_ 22. November. 2011
CELEBRATING
SCANDINAVIA
_PAGE 06
TIMOTHY JACOB JENSEN
ON FUNCTIONALISM
_PAGE 10
SCANDINAVIA’S MOST
IMPORTANT BRANDS
_PAGE 15
THE ARCTIC CIRCLE’S
NATURAL PHENOMENA
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celebrating scandinavia
CONTRIBUTORS
HANNA NOVA BEATRICE
Beatrice is the Stockholm-based editor
in chief of the Swedish title Plaza Interior
and consulting editor of Form Magazine.
She is the founder of design magazine
Plaza Deco. During Stockholm Furniture Fair 2011 she curated the successful
exhibition 20 designers at Biologiska.
Distributed in
Publisher
Eliza Allen
Editor
Josh Sims
Your feedback is valued by us.
Please send in your opinions to
[email protected]
For information about partnering
with Raconteur Media please contact
Freddie Ossberg: +44 (0)20 7033 2100,
[email protected],
www.raconteurmedia.co.uk
Design
The Surgery
The information contained in this
publication has been obtained from
sources the proprietors believe to be
correct. However, no legal liability can
be accepted for any errors. No part of
this publication may be reproduced
withoutthe prior consent of the Publisher.
© RACONTEUR MEDIA
GLYN BROWN
Brown has written about music,
film, books and travel for The Times,
Independent, Guardian and Sunday
Telegraph; she’s contributed to magazines from Mojo to Time Out, i-D and
Museums Journal.
JONATHAN BELL
Bell is a London-based architecture
writer for Wallpaper magazine among
other titles. His books include The New
Modern House: Redefining Functionalism.
KATJA PANTZAR
Pantzar is a Helsinki-based writer
and editor, currently with Sanoma
Magazines Finland.
Josh Sims
Sims is a freelance writer contributing to
the likes of The Times and Esquire among
others. His latest book, Icons of Men’s
Style, is published by Laurence King
MARTIN BEWICK
Bewick is a freelance writer and
editor based in London, specialising in
the arts, culture and travel, non-profit
and charity publications. He previously taught literature at the University of
Essex. He blogs on flash fiction, cultural
criticism and vegetarian cooking.
NICK COMPTON
Compton is features director of
Wallpaper magazine. He has also written
about design, photography, film, fashion,
lifestyle and architecture for magazines
such as Arena Homme Plus, Details, iD,
Numero and The Observer Magazine.
© archideaphoto
BRAND
ON THE RUN
OPINION Thanks in large part to IKEA, and the desire to modernise our homes, Scandinavian design has
become so well-known as to have effectively become a brand in its own right. But, asks Hanna Nova Beatrice,
editor of the Swedish magazine Plaza Interior, is it a brand past its sell-by date too?
ȖȖ When the French designer Inga
Sempé made her first product for
the Swedish furniture manufacturer
Gärsnäs earlier this year, her aim
was to make something ”simple and
light”. The result, the beautiful but
strictly minimalistic chair Österlen,
was made of Swedish ash and partly
manufactured in Denmark, where old
Scandinavian bentwood techniques
are still used. It ticked all the right
boxes for what has become recognised
globally as ‘Scandinavian’ design - and
has been celebrated for such.
Indeed, it seems that the notion
of what constitutes Scandinavian
design not only exists in the mind
of the consumer, but most probably in the mind of any international
designer collaborating with a company from the Nordic region too.
The only question is, how relevant
is this image today? After all, it has
been 60 years since the touring
exhibition Design in Scandinavia
cemented the view of what Nordic
design should be.
Ask some of the younger Scandinavian design brands and the
answer is, perhaps not surprisingly,
yes. Danish producer Muuto and
Design House Stockholm in Sweden
have both based their entire brand
awareness around this widespread
conception of Scandinavian design,
the latter even describing itself as a
”publishing house of contemporary
Scandinavian design”. They are well
aware of the reputation Scandinavian design has abroad, and use it as
a common denominator and powerful sales tool.
But if you look at the governmental initiatives, it is a very different
picture. According to Ewa Kumlin,
managing director of the Swedish
Society of Crafts and Design, each
Nordic country increasingly works
on its own national branding, which
design naturally is a key part of.
“We experienced more of a natural
collaboration in the previous decades,” she explains, noting the exhibition HEMMA: Swedish design
Goes London, which she co-curated
during the London Design Festival
Each Nordic country
increasingly works on its own
national branding, which
design naturally is a key part of
this year. Alongside other partly
government-funded initiatives
from the neighbouring countries,
such as 100% Norway and Mindcraft, organised by Danish Craft, it is
clear that each country wants to put
itself, rather than Scandinavia, on the
international design map.
Perhaps this is only natural? After
all, we live in a time when the interest
in the locally-produced is increasing,
and brands are realising that they
need to promote the values of their
own heritage. The last decade has
seen designers in the Nordic countries exploring their own roots, especially since new technologies have
made a return to local and smallscale production more viable.
The result is a new scene somewhat
counter to that which has traditionally been recognised as Scandinavian design, one that has been in the
ascendant for the last half decade. It
was already apparent when the British
Crafts Council staged the exhibition
Beauty and the Beast - New Swedish
Design in London in 2005, showing
25 of the most influential designers
working in furniture, lighting and
glass in Sweden. Instead of the almost
stereotypical notion of cool, cleanlined Scandinavian design, there was
revealed a side to it that is rarely promoted: design with an inclination
towards introspection, melancholia
and, yes, even a touch of humour.
This trend towards underscoring
individual national identities, and
highlighting work that does not fit
comfortably with expectations looks
set only to grow. Next year, for example, the ISCID congress has chosen
Helsinki as the World Design Capital,
which no doubt will strengthen the
awareness of Finnish design abroad.
And when A Bright, a new Chinese
furniture producer aiming to furnish the middle class Chinese home,
launches next year, it will bypass the
notion of Scandinavian design altogether, instead using ten top Swedish designers to sell contemporary
Swedish design to its huge domestic market. With moves like these,
in a few years maybe the notion of
Scandinavian design may be just a
footnote in design history.
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celebrating scandinavia
PHOTO: Martin Scott-Jupp
THINKING ANEW
NEW Scandinavian designERS Scandinavian design has long been in the doldrums,
dependent on its august past. But, thanks to an international perspective and a fresh
playfulness, a new generation of designers is now coming to the fore, says Nick Compton
ȖȖ There are many reasons to find
Ikea, the experience and the product, rather depressing; those meatballs, the trolley hell of the basement
bazaar, the giant bags of useless tealights one ends up buying. But the
most melancholy aspect of Ikea’s
success is that it is now the flag
bearer for Scandinavian design.
This is to belie the impact and relevance, even half a century on, of
the more true heart of that design
ethos, with its good design for everyday and everyone idealism. That
sales pitch is one that is now being
answered with new vigor. Indeed,
the interest in Scandinavian design
is now at an all time high, according
to design commentator Henrietta
Thompson, who has worked with
the Norwegian Embassy for the last
five years on the design show 100%
Norway. “It’s everywhere,” she says.
“You can’t open a lifestyle magazine
without an Alvar Aalto 60 stool, Arne
Jacobsen flatware, or a lovely Louis
Poulsen lamp featuring somewhere,
rip-off or otherwise.”
So great has this renewed interest been, even McDonald’s is now
stocked with knock-off Arne Jacobsen Egg chairs, while specialist retail-
ers such as London’s Skandium sell
expensive re-issues of the Nordic
classics to a metropolitan elite. But
what the success of this design pincer movement hides is the degree
to which Scandinavian design arguably lost the creative initiative a
long time ago - to the Italian Memphis school, to the conceptualism
of Dutch design, the new industrial
evangelism of Konstantin Gric, a
German, the re-imagined modernism of Brits such as Barber Osgerby
or the almost cartoon playfulness of
the Spaniard Jaime Hayon.
As Thompson points out, the sheer
weight of the Scandinavian design
legacy has, in some ways, held a generation of new Scandinavian designers back. “The contemporary design
scene there has been criticised in
the past for being too stuck in the
past, being boring, with every young
designer just trying to be the next
Aalto or Arne Jacobsen,” she says.
