Danish design and ‘hygge’

I've always been intrigued by Denmark. I’ve always wondered how a country that receives a measly 4 hours of sunlight a day for months throughout the year repeatedly manages to claim the impressive title of having 'the world's happiest people'. For as long as i've been interested in design, i've been interested in Danish design. The iconic Scandinavian design of elegant simplicity is one that is acknowledged all around the world. Even in Australia we have a little piece (or rather big, piece) of Denmark sitting right in our our iconic Sydney Harbour. Australia's most internationally recognisable building, the Sydney Opera House, was designed by none other than Jørn Utzon, a Dane. Living Danishly written by Helen Russell, is about an English woman who moves to Denmark out of her husband's new job placement, and investigates what it is about the Danish way of life that creates the world's happiest people. In one of Russell’s chapters in uncovering the Danish secret to happiness, she was notably informed  about the relationship that exists between furniture design and national identity in Denmark. Anne-Louise Summer, director of the Design Museum Denmark, told Russell that, "good design is extremely important to us, all Danes see a clear relationship between your aesthetic environment and how you feel". 

BAUHAUS INFLUENCE

After WWII the Danes were keen at moving forward and decided to put a substantial amount of money into their design sector. With strong influences of the modernistic principles from the German Bauhaus school, Danish furniture designers were continuously producing works of comfort, functionalism, style, and affordability. With limited money after the war, the Danes were forced to utilise local materials, and this is why we can see plywood and teak hardwood being so prominent in Danish design. Anne-Louise Summer also mentioned on how natural good design is to the Danish. She explained to Russell that, “...if you stood in the street and asked a Dane, they might not have a reflective relationship with culture and design- but this is because they haven’t had to. It’s internalised in their consciousness. We are simply used to having nice surroundings. It starts from the very beginning of life. Children come to school and interact with quality architecture and furniture, and so from an early age they develop an understanding that functional yet beautiful design is essential to realising the good life. Then when they grow up and work in offices or public spaces, most Danes experience a high-quality environment combining function and design”. 

ABODE

A Danes home interior is poised, prized, and personal. Home design is a big part of the Dane’s life because it's where they spend their most time, especially in the long dark winers. Their homes are never messy nor cluttered, because they respect their living spaces, and because their interiors are closely tied to their identity. In the first chapter of Living Danishly, Russell and her husband are being showed rental homes by a Danish real estate agent where Russell is amazed at the tidiness of the rental homes, asking if the current renters knew Russell was coming in order for them to tidy up.  Their Danish real estate agent looked at Russell puzzlingly and said; "Tidy up? Before visitors? Is that what British people do? Danes try to keep their homes nice all the time".

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Why the French aren't as rude as you like to think they are.

You probably like to think that you have the French all worked out. Every time you hear or read, ‘The French’, you have your own idea about what that represents. Unless you’ve spent a considerable amount of time in France, studied French, or in fact are, French; there’s a big chance that your idea comfortably rests on a skewed cultural stereotype. You may enjoy France’s fashion, cheese and wine, but you still think they’re rude, arrogant, and pretentious. Different things may have influenced this; maybe it was a friend’s holiday story about their time with an unfriendly Parisian waiter, or maybe it has something to do with how the thieves and mistresses in films always manage to be French. As a society we enjoy stereotypes because they’re cognitively efficient. We find comfort in repetition, and just like we enjoy watching our favourite films again and again, the ‘experiential control’ makes us feel at ease when we know how stories will end. We also find comfort in numbers, creating easy bandwagons. When we travel abroad and discover how other cultures work, our own culture is always our first point of reference. Cultural stereotypes are like accents, they’re always only relative to your own. Since being in France, I’ve encountered some of the funniest and friendliest people I’ve met in my life; and this is why I roll my eyes each time I overhear someone talking about their ‘cold nature’. When travelling to a foreign country, it’s indispensable in having a basic understanding for that country’s existing norms and values in order to be respectful to its people, and in turn, to be respected, by its people. The catalyst for this rude French stereotype has unquestionably stemmed from unawareness about their rules of social conduct. I am not French, and I will never be French, but I have a good idea about how they work, and this is why I can see both sides to the story. I am merely the observer, the messenger, the ‘cultural translator’ if you like, and this is why I can tell you why the French aren’t as rude as you like to think they are..

Read the rest of the article at BABU

Photo from the beautiful Montpellier, France 2012