the rest of my article please head over to The Ellen MacArthur Foundations free story here
Best Ditte