Design from Scandinavia, No. 8

Bjerregaard, Kirsten, Ed., Design from Scandinavia, No. 8, © 1979 World Pictures, Frederiksberg, Denmark, Soft cover, 144 Pages, 87-87541-08-4.

Each Year, Design from Scandinavia unfolds an exhibition in pictures of the best and latest products and shows the interplay of these objects in a setting and a lifestyle. This issue includes all Nordic countries - Iceland, Norway, Finland, Sweden, and Denmark.

About this Publication

The annual presentation of Scandinavian furniture, textiles, handicrafts, and applied art. This time with more pages, over 500 color illustrations, all texts in four languages, and an invitation to everyone who furnishes with Scandinavian products.

Contents

For the tenth time, we present a view of some essential aspects of Scandinavian design. In the beginning, this design publication was purely Danish, but it quickly expanded to cover the whole of Scandinavia. More recently, architecture and building products were made the subject of "Architecture from Scandinavia." We display all our past editions on page 128.

In this tenth edition of "Design from Scandinavia," we have tried, as always, to give an impression of the best and latest in furniture, furnishing textiles, and applied art. But we have also attempted to provide the background for these things in the respective Scandinavian countries. We present some of the new items from the Furniture Fair in May and give a slight impression of the extent of the permanent Scandinavian furniture mart in Bella Center. And finally, we express a hope for the future. We want to show how Scandinavian products are used elsewhere globally, and we invite you to participate in doing so on page 126.

The Scandinavian countries, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden, lie in the corner of Europe. All traditional farming countries which were late in developing industries could, for this reason, retain their cultural inheritance essentially unchanged. Today they form a region with a common prevailing approach to life and shared social ideals. One can also discern many common features in Scandinavian design.

The living conditions offered by developing countries with harsh climatic conditions made it necessary to emphasize quality, durability, and function. And this persists as a background for Scandinavian production, even if modern welfare has given more scope for things of the spirit. By respecting this identity, Scandinavia has developed a considerable export of furniture, textiles, porcelain, glass, silver, light fittings, and many other objects intended for furnishing and decoration. We make the things that please us. They are a natural part of our way of life.