Research Promotes Innovation in the Danish Furniture Industry

Danish furniture culture needs to make the transition into the experience century, and design research should help it make this transition. This is how Professor Anders Brix from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture describes the goal of a research project that was launched in spring 2008 with financial support from the Danish Centre for Design Research. Among other aspects, the project will examine which types of furniture design companies display particularly innovative behaviour – and what factors promote this behaviour. The project should also act as a platform for establishing a consortium for furniture design research.  

By Hans Emborg Bünemann  

The capacity for innovation in Denmark’s design-based furniture companies is becoming increasingly important, says Anders Brix, professor at the Institute of Design and Communication, The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture. He heads the research project Creativity and innovation in the Danish furniture industry , which is currently taking shape. The project will examine how enterprises within this industry approach innovation and product development, and what factors hamper or promote the companies’ innovation power. The project is the first step in establishing a furniture consortium.

“This project should act as a catalyst for the formation of a consortium in the field of furniture. But at the same time, it is also an independent, qualitative study of issues that are crucial for the members of the consortium, such as innovation and design strategies in the Danish furniture industry,” says Anders Brix.

Bertoia Diamond Chair, 1952, detail. An innovative chair, both technically and in terms of its form. The research project Creativity and innovation in the Danish furniture industry at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture examines the innovation and design processes in different types of enterprises. The project seeks to map the impact of organisation and decision-making structures on companies’ innovation power.

Furniture consortium

Anders Brix explains that one of the goals of the research project is to gather and disseminate knowledge about innovative activities in the furniture area. The project is intended to help establish a strategic network or consortium for furniture designers and manufacturers as well as researchers across educational institutions.

The idea is to create a forum where, for example, perspectives from cultural history and architecture can interact with concrete, experimental activities, including the production of prototypes. With this approach the consortium aims to create a new innovative environment in Denmark.

“We want to help drag Danish furniture culture into the experience century,” Anders Brix says, and explains,
“We are headed straight into a new culture, where ways of life are changing rapidly. Therefore, it is crucial that Danish furniture design be on the cutting edge. Cultural innovations give rise to a plethora of new aesthetic expressions. Danish design has never been a first-mover, but we have been  very adept at interpreting contemporary trends and turning them into substantial design. We need to maintain this capacity in the future.” 

Innovative behaviour

The furniture industry covers a wide range of enterprise types. Some companies have a long-standing tradition, substantial fixed costs for labour, machinery and stock and a well-known brand, which they have built over the years and are keen to protect. According to Anders Brix, this holds potential benefits as well as drawbacks.

“It may be a strong platform for development, but it can also become an obstacle, as some companies that have a lot to lose may become overly cautious with regard to innovative behaviour,” he says. 

Other companies, mainly young ones, have no in-house manufacturing and contract out for all the parts. It may be more costly to buy everything through several business links, but the approach also holds advantages: “It lets them constantly see the world around them and the market with fresh eyes. A company that consists of an office with five PCs can be extremely flexible in its organisation,” says Anders Brix. 

He says that the research project Creativity and innovation in the Danish furniture industry is going to analyse the decision-making processes in the furniture companies.
“How do the different types of companies make decisions? That is something we’d like to know more about,” says Anders Brix, and adds that the companies’ strategic focus is a central issue in the project. The design researchers aim to study how companies develop design strategies and, not least, how they implement them. 

User-centred approach

The researchers will use qualitative interviews to uncover both the companies’ practices and their views of innovation, strategy and decision-making processes. The interview findings will subsequently be analysed with the analytical model Design Landscape , which was developed by Irene Lønne, who is a Ph.D. scholar at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture and a research assistant on the project. Design Landscape assesses the extent of design in a company and maps potential areas for future strategic efforts.

To supplement the interviews, the researchers are currently developing so-called design games. Anders Brix explains that the games are intended to provide a more detailed picture of the strategic decision-making processes in the companies.
“We invite company executives and heads of design to play a board game where they have to decide on important priorities, for example choosing between local and global production or between different design strategies. The documentation of the results is a challenge in itself, but through footage and photographs of the board at various times throughout the game, we can create visual diagrams that depict the choices the players have made. Here, we apply a user-centred approach in relation to the manufacturers,” he explains. 

Design Landscape is an analytic instrument developed by Ph.D. scholar Irene Lønne from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture. The instrument is a method for mapping the use of design in a company and for helping the company make the link from strategic ambitions to specific solutions. The four stages of the model can be used to categorise companies according to their approach to design. Illustration: Irene Lønne

Effect on design education

The results of the research project will also benefit design students, says Anders Brix.

“The project is going to give us a better understanding of the way furniture companies operate, and how their decision-makers view future challenges. This will help us target our education more directly at the real world and give the students a better grasp of business terminology concerning design strategy, business models etc.,” he says.

He also points out that the consortium’s resource persons from private enterprises can offer critique of students’ projects or otherwise enrich the education directly with their practice-based insights.