“But that’s changing now, with the
new generation at last finding its own
voice - using new technologies and
materials, showing more of an international influence too.”
What designers - such as the Swedish trio Front, fellow Swede Martin
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Björnson, the Danes Mathias Bengtsson and Line Depping, the Norwegian design collectives Angell Wyller
Aarseth and Anderssen & Voll, country-mates Hallgeir Hommstvedt and
Magnus Peterson and the Finns
Aamu Song and Johan Olin, known
collectively as Company, and Harri
Koskinen - have finally learned to
do is take the founding principles of
20th century Scandinavian design
and successfully update them.
The geographical
breadth of their design
education is breathing
new energy into their
Scandinavian approach
The cream perhaps remains. The
Angell Wyller Aarseth collective
argues that it is operating by the
same guiding principles as the Scandinavian design gods Aalto, Wegner
et al. “We still work with the idea of
‘as little design as possible’,” it says.
Left:
Below:
Mathias Bengtsson
Hay - one of the new generation
Slice Ply Chair
of Scandinavian design companies
“We want to build on the style which
has its roots in traditional craftsmanship and making it fit for the
contemporary industry and lifestyle
needs. We still work with the familiar, with archetypes, stripped down
but shaped in a characteristic way.”
There is the same classically Scandinavian emphasis on materials,
particularly wood. And the understanding that: “You cannot fake a
good product through good ideas
alone; a product will never be any
better than the efforts the manufacturer is willing to invest in it,” as
the collective stresses.
Line Depping makes a similar case:
“There are definitely lasting characteristics of Scandinavian design.
Shape and function are always
closely related. When I look at a table
or a chair I will always look underneath to see how it has been solved.
You cannot cheat..”
But the key to the success of Scandinavian designers now is that these
principles are being taken forward,
applied in new ways, notably with
some playfulness, as Martin Björnson’s Octopus stools suggest. The
new Scandinavians are never reluctant to combine fine natural materials and handcrafts with the latest
in tool technologies either. Think of
Front Design with their 3-D Sketch
furniture for example, or Mathias
Bengtsson, with the amazing topography of his Slice Ply Chair.
Of course a design movement or
moment is about more than individual designers. It’s about them having somewhere to work and a system
that will keep new and better designers coming along. And industry and
education have been key reasons for
the eclipse of Scandinavian design.
Italian manufacturers have dominated high-end design for half a century. A more recent development has
been the ascendancy of London’s
Royal College of Arts and Design
Academy Eindhoven as the leading
design academies with schools like
Switzerland’s ECAL also challenging strongly. And while Scandinavian
students and designers can and do
travel to study and work, it inevitably leads to a dilution to a particular
Scandinavian design style. Or perhaps it has lead to a healthy internationalisation of Scandinavian design.
“In the past decade the world just
got so much more global in so many
ways. And where designers study and
who they do work experience for or
where they settle for a while tends
to have a stronger influence on their
styles than their national identity,”
argues Sophie Lovell, author of the
design book Limited Edition. The
geographical breadth of their design
education is breathing new energy
into their Scandinavian approach.
Magnus Pettersen is a case in point.
“I am naturally inspired by 20th century Scandinavian design,” he says.
“But having a design education from
the UK, I am influenced by a number
of cultures and styles.”
The success of Scandinavian
design at the moment might be
exactly because it has absorbed
other influences and become part
of a new Scandinavian design orthodoxy that, after some hiatus, ticks all
the right boxes. This is how Kerstin
Wickman, professor of the history of
design and craft, at Konstfack, University College of Arts and Design in
Stockholm, sees it. For her the new
interest in natural materials, sustainability and craftsmanship have
inevitably led to a renewed interest in Scandinavian design. But that
has moved on and become part of a
larger design movement that is also
influenced by Dieter Rams, Jasper
Morrison, Vico Maggistreti...
Indeed, well-established Scandinavian design companies the likes
of Iittala, Marimekko, Svenskt Tenn,
and Artek have recently all learned
how to get the most out of impressive
back catalogues whilst also making
the most of this new wave of talent.
And as Depping points out, there
are new companies launching all the
time to push Scandinavian design
still further forward. “Look at Hay,
Muuto, Normann Copenhagen,” he
suggests. “They are interested in new
designs, both international and Danish design - and that’s of enormous
importance, because design then
doesn’t become something from the
past, but what we create today.”
celebrating scandinavia
HAMMER
Image courtesy of Phillips de Pury & Company
TO FALL
design INVESTMENT With the first major
auction of Scandinavian furniture this
month, could now be a good time to start
hoarding some contemporary classics of
tomorrow, asks Nick Compton
ȖȖ Only after the century was done
and dusted did 20th century design
become a serious collectible worth
serious amounts of money. The
major auction houses started to dedicate time and staff to it and, most
notably, a cabal of Parisian design
galleries created a market for the
French modernists the likes of Jean
Prouvé and Charlotte Perriand by a
very controlled release of pieces after
years of careful collecting, collating
and documenting.
Indeed, Scandinavian design,
though much admired and collected,
was a little overshadowed by the success of its French - ironically more
industrially-minded - counterpart.
But now comes its moment in the
limelight. Phillips de Pury, the auction house that has done the most to
promote the market for 20th century
design, held a major Nordic design
sale in London this month: 120 lots
in the sale generated sales of some
£2.3m, with some big money spent.
A Spiral wall light by Poul Henningsen sold for an artist’s record
of £253,250. A pair of Paavo Tynell
standard lamps went for £32,450 eight times the estimate.
For Alexander Payne, Phillips
worldwide director of design, the
show could prove something of a
watershed for how Scandinavian
design is viewed by collectors of 20th
century and contemporary design.
“This is an enormous market for
the future with new collectors coming to it every year,” he says. “The
future is very exciting - this sale
has been one of the most warmly
received in the market - and there
is a popular belief that this sale has
changed the face of how Scandinavian design is perceived.”
Alvar Aalto’s early
Paimio armchair,
1932 - worth
perhaps £40,000
in mint condition
This is an enormous
market for the future
Of course, the design market is not
yet the place for those looking for
guaranteed returns - and probably
never will be. That doesn’t mean that
big money doesn’t change hands for
the work of Scandinavia’s big-name
designers. In the current market you
could be looking at £20,000-£30,000
to take home a 1930 chair by Swedish designer Erik Gunnar Asplund
or up to £150,000 for a 1924 table by
fellow Swede Anna Petrus. On the
other hand, a 1932 armchair by the
Finnish designer Alvar Aalto, one
the true godfathers of Scandinavian
design, may fetch between £38,000
and £42,000 - though, while prices
are likely to hold, the returns on such
investments further up the line are
unpredictable given the newness of
the market.
As Payne makes clear, the recent
auction - curated by the American
architect Lee F. Mindel and sold as
much as an historical survey as a
highest-bidder bunfight - is something of an opening shot in this
market, an attempt to educate and
draw in collectors, experienced and
novice. What it is not is a simple run
through the obvious big names or
blue-chip safe bets - because, for
the moment at least, Scandinavian
design history doesn’t offer as such.
“We don’t consider Scandinavian/Nordic design to be a ‘safe
bet’,” insists Payne. “What’s exciting and unique for the market is less
the usual suspects as fresh talent
and bringing new designers to the
market. Collectors are digging deep
into Scandinavian culture, exploring
the world of the cabinet makers and
glass/ceramic artists and the different styles and expressions coming
out of this region. They are discover-
ing new and exciting designers they
have never seen before such as Eva
Hild, Björn Ekström, Kaj Gottlob and
Vilhelm Lauritzen.”
Indeed, Payne suggests that the real
investment pieces are every bit as
likely to be found in clever buys of the
designers working today - designers
working in the distinctive, accessible Scandinavian tradition but still
at ‘everyday’ prices, and so offering
the best chance for a major return
in decades to come. “We are watching this area of the market very carefully,” he says. “The new generation of
Scandinavian designers is incredibly
exciting. Work by Jouko Kärkkäinen
is a beautiful example of where we see
Aalto’s design still inspiring today’s
designers. I would even say that many
up and coming Scandinavian designers are doing new work of international importance.”
