Evolution of Designer Scandinavian Furniture

From the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe there once came a wave of Modernist-style designed Scandinavian furniture, as the region embraced the design type as a whole. By this, we don’t mean to suggest that Scandinavian furniture was anywhere near uniform throughout the countries that make up its members, but rather, each nation brought to the table a unique design type. Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark and Iceland offered a multifaceted style of Modernism in furniture that would take the rest of the world by storm with riveting, svelte design forms.


Brief History of Scandinavian Design

Much of Scandinavian design pre-1900 was focused around the traditional crafts areas, and generally centered on local national folklore, and other natural inspirations. Drawing on the full length and breadth of their cultural wealth we would see that the Scandinavian nations each had distinct approach, such as the Norwegian embrace of Viking revival imagery.

As some Nordic nations embraced Art Nouveau, some new ideas that would come to the fore later on, began to manifest themselves. One such that we can’t but help stress the importance of, traces its roots back to this period and is the idea that the masses should benefit from affordable, yet tasteful, design, instead of merely the rich and famous. Since then, this one guiding principle has been often viewed as a backbone of Scandinavian furniture and design.

Throughout most of its history, Scandinavian design has constantly revolved around practicality and its growth as a major Modernist design influence did not alter that. We can’t tell when exactly Scandinavian design became known as a unit, rather than the sum of its distinct nation-parts, however, today, it is a common enough term to denote the unique designs from the Nordic nations.


Evolution of Principles within Furniture

Despite hailing from different origins, Scandinavian furniture as a whole has been thought to have strikingly similar qualities that are said to be based on ideological similarities. Ever since the rise of Modernism and the major influence the Nordic nations played within the design form, they have constantly been associated with their very own style of humanist Modernism, one that we can’t help but notice.

Other unifying ideas that are also tied along to Scandinavian furniture and design style are those of modesty, quietude, purposefulness and moderation. Also, the eternal quest for perfectionism, and the driving desire to find the ‘ideal form’ cuts across the borders of the nations. Through this careful and thoughtful approach, came the eventual reputation of Scandinavian furniture to be long lasting and of high quality, though we feel that it probably first came into being in relation to Danish furniture in particular.

By containing their quest for ideal forms within a practicality and humanist framework, gradually Nordic furniture has progressed forward with new, and sometimes revolutionary, designs. At the same time however, there are still ‘classics’ in terms of furniture design that some remain true too, due to their timeless elegance, and sterling quality.

Today, Scandinavian furniture covers a variety of forms and styles, but despite these differences, they are still guided by the principles and ideas that have hallmarked the region for many years. We can’t say exactly what path Scandinavian furniture may take as it continues to develop, and evolve, but what we do know for sure is that it should be enthralling nonetheless.