북유럽 의자 디자인에 나타난 전통의 현대화

Modernization of Tradition on Chair Design from Scandinavian Countries- Focused on chairs by Alvar Aalto, Arne Jacobsen, and Hans J Wegner -

The purpose of this paper is to examine the characteristics of the Scandinavian chair design in terms of modernization of tradition. The Scandinavian people, who are in a geographically and historically disadvantaged position, took an active attitude promoting their tradition internationally through design. As a result, they became advanced countries in the field of furniture design today. This paper studies chairs by Alvar Aalto, Arne Jacobsen and Hans J. Wegner, which mass-produced in the 1930s to 1950s when each country differentiated from the geometric modernism of central Europe and established Scandinavian modernism based on their own traditions. The chairs of Alto, Jacobson, and Wegner reflect the efforts to continue by grafting their own traditions rather than recklessly follow major trend of Central Europe. The traditions they found did not only stay with external elements such as specific patterns or forms used in the past, but mainly with immaterial values such as their philosophy, thoughts, wisdom, habits, and attitudes that had been with them for a long time. Their chairs contains the value of tradition such as the efforts to find their own identity, the value of handicrafts, cooperation and exchange with technicians and manufacturers, and humanistic attitude related with human body. Finally, by reinterpreting these values metaphorically and symbolically, the modernization of the Scandinavian design’s tradition universally resonated in the world market.