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celebrating scandinavia
Jacob Jensen’s wind turbine functionalism at its purest
WORKING
WORLD
FUNCTIONALISM Sleek and stylish
Scandinavian products may be. But
they also work. Acclaimed designer
Timothy Jacob Jensen explains why
functionalism lies at the heart of the
region’s approach to design
TImothy Jacob Jensen
ȖȖ During the 70s, Denmark fell into
a deep energy crisis and, as concerns
over global warming grew in the 80s
it was a natural choice for it to invest
in renewable energy. Today, Denmark is at the forefront in developing commercial wind power, and
still remains as one of the largest
manufacturers of wind turbines in
the world.
Each graceful, utilitarian turbine
is a great example of functional
design in action - an approach that
is characteristically Scandinavian.
In fact, I would go so far to say that
it is essential to understand that in
Scandinavia functionality and society mirror each other.
Throughout the centuries, Scandinavian functionalism has grown out
from
Jacob
Jensen’s
Margrethe bowls
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the values that characterise the
region, politically, socially and culturally - above all a drive towards liberty, equality and a socially responsible democracy. These influences
refined a set of values that might
be said to underpin the meaning
of Scandinavianism: a preference
for the authentic - we prefer to use
genuine raw materials of the highest
quality as opposed to imitations; an
open-mindedness - we enjoy a high
amount of mental freedom and are
willing to consider different points
of view; a sense of responsibility - for
the world we live in; a strong sense of
the natural environment that characterises the land and which feeds a
good sense of aesthetics, materials
and colours; and a high regard for the
enduring - which means we strive for
intelligent solutions that make sense
today and in the future.
What might be said to unite these is
functionalism - a kind of democratic
design, appealing to modern consumers. It’s high quality, yet accessible and affordable. And it works.
Indeed, the vital need that objects
should just work has been embedded in the Scandinavian soul for centuries. After all, in these parts not
long ago it was a condition for basic
survival. The primary focus was on
need and function and secondarily
on beauty. With industrialisation it
was easier to survive, and then functionalism developed to also satisfy
a need for a sense of beauty. But it
remained nevertheless.
One great example of a product
that exudes functionality is the Margrethe Bowl, designed by my father
in 1955, selling over 50 million pieces
by 2005 and now one of the most
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represented products in the Danish
home. Perhaps this is one of those
products that have reached the apex
of functionalism. A few years ago,
to celebrate the 50th anniversary
of this melamine mixing bowl, the
manufacturer Rosti Mepal invited us
to develop a new generation. But we
failed. After designing over 70 models it became apparent that it was, we
felt, impossible to improve the basic
design. All we could do was adapt it
to modern living, by, for example,
adding drain holes to make it dishwasher-friendly.
Yet this approach applies as much
to larger industrial products as small,
homely ones. Volvo says in its mission statement that “good design is
not only a matter of styling the surface - it is just as important to make
the product easy to understand and
use. If the product is not functional,
it can’t be beautiful”. Saab, similarly,
has transposed the very necessary
utility of the cockpits of the fighter
jets it has historically made to the
cars it also makes. Each of its models has, for example, the ignition
slot down by the hand-brake. This is
more than whimsy. A key on the dash
has been proven to cause great injury
in some crashes. So Saab moved it.
This may all sound no more than
classic Bauhausian form follows
function. But there is more warmth
to the Scandinavian take on this philosophy. Designers today have been
influenced by the early, local craft
traditions here and the effective use
of limited material resources. The
fact that the industrial revolution came later to Scandinavia
than to the surrounding countries
has helped to preserve these very
human craft traditions even today.
In the encounter of the material
needs and the general human need
for beauty and empathy arise that
clean-lined minimalism with which
Scandinavian design is so associated. We tend not to like products
that don’t explain themselves - that
present unnecessary obstacles to
their ease of use.
The Finnish telecommunications
company Nokia, for instance, has
consistently applied inclusivity to its
products. Take for example, the Nokia
8810, designed in 1998, and compare
it a Nokia 8800, designed in 2005. Yes,
the materials and hardware may have
been updated to meet the needs of the
market but the underlying interface
functionality hasn’t changed at all. In
fact, any person who has ever used a
Nokia phone at one point or another
in their life will feel naturally familiar
with any model. That has also helped
give the devices wide appeal.
Indeed, it is not going too far to say
that Scandinavians see functionalism
as a force for social change. Many of
the artists, architects and intellectuals who participated in the early 20th
century radical movement across
Scandinavia also worked together to
create exhibitions and publish books,
newspapers and magazines. The
movement was strongly politically
influenced and advocated for change
through art and design. They in turn
had a wide influence and were truly
vital in creating the social changes
© credit
that took place, and they allowed no
superfluities, only functional rigor
and immediate beauty.
While some will argue that there
are differences country to country, generally Scandinavian design
has become a globally-recognised
style and ethos. Perhaps necessarily so. The Scandinavian market is
not large - that means it rarely warrants expensive marketing campaigns, but rather limits itself to
promote design as developed in
accordance with and adapted to
consumer needs; and a small population means both that it is hard
to market avant garde or overlyexpensive design concepts to consumers here, and that any design
company creates with exports in
mind. Fortunately, looking at the
sales figures, it seems that there are
plenty of customers ready to buy
into what comes naturally to us.
Timothy Jacob Jensen is a threetime winner of the Danish Industrial
Design Award and head of the Jacob Jensen design studio, founded
in 1958 by his father Jacob Jensen,
most famous for his work with Bang
& Olufsen. With over 700 products
designed since the 1950s, Jacob
Jensen is the most represented Danish designer in the home.
The vital need that objects
should just work was, not long ago,
a condition for basic survival
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RACONTEUR 07
celebrating scandinavia
EASY PIECES
FASHION London, Paris, Milan... Stockholm
and Helsinki? Scandinavia has no international
reputation for its fashion. But as its high quality
and simple yet contemporary style finds new
fans during the recession, all that looks set to
change, finds Josh Sims
ȖȖ It is not often that a fashion company will thank a recession for success. But a number of them are sitting pretty thanks to their sharing an
ethos that chimes with more considered consumer times. Their price, at
the upper middle-level, is accessible
without being punishing. Their quality
- the products nearly all being made in
Europe - is high, ensuring their products take plenty of wear. And their look
- directional but not avant-garde - is
interesting without dating overnight.
“And now they are making more of a
move from the edgy to the more commercial, without losing those defining
characteristics,” says Tove Westling.
“What might seem surprising is that so
many of these successful brands seem
to come from one place.”
Westling is referring to Scandinavia. If America has had its moment
in the fashion sun thanks to its everyday style, Italy its own thanks to
its high glamour and luxury goods
and the UK its time in the spotlight
due to a combination of heritage and
outlandishness, then now the winds
are blowing in Scandinavia’s favour.
“The media and buyers are much
more interested now,” says Westling,
whose Varg sales agency is a leader
for Scandinavian fashion, “and that’s
a reflection of its especial relevance
during the recession.”
Indeed, increasingly important
events the likes of Swedish Fashion
Week and Copenhagen’s CIFF trade
show have pushed Scandinavian
fashion to the fore. The high-street
retail giants the likes of H&M and Cos
aside, the racks of picky independent stores are groaning with Scandinavian brands, from specialists the
likes of Cheap Monday and Nudie
in denim, through to Acne and 5th
Avenue Shoe Repair, Makia, R/H and
House of Dagmar to name just a few.
“In fact, the reality is that there
are not that many successful Scandinavian brands and those that are
are relatively small,” reckons Keld
Mikkelson, founder of Day Birger
et Mikkelson, which pioneered
the way when it launched some 15
years ago and is now launching its
new, younger line Second Day. “It’s
just that fashion is more naturally
‘us’ now, which it wasn’t when we
launched - people thought what we
were doing was strange, even though
it looks really normal now.”
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Normal might translate as
intriguing but wearable. “Scandinavian clothes aren’t exactly
basic but they are easy to mix with
other, more distinctive or special
clothes - it’s much the same as
the design at IKEA works. You
buy their good simple pieces
of furniture to use alongside
your more statement ones,”
explains Palle Stenberg, cofounder of Nudie. “These may
not be especially big brands
but sometimes it’s easier to be
small - there’s more of a readiness not to over-complicate,
and to do your own thing.”
