Dear Elin,
One perspective from which to begin to answer your question is to consider the domain of design knowledge as a system with two interacting subsystems consisting of the discipline of design and the field of professional design practice. Taking this perspective is useful since it can help explain things at the micro level of designed products and the macro level of national design policies.
Alvar Aalto’s Stool 60 is an example of the integration of design knowledge at the micro level. In particular, the L-leg component of Stool 60 is an example of design innovation that integrates knowledge from the design discipline and knowledge from the design profession. The L-leg is a solid birch wood leg with a 90° bend at the top. Alvar Aalto obtained a patent for the design of the L-Leg in 1933 and Artek manufactured the stool from 1935. Here is a video showing the production of Stool 60 today https://vimeo.com/67113348
The L-leg is an example of the integration of first, socio-cultural knowledge and design competences, and second, knowledge of industrial production technologies and knowledge of economics and international markets. In Finland prior to the 1930s, furniture, ceramics and textiles were mostly produced by craftspeople under the direction of a master architect. However, Finland’s independence from Russia in 1917, the emergence of the new urban lifestyles, and the development of new product categories such as electric irons and stoves meant that new design languages were needed for this new socio-cultural milieu. The emergence of functionalist design at this time also enabled craftspeople to develop competences that were recognized as independent from those of architects. Furthermore, one of Finland’s main forms of industrial production and export at the time was birch plywood. And even though the functionalist design language was not so popular locally in Finland, Alvar Aalto and Aino Aalto had traveled throughout Europe and were aware of the demand for modern design in the large European cities such as London, Paris, and Berlin. The development of the 90° bend at the top of the L-Leg integrates these four different components of design knowledge within a single product: from the discipline of design there is socio-cultural knowledge of new modern lifestyles and knowledge of new design competences in functionalist design language; from the profession of design, knowledge of birch materials and laminated plywood manufacturing, and knowledge of economics and international markets.
These four components of design knowledge make up what Pekka Korvenmaa (2001) has termed “The Finnish System of Design”. In the 1930s these components were still in a nascent state but today they are organized at the macro level within the national design policy. Finnish design policy deals with these different components of design knowledge through four type of institutions. Socio-cultural knowledge is institutionalized within the heritage activities of the Design Museum, knowledge of design competences is organized within the activities of education institutions such as Aalto University, knowledge of professional practice and industry is organized within design-driven companies and enterprises, and design knowledge for international competitiveness is organized through the activities Design Forum Finland.
Warm wishes,
Luke
Luke Feast, PhD | Postdoctoral Researcher in Design | Department of Design | School of Arts, Design and Architecture | Aalto University | Finland
Korvenmaa, P. (2001). Rhetoric and Action: Design Policies in Finland at the Beginning of the third Millennia. Scandinavian Journal Of Design History, 117-15.
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