Design that Shapes the Future
Design can contribute to change. These master’s students are sure of that – Jakob Tangen, Xin Ai and Gabriella Di Feola. They talked to us about the programme, what they’ve learned, and how they’ve been exploring themes around grieving, building identity and social sustainability in their thesis projects.
HDK-Valand’s big brick building on Kristinelundsgatan in Gothenburg plays an important role in Jakob Tangen’s life. He’s been going there for more than five years, first in the undergraduate programme in design and then in the master’s programme. “This building means a lot to me,” he says. “I love being at school together with others who are also working hard because more than anything they want to learn things, not because they’re driven by money.”
When we meet Jakob, he has completed his studies and is showing his thesis project, “Homeness”. It’s a lounge chair, a lamp and a coffee table. He developed these three pieces of furniture in wood and metal in collaboration with the Gothenburg Urban Mission’s Housing First initiative, which aims to provide housing for the homeless. It was pretty obvious that Jakob would end up working with furniture design. His father is a carpenter, and while he was growing up in Seattle, USA, Jakob was able to explore furniture making as craft. When love led him to Gothenburg, he discovered HDK-Valand and its generously appointed workshops.
“They are super nice, and I think it was good in many ways that I chose this programme,” he says. “The craft itself comes naturally to me, but the way of thinking in both the undergraduate and graduate programmes has been new and exciting. A lot of it is about being able to answer the question of why you do what you do as a designer. Like, ‘Why would you even introduce a new object into the world?’ You have to be able to form an argument around things like that.”
Within “Homeness” he is testing a design practice that looks beyond the product design establishment. His furniture designs emerged through conversations with the pieces’ future owners – three formerly homeless people who have gotten their current homes through Housing First.
“We sat down and talked,” says Jakob, “and I’ve asked questions about objects they already have at home. They had a chance to talk about their taste, which is hardly something they’re used to.” Based on those conversations, Jakob then developed unique pieces for each of them. “In the industry, you’re designing for hypothetical customers based on what the company decides,” he explains. “That can be interesting, too, but this gets at something on a deeper level.”
Xin Ai also moved to Sweden from the other side of the world. Before coming to HDK-Valand, she studied graphic design at Shantou University in Guangdong, China. Xin describes that programme as extremely traditional in its view of design. “That view is challenged here,” she says. “I still love graphic design, but at HDK-Valand I’ve had a chance to try other design fields as well, like stop motion and video.”
Unlike Jakob, Xin has not been working with an outside partner on her thesis project, “The Shore We Never Reach”. In it she designs a book she has written herself based on her own powerful experiences. She has been responsible for the entire process, from the content to the binding of the book. “My project is inspired by the cultural collision I experienced when I came from China to Gothenburg to enrol in HDK-Valand’s graduate programme,” she says. “The differences were so big that I suffered from an identity crisis”, She says “it as a painful experience.”
Even the relationship between teachers and students was completely new, she says. “At HDK-Valand, teachers and students are equals,” she notes. “At the end of the school day, they can go out and have a picnic together. That’s not possible in China. Everything there is so hierarchical.”
In her thesis project, Xin works with meritocratic ideal that is embraced by almost all of Chinese society. “In China, there are only two things that count: talent and effort,” she says. “Being successful is the only thing that has any value. It’s a collective cultural phenomenon. In my work, I want to show that there are other values, other ways of achieving self-respect and constructing your life.”
Gabriella Di Feola has also completed the master’s programme in design at HDK-Valand. She did her thesis project in collaboration with Lilla Änggården, a museum in Gothenburg that tells the story of the prosperous family Grén, who lived in the house during the nineteenth century. However, Gabriella’s focus is not on the history that has already been told in the museum, but rather on aspects that are not so fully visible – like the story of grieving and the loss of a child.
“The Gréns had five children, three of whom died,” she explains. “There is not much of a record about the dead children, and what I want is to capture the memory of them – convey a feeling.” Her work is tightly interwoven with the experience of losing her own daughter Estrid. “I wanted to create a space for talking about grief. Because that’s what I was missing in my own grieving process: to have someplace to go other than just home and the graveyard.”
The project “Child Remains/Telning stoft” has several parts, but it is primarily about creating a VR world to go into. It is also an artistic exploration of how we can use digital technology to bring our cultural heritage to life by creating physical experiences of it. And yet, Gabriella doesn’t want to put so much emphasis on the technical part of her work. “If I talk about concepts like VR or XR, that sets the agenda for a conversation about grief. Technology makes it possible, but it’s not the core of the project. The content is what’s important.”
In order to complete her master’s degree, Gabriella needed to take time off from her job as an interaction designer at the RISE research institute. Her background is in humanities studies in art, culture and media, including coursework in game theory – not because she’s interested in games, she says, but because “games are interesting from a design point of view”.
What would you say you’ve learned at HDK-Valand?
"There’s just so much,” says Gabriella. “Most of all, I’ve fallen in love with the field of design – especially the fact that it allows you to work in several different fields of knowledge at the same time.”
One thing the three graduate students have in common is that in their projects they all research the potential for design to change and impact the development of society in various ways. They allow design to play a role – to be part of shaping a socially just and environmentally sustainable future. Jakob says he is convinced that as a designer he has something to contribute. “I hope I get to continue the work I’ve begun with ‘Housing First’,” he says. “There’s a new role for me here as a designer. It’s design that exists as part of a broader field of design and that deals with how we can create in order to improve society."
Text: Camilla Adolfsson
More information about Jakob Tangen
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