Crucially, the clothes themselves also allow the wearer to
do their own thing. According to Kristina Tjader, ex
designer for H&M - who in
2005 set up House of Dagmar
with her sister, the ex buyer
at H&M - its very wearability
suits a social shift (or perhaps
just a fad) towards individuality in dress. “The more different you are, the cooler you
are is the message of fashion now,
and Scandinavian style fit that attitude very well,” she argues. “It’s clean
and contemporary but doesn’t seek
to impose a costume. It’s not going to
make you look like a clown.”
Finding that balance - “creating the
high fashion garment that high fashion for many seasons,” as Tjader puts
it - is harder than it looks, even if it
would appear to be in demand: House
of Dagmar, which this year won the
Guldknappen, Scandinavia’s most
prestigious fashion design award, saw
sales increase 80 per cent in 2010,
and predicts a 50 per cent increase
on that for 2011.
Indeed, Scandinavian fashion
brands suggest that one reason why
they are successful now is that hard
work has led many of them to some
kind of tipping point in the home
market that has so carefully shaped
them over the last decade. “Scandinavia is a small and so a tough mar-
Creating a high fashion
garment that’s high fashion
for many seasons is hard
celebrating scandinavia
PHOTO: Pierre Björk
ket - your product has to be of a
high standard to break into it and
it needs to be outward looking. It’s
an environment that tests whether
a fashion brand has what it takes,”
says Westling. “That means by the
time it exports - and because it’s
a small domestic market that is
happening for many brands now it comes with credibility, which is
essential in this climate.”
But while, to outsiders, Scandinavian fashion may appear to share characteristics - chiefly that of being of the
times rather than of the moment - perhaps it is too narrow a vision to lump
the various nations’ sensibility under
one banner. After all, Tjader notes
how to Scandinavian eyes, Swedish
and, less so, Norwegian fashion is
more modernist, against the Danish
more Bohemian style and the Finn-
ish more quirky design. According
to Emilia Hernesniemi, co-founder
of the new Finnish R/H label, her
nation’s designer outlook - shaped
by Slavic influences from the east as
much as Scandinavian countries to
the west - is “less dark, less Gothic,
happier really. It’s Scandinavia in a
good mood. And I think that appeals.
There has been so much emphasis
on Swedish design recently that I
think it’s starting to lose its freshness while there’s so much bubbling
away in Finland now.”
Unsurprisingly perhaps, Finnish
designer Aki Choklat agrees, citing not just Helsinki as next year’s
World Design Capital, but the likes
of Finsk, Heikki Salonen, Laitinen,
Minna Parikka and Samuji as just
some of the new wave of Finnish
fashion brands on the rise.
“Scandinavian brands are appealing now because they’re so welldeveloped before you even get to
hear of them. And Scandinavia
is relatively isolated from mainland Europe, which encourages
that independent thinking,” says
Choklat, whose snappy menswear
collection for Finnish company
Petrifun launches next spring.
“And, though I might well say this,
it’s a Swedish moment now, but it
will be a Finnish moment soon.
Long-established Finnish companies are now bringing in designers
that will allow them to re-invent
and there is still an exoticism about
the country that appeals. After all,
what do people know about Finland? Not a lot. But in fashion terms
that’s about to change.”
01
Day Birger
and Mikkelsen
02
01
04
02
House of Dagmar
03
01
Cheap Monday
04
03
05
01
03
Nudie Jeans
05
Acne
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RACONTEUR 09
celebrating scandinavia
ABBA AND THEN SOME
VOLVO
NOKIA
LEGO
CARLSBERG
IKEA
Website : www.volvocars.com
Production : Cars
Website : www.nokia.com
Production : Phones
Website : www.lego.com
Production : Toys
Website : www.carlsberg.com
Production : Beer
Website : www.ikea.com
Production : Furniture
ȖȖ A byword for safety, and in the UK for
middle-aged conformity, Volvo has been
making cars since 1927, when Jacob, as
the Volvo OV4 was called, became its first
launch. The company name may come
from the ball-bearing manufacturer of
which Volvo was then a subsidiary - Volvo
comes from the Latin ‘volver’, meaning
‘I roll’ - but the idea was always to build
vehicles specifically capable of taking on
Sweden’s harsh winters. Its reputation
for being rather staid still rings true: laminated glass, a padded dashboard, threepoint seat-belts and side airbags are all
Volvo inventions. That dependency even
gets it a spot in the Guinness Book of
World Records, for the most miles driven
by a non-commercial car, with one proud
Volvo P1800 owner having clocked up
2.8m miles since 1966.
ȖȖ Apple may win the cult following, Samsung may be fast to market, but it is Nokia
- with its origins in telegraph cable makers of the 1920s - that is not only by far
Finland’s largest company but the world’s
largest manufacturer of mobile phones,
claiming also one quarter of global market share. In the telecommunications
industry’s race for the next smart thinking, this is small wonder when over a
quarter of Nokia’s workforce are scientists and engineers involved in research
and development. That’s over 35,000
people. Perhaps it is the resulting utility of Nokia’s devices - or the attachment
we increasingly feel towards our phones
as expressions of our identity - that has
also given the brand a certain cool. Last
year brand-watchers Interbrand cited
Nokia as the world’s eighth most valuable brand, the first non-US company to
make it into the top ten.
ȖȖ Before toys all went electronic or part
of some global licensing agreement there
were brightly-coloured plastic bricks
that clipped together and gave children
the creative potential to build in oldfashioned physical space. And they could
take the bricks apart and start over. The
toy, of course, is LEGO - from the Danish
phrase ‘leg godt’ or ‘play well’ - still a feature of almost most western childhoods.
Created in 1949 by Ole Kirk Anderson,
a maker of wooden toys, and offering an
improvement on a British product, Kiddicraft Self-Locking Bricks, it wasn’t until
the late 50s that the ideal material (ABS
polymer) was found to make the system
just right. Cleverly, it’s an ever-growing universal system too. Bricks from
the 1950s will stick click with those of
today’s LEGO world.
ȖȖ Special Brew may have come to be
regarded as the mother’s ruin of 21st century vagrancy - even though the once
esteemed super-strong lager was created
to commemorate a visit to Denmark by
Winston Churchill. But its makers, Carlsberg, also have its eponymous beer in its
portfolio. And that, as its witty Saatchi
& Saatchi ad line from 1973 has it of the
1904 concoction, is “probably the best
lager in the world”. J C Jacobsen, Carlsberg’s founder in 1868, would have appreciated the art in it - he was a serious art
collector himself. More importantly, he
was also ahead of his time: the brewery
established its own laboratory in 1875,
which went on to not only isolate the species of yeast required to make pale lager
- inventing a global market in the process - but also create the scientific concept of pH balance.
ȖȖ The bewilderment that often meets
having to assemble its flat-pack furniture
may nerve-jangle (not to mention just
finding your way out of the stores), but
few can doubt that IKEA has revolutionised our homes - providing stylish Scandinavian design furniture at an accessible
price precisely because the flat-packing
allows a wider inventory (some 12,000
products, in fact) as well as more economical manufacturing, shipping and storage.
That was Ingvar Kamprad’s insight when,
aged just 17, he founded the company in
1943 - setting it on the path to become
the world’s biggest furniture retailer (and
Kamprad one of its richest men). Kamprad has referred to the IKEA approach
as “democratic design”. Others have suggested the company encourages environmental irresponsibility, in persuading furniture to be considered as easily
replaced as fast fashion. And yet 175m
copies of its catalogue still find a place
on Allen key-assembled blond wood coffee tables every year, thumbed by those
chucking out their chintz.
KOSTA BODA
LINDBERG
BJORN BORG
MARIMEKKO
SAAB
Website : www.kostaboda.com
Website : www. lindberg.com
Website : www.bjornborg.com
Website : www.marimekko.com
Website : www.saab.com
Production : Glassware
Production : Eyewear
Production : Fashion
Production : Textiles
Production : Cars
ȖȖ This 19th century Swedish glassworks
- and sister brand to Orrefors - has radically changed perceptions of what genteel crystal can be.
