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Northern Exposures/
A Designed World We Live In

February 17, 2003
6 AM

If Copenhagen is just a small city in a small country on the edge of Europe, it's hard to reconcile its role as the center of design in Europe. But look around: Marimekko, Ikea, Nokia, Electrolux - so many design standards originated here, or so they say, it takes on the aura of a conspiracy. Who are these people? What do they know? Who do they know? What is their secret? Do they know where I live? (More importantly, do they approve of my furnishings?)

Possibly. They certainly know I have (or have had) an Electrolux, that I typed on an IBM (the classic Selectric, and later the one with the self-correcting ribbon, before the age of Spellcheck), that I use a Nokia 6160, and probably that at one time (I admit it) I had a girlfriend who decorated her beachside cabin in Marimekko. (Andrea, where are you now?) But if it's not a conspiracy, what is it? An acquired taste? Socialist school training? Or simply a genetic predisposition, that these tall blonde bony types go for light colors and long lines in design? Ah, the old nature vs. nurture controversy, here resolved.

What we, in our part of the world, know about Danes is their reputed melancholy. (Hamlet's castle, at Helsingore, dropped off the itinerary in favor of yet another art museum.) As in hot-blooded Latin, moody Russian, melancholy Dane… it's almost a dog-breed, the Hamlet Hound. Which doesn't begin to explain the bright cheery perky girls we find here, at Latitude 57 North.

Take, for instance, the talent at the new Danish Design Center, on Hans Christian Andersen Blvd. (I kid you not). Table displays show off the materials used in manufactured goods, from wood and leather to ceramic, metals and plastics. I learn the difference between iron and steel (lead content), and more importantly between rock and stone: a stone is a rock with a purpose - you pick up a rock, but throw a stone. A stone fence is made of rocks. The Stones play rock and roll… well, that may be a stretch, but the distinction strikes me as incredibly significant and meaningful. (It might be the jet lag, but even if it is, at least I've learned something on this trip, and it's only Day Two.)

The rest of the rooms at the Design Center feature displays of fabric and pillows, industrial artifacts and toys, and other examples of applied art that drive home the message: it's a designed world we live in, and the designer is Scandinavian. I move from room to room shooting photographs, not listening to the interview Jim Holt is having downstairs with the first in our series of "hot young designers" (I can always read about Day 1 on the web, or check out the video). Instead I tune up my aesthetics, sharpen my eyes, try to turn my head just so to catch the light in a new and different way - a way that reveals something more about the everyday objects we use, and otherwise take for granted.

Afterward we go to the lobby of the National Bank, another of Jacobsen's projects. Despite the armed guards and bullet-proof Plexiglas doors, they let us in to view the towering walls and suspended staircase. It would make a great setting for a gunfight, or chase scene - the Bourne Identity meets Danish Modern.

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