ȖȖ Hanne and Poul-Jorn Lindberg’s Danish eyewear company has pioneered the
use of craft manufacture and high-tech
materials since 1969.
ȖȖ The five times Wimbledon tennis
champion lent his name to a new brash
and skimpy men’s underwear line and a
new Swedish lifestyle brand was born.
ȖȖ Think all Scandinavian design is
politely conservative? Influential Finnish
textile company Marimekko proves that
even the Nordics do bold and colourful.
ȖȖ The other big Swedish carmaker may
have been on a bumpy road, but its origins as a maker of fighter jets has made
it a game-changer in auto ergonomics.
GEORG JENSEN
ECCO
PANDORA
HELLY HANSEN
ROYAL COPENHAGEN
Website : www.georgjensen.com
Website : www.ecco.com
Website : www.pandora.net
Website : www.hellyhansen.com
Website : www.royalcopenhagen.com
Production : Silverware
Production : Footwear
Production : Jewellery
Production : Clothing
Production : Ceramics
ȖȖ Its ceramicist and silversmith namesake
may have died in 1935, but his designs have
lived on to create an international lifestyle
brand, with a touch of Arts & Crafts.
ȖȖ Ecco may have a reputation as makers
of comfortable, dependable if unexciting
shoes, but the Danish company can still
command sales through 1000 of its shops.
ȖȖ Tapping into trends for customisation
and the cute, the Danish jewellery company has as a phenomenon in its signature bracelets with collectible charms.
ȖȖ The Norwegian makers of performance clothing for the fishing industry
has grown to become the chic yachtsman’s choice and a streetwear favourite.
ȖȖ This 18th century Danish porcelain
manufacturer has given collectible crockery a contemporary edge without losing
its traditions of craft.
10 RACONTEUR
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celebrating scandinavia
BRANDS The Swedish pop phenomenon is arguably the biggest brand out of
Scandinavia. But far more brands of cultural import in the UK are from the region
than many imagine, touching on design, engineering and big business. Which are
the most influential is up for debate, but here are a few suggestions...
H&M
ELECTROLUX
TETRAPAK
BANG & OLUFSEN ABSOLUT
Website : www.hm.com
Production : Fashion
Website : www.electrolux.com
Production : Home appliances
Website : www.tetrapak.com
Production : Packaging
Website : www.bang-olufsen.com
Production : Audio and TV
Website : www.absolut.com
Production : Vodka
ȖȖ Fast fashion - catwalk-inspired clothing offered at the same time of the design
equivalents but at the fraction of the
price - has come to dominate the British
style high street. But at its epicentre is
a Swedish company, H&M, founded by
Erling Persson in 1947 and 60-plus years
later with over 2,300 stores worldwide.
But there has been more to the company than rapid colonisation. Borrowing
from the catwalks may be one idea, borrowing the designers themselves truly
audacious. High-street/designer collaborations may now be mainstream, but
H&M pioneered it back in 2004 with a
collection designed by Chanel’s Karl
Lagerfeld. Several high-profile designers have since jumped the divide to work
with the company too - most recently
Donatella Versace - not to mention the
likes of Madonna and Kylie Minogue. It
is, arguably, now the world’s most influential fashion retailer.
ȖȖ Fridgidaire, Philco, White-Westinghouse, Tricity, Zanussi... Anyone with a
kitchen is likely to be familiar with these
names. And they all belong to Electrolux,
the Swedish home appliance manafacturer - the world’s second largest in this
market. The product of a merger between
a sales company and a maker of kerosene
lamps in 1918, Electolux has over the decades seen its portfolio of products include
both the innovative and the leftfield. It
was producing pioneering fridges by the
mid 1920s, launched a dishwasher in 1959
and ten years ago created the first commercial robot vacuum cleaner. Soon after
it even introduced the first talking washing machine, wittily named the Washy
Talky. Indeed, the company has long liked
a good joke. During the 1960s Electrolux
launched a vacuum cleaner line in the UK
with the deliberately self-deprecating
and subtly smutty line, “nothing sucks
like an Electrolux”.
ȖȖ When Ruben Rausing died in 1983,
he was Sweden’s richest person, and on
his way to being one of the wealthiest on
the planet. His invention did not bear
his name and today still passes through
innumerable hands daily without fanfare: it is the Tetra Pak carton, initially
a paper and then a plastic-coated paper
airtight carton, used for transporting
milk, juices and just about any edible
liquid, with cartons for aseptic products
requiring a microscopic layer of aluminium too. The idea for this clever bit of origami came in 1944, but it wasn’t perfected
until 1952 and has since seen many variations - octagonal, foldable, brick-shaped,
pouch-shaped. But it is the tetrahedral
classic that has (at least until patents
expired and competitors launched rival
products) achieved world domination
- as well as a little criticism about how
hard it is to recycle. Billions of them are
made every year.
ȖȖ The TV and audio industries may
be dominated by Japanese companies,
but their most progressive ideas have
come from ex-farm buildings in Stuer
in north-west Denmark. Even if they
come only occasionally - for here Bang &
Olufsen espouse the decidedly uncommercial idea that a product should
be updated only when one shows an
entirely new way of thinking. This might
include the likes of the motion-activated
opening to its BeoSound 2300, for example, which slides apart like the doors to
a supermarket - precisely where head
designer David Lewis took inspiration
for the idea. Subsequent products from
this company - founded 1939 - have seen
radical re-thinks of radios (the first slim
line styles using transistors), CD players (multiple CD decks), TVs (that tilt
and turn at your command) and even
mobile phones.
ȖȖ It was one Lars Olsson Smith who
in 1879, aged just 14, invented a new
vodka distilling method called rectification (which feeds crude spirit through
a number of secret processes to remove
impurities) and launched his Absolute Rent Branvin to give him a practical monopoly of Swedish vodka consumption. But bad luck meant he died
penniless and his Absolute vodka went
with him. That is until 1979, when V&S
Vin & Spirit decided to relaunch it in a
plan widely derided as folly. But Absolut broke the rules. Contrary to traditional shapes, an antique medicine bottle proved the template for Absolut’s.
And its famed (and often framed) artful marketing also set new standards
for the drinks industry. As for the name:
as the descriptive ‘absolute’ couldn’t
be trademarked, its name became simple ‘Absolut’.
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RACONTEUR 11
celebrating scandinavia
STATEMENT
BUILDINGS
Todd Saunders Solberg Tower,
Sarpsborg Norway
Todd Saunders, a Canadian architect based in Bergen, Norway, has designed numerous houses and cultural
projects for the broad sweeps of Norwegian wilderness. The Solberg Tower
is the centrepiece of this roadside rest
area on the border with Sweden. At
nine-storeys tall it offers a commanding view of the surrounding region, using steel, gravel and slate to form an
abstract composition in the landscape.
BEYOND
BLONDE
© KIM WYON
ARCHITECTURE The Scandinavian architectural tradition has long had tell-tale
traits without ever being obvious. Jonathan Bell explains how they still inform
the most progressive work of the region’s architects today - and how they go
well beyond the blonde wood and white wall stereotype
ȖȖ For most design-conscious people, Scandinavian architecture is
something they can identify without being able to precisely define modern but not austere, sustainable but not hair-shirted, innovative
without the avant-garde. In fact, a
great deal of what passes for ‘modern’ architecture in modern Britain
is actually Scandi-lite, the watereddown version of the wooden façades,
white walls and blonde wood detailing that was imported so successfully by lifestyle magazines and
design TV shows at the turn of the
21st century.
One of the strengths of Scandinavian design philosophy is its inclusiveness, the way that a building’s
aesthetics and function honours
both its users and its environment,
be it city or countryside, and this
regardless of style - contrary to wide
misconception, its leading exponents
have actually worked in a disparate
range of styles, from neo-classicism
to avant-garde iconism. And long
before environmental considerations came to the fore, this sensitivity
for place, climate and scale defined
Scandinavian design as the human
face of modernism - not ostentatious
or showy but also rich with experience and respect, wherein machine
age perfection and clinical rigour was
melded with craft and vernacular
tradition. Elsewhere, modern architecture ultimately evolved into the
high-tech school of steel and glass
business palaces. Throw in strong
welfare states, with a rich tradition of
social housing, public spending and
civic pride, and you have a recipe for
intelligent, progressive architecture.
Today, there’s no shortage of the
calm, rational domestic design that
continues to find favour in lifestyle
reporting. However, that original modesty has been thoroughly
overhauled and a new generation of
Scandinavian architects is going far
beyond the clichéd image of wood
and white walled façades. On the
international stage Scandinavian
firms have become the acceptable
face of elaborate, large scale iconic
design - don’t forget that one of the
most ‘iconic’ modern buildings of
all time, the Sydney Opera House,
was designed by a Dane, Jørn Utzon.
Norway’s Snøhetta, Henning Larsen
Architects, Schmidt Hammer Lassen,
BIG and 3XN in Denmark, and White
Arkitekter in Sweden, amongst others, are all major players in modern
architecture. Bjarke Ingels of BIG
inherited a love of the grand gesture
and clever, pop-culture-saturated
presentation from his time at Rem
Koolhaas’s OMA, describing his work
as being ‘pragmatic utopian architecture,’ splicing the avant-garde
with the prosaic. Danish firm 3XN
see themselves firmly at the heart
of the Scandinavian tradition, even
though buildings like the new Bella
Sky hotel in Copenhagen, with its
skewed, tilted and sheared twin tow-
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ers, are a world apart from the humble wooden cabin. What unites them,
according to founding partner Kim
Nielsen, is an approach that, he says,
“puts the user at the centre of any
objective. Daylighting, form, function and behaviour are all related to
a Danish design tradition.”
There are broader cultural shifts at
play here. Sweden has some 700,000
holiday homes scattered about its
countryside, and vacation culture
focuses on these small, modest
retreats - perhaps half the population has access to one. In Norway,
too, second home culture is pervasive,
leading to an emphasis on small scale,
affordable, low-maintenance contemporary design. These houses combine
an emphasis on traditional craft processes with technological innovation
like pre-fabrication. The vagaries of a
frequently harsh climate, low population density, the scarcity of daylight
and the need to conserve energy all
focus the architectural mind.
Whereas Britain limps towards
sustainability thanks to the
increasing application of carrots
and sticks, authentic Scandinavian
design has a far greater claim to
eco-friendliness. Paula Femenías,
assistant professor at Chalmers
University’s Department of Architecture and a sustainability expert,
suggests that rather than wait for
legislation to drive energy efficiency, the market is doing it as a
matter of course. “In the west of
Sweden as much as 25 per cent of all
new multi-residential housing uses
25 per cent less energy than what
is dictated by regulation,” she says.
Small wonder perhaps that many
Scandinavian architects have made
significant inroads into British
design culture, from Arne Jacobsen’s work at Cambridge University
to Ralph Erskine’s memorable Ark in
Hammersmith, west London, Byker
Wall in Newcastle and Millennium
Village. Erskine is a key link between
the two cultures. British-born, he
worked in Sweden for much of his
life, infusing his projects - especially
housing - with his humanist beliefs
and respect for landscape. Stratford’s
Olympic Village is a modest attempt
at translating this philosophy into
a sizeable new chunk of London 10,000 homes. Will it work? Contemporary Scandinavian design is best described as
a sensibility, not an aesthetic, one
that comes from deep within the
cultures. While the region continues
to export innovative architecture,
we should beware of inferior imitations that serve up sub-standard
fare with no philosophical foundations. As the issues that underpin
Scandinavian design become ever
more global, the massively complex web of conditions that make a
building, street or city a more environmentally- and socially-friendly
place to be go far beyond the simple
application of aesthetics.
Big’s 8 House,
Copenhagen
Don’t forget that one of the
most ‘iconic’ modern buildings,
the Sydney Opera House, was
designed by a Dane
Claesson Koivisto
Rune - Orsta Gallery,
Sweden
Swedish studio Claesson Koivisto Rune
are purveyors of calm, classic modernism, embracing everything from furniture to set design (for Kylie Minogue,
no less). Their houses and small structures make frequent use of pre-fabrication, with angular geometry and
stripped back interiors. This new gallery in Kumla, Sweden, follows this refined approach, exploiting the optical illusion created by a slight curve
to make a memorably bold object, its
white façades illuminated by the addition of thousands of tiny glass beads.
BIG - 8House, Ørestad,
Copenhagen, DENMARK
Few countries are building residential
structures with such a broad scope.
The 8House - named for its figure-ofeight interlocking plan - harks back to
the big, bold estates of the high modernist era. A vast self-contained community, the block contains ground
floor businesses and nearly 500
apartments for a wide mix of social
types - “a three-dimensional neighborhood”, according to the architects.
COMMERCIAL FEATURE
Ålesund- the adventure
capital of Fjord Norway
Weekly flights going from
London Gatwick to Ålesund Vigra
Saturday
London Gatwick-Alesund Vigra:
09:30-12:50
Alesund Vigra-London Gatwick:
07:40-09:00
Tuesday:
London Gatwick-Alesund Vigra:
11:15-14:35
Alesund Vigra-London Gatwick:
09:25-10:45
The flights are operated by Norwegian:
www.norwegian.com
Photo: Destination Ålesund & Sunnmøre
The alpine mountain and fjord landscape in the Sunnmøre Alps provides the
backdrop for unique skiing adventures. The scenery takes the breath away. Enjoy
powder snow and boundless areas for off-piste skiing, find your favourite slope or go
for memorable cross-country trips with the family. Help yourself to skiing on one day
and surfing, fishing or bird watching on the next. Only one hour’s drive away lies the
Art Nouveau town of Ålesund, voted Norway’s most beautiful city
THE ART NOUVEAU TOWN
As beautiful as it is, it is sometimes
difficult to believe that this splendour comes from tragedy. Fire raged
through the centre of the city in
1904, destroying most of the homes.
But, thanks to an incredible rebuilding effort, the city had risen, phoenixlike from the flames, by 1907. Despite
being one of the most beautiful cit-
ies in the world, there is more than
architecture to call the traveller to its
streets. With galleries, museums, great
shopping, cosy cafes, sophisticated
restaurants and more, Ålesund has an
abundance of activities and attractions
that will help create a truly unforgettable experience. And, of course, in
winter, the city streets take on an even
more magical air when everything is
covered in crisp, white snow. Imagine
the views that await you after climbing the 418 steps up Mount Aksla, one
of the most popular tourist attractions
in the region. Not only will you see this
amazing city from an entirely new perspective, but you will also be able to
admire the Sunnmøre Alps and the
islands lying off the coast. The area
has man-made beauty and natural
wonders lying side by side, in perfect
harmony. There are also lots of things
to do for the whole family thanks to
attractions such as Atlanterhavsparken Aquarium (considered one
of the best in Europe) where you will
watch with amazement as a host of
incredible sea creatures swim before
your very eyes and, of course, feeding time is always a must-see! Check
also out Jugendstilsenteret (Art Nouveau Centre) which offers a fascinating insight into the story of the great
fire of 1904, and a time machine takes
you back a century in time. Aalesunds
Museum offers an exciting insight into
Ålesund’s history through artefacts,
models, photographs and paintings
and it well worth a visit. Also worth a
visit is Sunnmøre open-air museum
with cultural history exhibitions and
a vast collection of old buildings and
boats, beautifully situated in the old
Borgundkaupangen.
AN EXCELLENT SKIING
DESTINATION
Ålesund is an excellent starting
point for skiing experiences that are
really out of the ordinary. Distances
between the ski centres are short
and a joint lift-pass, Alpepass, gives
you the flexibility to choose the skiing experience that suits you best.
A ski bus takes you efficiently from
Ålesund to Strandafjellet, voted Norway’s best ski centre for off-piste skiers. Do you dream about virgin downhill runs on snow-clad mountainsides?
Strandafjellet
The powder paradise
4 reasons to go to
Strandafjellet:
The surrounding nature
Imagine skiing pristine slopes with a view
above the world’s most beautiful fjord, the
UNESCO Geirangerfjord.
Strandafjellet is located in Sunnmørsalpene (mountain range
in Sunnmøre), midway between Geiranger and Ålesund
The ski resort is surrounded by Sunnmørsalpene’s arsenal of craggy peaks
and the view towards the UNESCO
fjord is exceptional. The combination of
plenty of snow and magnificent options
for powder skiing, makes Strandafjellet a great place for skiing tourists and
off-piste enthusiasts. This is often cited
as the best place in Scandinavia for offpiste skiing, but the resort also boasts a
nice selection of groomed pistes, mak-
ing it a complete resort for both experienced skiers and families.
At Mount Roaldshorn, you will find
Scandinavia’s biggest express chair
lift, taking you up almost 1000 vertical
meters in one stretch!
The skiing centre has nine lifts, a rolling hoop, a children’s area, a terrain
park and 18 downhill runs of varying
degrees of difficulty.
Cross-country skiers are sure to love
the 15 km of prepared skiing tracks, as
well as the fantastic terrain routes.
Sunnmørsalpene are one of the most
spectacular and beautiful areas in Norway for skiing from peak to fjord, with
stunning views above the UNESCO
fjord landscape. You can reach
Strandafjellet in around 60 minutes
by car from Ålesund and in around 80
minutes from Vigra airport.
www.strandafjellet.no
Local guides take you to little known
mountain areas where the best and
only means of access is by boat. In the
last few years Ski & Sail in the Sunnnmøre Alps and the Hjørundfjord has
become increasingly popular. You can
sail from place to place on the fjord
and explore different summits every
day! Friendship and the pleasure of a
good meal are essential parts of the
experience. Endless areas of powder
snow and off-piste skiing and a stunning fjord view is a unique combination to be found hardly anywhere else
in the world. The region is also at the
top end of the European snow statistics every year. If the weather and ski
conditions are not ideal one day, or
you want to take part in other activities, join in with the Borgundfjord fishery in the hunt for big cod, explore the
bird life or let your adrenaline loose on
super surfing waves. A winter adventure awaits you!
Alpepass is a joint ski lift ticket for
eight ski centres in the region and it
gives access to an abundant and varied offering of lifts, downhill runs, snow
parks and free-skiing areas. The distances between the centres are short
and the keenest snow enthusiast can
visit several centres on one and the
same day - if so desired. You can buy
the ticket at any of the ski centres and
you can choose between two to 10
optional days, or purchase a season
ticket. The choice is yours!
www.visitalesund.com
www.visitnorway.co.uk/alesund
The resort
All brand new, built in 2009. Fast chair
lifts and no queues. Just world class skiing!
Snow secure
Strandafjellet is located on the west
coast of Norway and close to the North
Sea. This means a lot of fresh snow.
Easy logistics
Photo: Mattias Fredriksson
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The resort is only one hour drive from the
nearest city, Ålesund. And you can reach
Ålesund in just 1.5 hours direct flight from
London Gatwick!
RACONTEUR 13
celebrating scandinavia
CHOOSING FOR
A CRUISING
CRUISE Some parts of the world are as well experienced from the sea as
they are on dry land. The Caribbean may be warmer, but the Scandinavian
coastline has charm and drama in equal parts, reckons Glyn Brown
© Pal Hermansen
Norweigian fjords - making for the
world’s sixth longest coastline
ȖȖ With its endless coastline and
ocean-front ports, Scandinavia
seems almost to belong to the sea and, since the time of the Vikings,
its culture and landscape have been
shaped by it.
Norway is the major player here,
boasting 13,624 miles of coast - the
sixth longest coastline in the world,
just pipping the States and astonishing for a landmass so small. On an
aerial map, the fjords cut fingers deep
inland, making the western coast a
sea-weedy frill.
This means Norway can be a cruise
on its own, and you’ll rarely be out of
sight of land. Any time of year will
work - in summer it won’t get dark,
in winter, when the sun rises only
briefly, the eerie light adds drama but in spring the fjordland scenery is
at its best, full of alpine blooms and
with thousands of cherry and apple
trees spicing the air with their scent.
Most fjord tours start from pretty
Bergen, ‘gateway to the fjords’ included on UNESCO’s World Heritage list, these are deep and narrow,
the snow-capped peaks surrounding them reflected in their crystalclear water. You’ll come across mist-
GOING OFF-PISTE
FOR PERFECT POWDER
SKI Skiers flock to the French and Swiss Alps every winter in search of slopes
and white powder. But insiders are increasingly heading to the space and calm
of Scandinavia for a more all-round ski experience, says Martin Bewick
ȖȖ Too often skiing holidays can
be hard work. The long queues,
crowded slopes, instructors with
the attitude of a drill sergeant and
hectic apres-ski scene can leave
you needing another holiday at
the end of it all. Skiing in Scandinavia is different. The resorts of
Sweden, Norway and Finland are
smaller and less well-known than
their Alpine counterparts, but they
offer superb skiing conditions and
top-class amenities amid wildly
beautiful scenery.
“There’s a huge expanse of landscape in Scandinavia,” says Matt
Nolan of specialist online UK tour
operator ski-norway.co.uk and skilapland.co.uk. “The mountains are
half a billion years older than the
Alps. Look out across the huge skies,
forests and frozen lakes, with no sign
of man at all, and you think, ‘I’m in
the wilds here.’”
Scandinavia’s resorts are also
acclaimed for their facilities and
‘snowsure’ conditions. The latter is
a factor that might make the region
a more attractive destination if predicted rises in global temperatures
shorten seasons elsewhere. Analysis by the Ski Club of Great Britain shows that the sporadic snow
conditions in mainland Europe in
recent years has seen people hold
off booking holidays and base their
decision on snowfall. Reports of
the bumper 2010/11 snow season
in Scandinavia might mean people
are enticed to experience new destinations in future.
The Scandinavian ski season also
extends from November through to
May - sometimes longer. Fewer skiers means the well-maintained pistes
aren’t churned up so quickly, lift
queues are rare and the resorts offer a
relaxing, family friendly environment.
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“Scandinavia is a hidden gem,”
says Nolan. “It caters mostly for the
domestic market but most people
speak good English. The quieter,
wider slopes also make it a great
place for children to learn.”
Sweden’s leading resort, Åre, on the
shoes of the frozen Åresjon lake, is of
modest size in comparison with the
expanses of, for example, Trois Vallées
in France. Further north, 200km into
the Arctic Circle, Riksgränsen claims
to be the world’s northernmost ski
resort, where, in June, skiing under
the midnight sun is a must.
A cross Scandinavia, skiing
through pine and birch forests
offers a completely different experience to stark
high-altitude
shrouded waterfalls, glaciers and tiny
farms perched on cliff-top meadows.
Cruising north from Bergen, you’ll
pass Ålesund, so much of which is
surrounded by water that it appears
to float alongside passing boats. Further on is bustling Trondheim, first
Viking capital. Small islands scatter the coastline here, then at 66.5°
north, you cross the Arctic Circle.
Tromsø, voted ‘world’s best cruise
ship destination’ by travel publisher
Frommer’s, was once the staging
point for expeditions into the Arctic.
Like seafarers before, take your
telescope: north from here lie the
peaks of the Lofoten Islands, blessed
with ja Gulf Stream jet that keeps
them so warm they’re home to the
world’s largest deep coral reef, plus
puffins, moose, otters and sea eagles.
Even further north, there’s a chance
to see humpback, minke and giant
sperm whales, an astonishing sight
from up on deck.
But coastal Scandinavia is not all
about Norway - indeed, according to
Cruise Baltic, passenger numbers for
the coastal cruises in the region are
expected to increase 12 per cent to
some 3.5 million over next year, with
Helsinki and Copenhagen key destinations. For most people, coastal
Denmark means Copenhagen, voted
Europe’s leading cruise destination
for the last four years. Now the whole
of Denmark is opening up. Hanne
Andersen, tourism advisor for the
VisitDenmark tourism organisation,
recommends a mini-cruise island
hop from the historic waterfront
Aarhus to the unspoiled South Funen
islands, “in my view, the prettiest
place in Denmark. Islands like Aerø,
in particular, are fairytale heavens”.
It is the sheer number of such fairytale spots along the Scandinavian
coastline that is proving such fertile
ground for this sector of the tourist
industry. Never mind the summer
homes of the Stockholm Archipelago,
reckons Bo Larson, director of Cruise
Baltic. The newest destination for
cruise ships is Visby on the island
of Gotland, south of Stockholm and
right in the middle of the Baltic Sea.
It’s also the best-preserved medieval
city in Scandinavia, and astonishingly
lovely – “even,” he adds cautiously,
“during the annual Medieval Week,
when there’s a medieval market, jesters and jousting to contend with.”
Alpine runs, while extensive offpiste, cross-country and Telemark
- ‘free heel’ - skiing are popular. “In
Norway, Hemsedal is known for its
off-piste runs and some steep stuff,”
says Nolan. “Trysil is the Norway’s
biggest resort and Lillehammer
hosted the 1994 winter Olympics.”
Low-altitude skiing also has another
advantage. In Norway the Lyngen
Alps rise directly up from the deep
blue fjords. “You’ll be surprised
how good you’ll feel when skiing
there,” says Bianca Wessel, founder
of the littlescandinavian.com website, a UK-based Norwegian and
keen skier. “You’re skiing at sea
level so there’s a lot more oxygen
than at higher altitudes. There’s the
most stunning scenery and everything from
gentle slopes to big open mountain skiing.”
Nolan describes the ‘fells’ of Finnish
Lapland as skiing in “paradise”. Close
to Russia, the stunning wilderness of
Ruka, with its log cabin accommodation, is home to cross-country, ski
jumping and Nordic combined World
Cup events. In Yllas you can stay in the
ice suites of Snow Village, while at Levi
a night in a glass-roofed igloo on the
top of the fell makes for a an unforgettable night under the stars.
For the adventurous, expeditions
in snow mobiles, dog-sledding and
ice driving all add to the thrill of
skis, while locals often end the day
with a spa treatment or traditional
sauna - an activity which, indicating
perhaps how much skiing is second
nature to Scandinavians, could have
been designed as an antidote to a full
day on the slopes.
Global warming may drive
skiiers away from the Alps
and towards Scandinavia
celebrating scandinavia
The Northern Lights - caused by
charged particles from the sun
INTO THE
MAGIC CIRCLE
TRAVEL The Arctic circle is often portrayed as barren
© KIM WYON
© KIM WYON
and inhospitable. But for less far-flung explorers, it offers both natural
wonders and, increasingly, touristic delights, says Katja Pantzar
© George Lepp
ȖȖ You have to get lucky. It was at
Pyhä-Luosto resort, about an hour
and a half from the Arctic Circle
and just before midnight on a crisp
(which, to Scandinavians, is to say
-20oc) clear winter evening. You
could hear a crackling sound that was
followed by arcs of light in hues of
red, yellow and blue dancing across
the sky.
What we witnessed, slack-jawed, of
course, were the Northern Lights, a
spectacular natural phenomenon that
people from around the world travel
to the Arctic to see. Though they don’t
perform to schedule, there’s a very
good chance of seeing the aurora
borealis, as the phenomenon is more
technically known (as named by Galileo), during the next two years since
scientists are predicting a massive
solar storm during 2012 that will set
off the lights to maximum effect - the
strongest in 50 years. While the cause may go unnoticed - in lay terms, solar winds
send charged particles the 93 million miles towards the Earth, colliding with the atmosphere, producing energy given off as light - a
visit to northern Scandinavia from
September to March could make
for spectacular viewing, with possibilities increasing the further
north you go.
It is perhaps little wonder that
these illuminations are big business in Lapland, the Nordic landmass
above the Arctic Circle (although
officially only Finland and Sweden
refer to their uppermost reaches as
Lapland). According to the Arctic
indigenous people, the Saami, who
have inhabited the region for more
than 5,000 years, it extends west into
Norway and east into Russia making
for a vast wintery wilderness. Just
the Finnish part of Lapland alone is
bigger than Belgium, Holland and
Switzerland put together.
Certainly the word ‘Arctic’ conjures
up images of fresh white snow and
healthy outdoorsy Nordic types. But
the national tourism organisations
of Sweden, Finland and Norway all
market the region year round as a
travel destination. It definitely has
more than its fair share of wondrous
weirdnesses. The upswing of midwinter’s polar night - when the sun
doesn’t appear for days on end - is the
midnight sun, that mind-boggling
period in the Arctic when the sun
shines for almost 24 hours a day from
early June to late July.
Indeed, the Scandinavian Arctic is
increasingly big business. Visit Norway promotes midnight sun safaris,
while Visit Sweden bills the northern part of Sweden not only as the
Go for some ice hole
swimming. It’s believed
to improve circulation
A variety of snow-related safaris are
part of the unique lure. Husky sledriding, essentially being pulled by a
team of husky dogs through the wilds,
is an effective way to cover distances
while taking in the scenery, or to travel
to lakeside saunas, countered by some
initially questionable but incredibly
invigorating ice hole swimming. It’s
also believed to improve circulation,
as well freezing waters might.
But tourism’s emphasis of the
unspoiled great outdoors does not
mean it passes up the opportunity
to add to the region’s quirkiness.
Lapland’s premier man-made tourist attraction, its much-imitated Ice
Hotel in northern Sweden, is a case
in point. Each year the hotel is built
anew out of several tons of ice blocks
specially ‘harvested’ from the nearby
Torne River. Every wall, surface,
ceiling, bar, art gallery, fibre optic
chandelier and room - yes, including the reindeer-skin covered beds,
pictures, furniture - is carved out of
ice, all of which will have melted into
the river come spring. Cooling air
con is not required - temperatures
in the rooms average about -6oc, cold
enough that guests are advised to
leave their luggage with reception:
in your room it will freeze.
Nor is the industry slow to make
the most of Lapland most famous
resident, especially at this time of
year. Many countries lay claim to
Santa Claus, but Finland has been
most successful in marketing the
concept. The city of Rovaniemi, the
capital of Finnish Lapland, is cited
as his official home, while Finnair’s
recent £8.5m rebrand was inspired
by the area. “The spirit of Lapland
is in the airline’s DNA,” as Jarkko
Konttinen, head of Finnair’s global
branding team puts it. And he isn’t
kidding. If you thought Santa used
a flying sleigh, think again - Finnair
has, it will tell you, been the official
carrier of Santa since 1983.
Certainly, if it is easy to go to into
Arctic territories and, refreshingly
for any urbanite, see few people at
all, one fat, red-suited familiar face
is all the more inescapable in the run
up to Christmas. On the Arctic Circle,
Rovaniemi houses Santa Claus Village, the area’s largest theme park,
with its Santa Claus Post Office having its very own stamp. For those
who aren’t Santaphiles, the onsite
design factory outlets stock coveted
Scandinavian design brand such
as Marimekko, Iittala, Arabia and
Hackmann, and provide a respite
from the masses of children, many
from the UK, who have been flown
in for the day to meet St. Nicholas.
Those that have made the trip to
see the man, however - even if it is
by jet rather than flying sleigh - may
find they come away with more than a
well-stuffed stocking. The nearby SantaPark, located in a man-made cavern,
runs an elf school where the tricks of
the Christmas trade - including gingerbread decorating - are taught.
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place to enjoy the extremes of light
but as “Europe’s last remaining wilderness”. Certainly such organisations, along with Scandinavian travel
agencies, promote summer Lapland
for its pristine landscapes and naturerelated activities. Fells and mountains
are suited to hiking and mountain
biking. A myriad network of rivers
caters to white water rafting, canoeing, fishing and even gold prospecting.
Exotic wildlife is also a draw - close to
200,000 reindeer inhabit the upper
reaches of Finland alone.
But winter wonders - and deep,
almost tangible peace and quiet
- are still what many travellers to
the region seek. The region has as
many reindeer as people, so celebrities including pop-star Madonna
and footballer David Beckham have
been spotted in Finnish Lapland
during recent winters - the area’s
appeal is the anonymity afforded
not only by the lack of people, but
also by disguising layers of cold
weather clothing and the Nordic
respect for privacy.
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16/11/2011 10:48