Lataa ilmaiseksi

J: this Aalto chair, which was here earlier, as a study table chair, it is in
constant use. It is in very constant use because we collect our laundry
on it. So it that sense it is in use but not as seating. ( Janne 05 493-
496)
Appropriating design
with involved care
3 D E S I G N E N T E R S H O M E
A strong current in the renovations and interior design choices of Laura, Olavi
and Janne was their desire to respect and take into account the building’s architecture,
style and history, or even the surrounding neighbourhood. Janne’s renovation
project took farthest the idea of proceeding in line with an apartment’s
style. His projects offered rewarding (and no doubt also frustrating) challenges,
and dealing with the apartment’s designs had become a hobby for him.
Hannele, Rea and Theo had also invested lots of time into their dwelling,
but instead of aiming to link their interior decoration with local architecture or
history, Hannele modified her home to reflect the current season and the decoration
style that she was currently interested in. Rea modified her apartment
according to the needs of their collection of art and design on the one hand and
the requirements of entertainment on the other. Theo, too, had taken entertainment
into account, but the strongest agent in his interior design was his vision
of an apartment that reflected a past style while still being modern and highly
functional. All the households in this group described their dwelling work as
involving lots of variables, which they wanted to or felt compelled to take into
account. Therefore, the contexts of their dwelling work were complex.
In general, we could say that Janne invested lots of his time, all of the time,
into a complex context, while Laura invested lots of time and probably still
continues to do so, but with less effort because the basic renovation and furniture
had by that point been finished. Laura’s context — or the manner in which
they approached tasks, in other words, appropriated design — was complex
because both Laura and her architect husband were interested in matching the
design details with the apartment’s architectural style and their own appreciation
of modernist style. Much the same can be said about Olavi: his decision
making involved a complicated set of things that he wanted to take into
account and he invested lots of time, all of the time, into design, although in
general he seemed to aim at project results that did not need fixing or alteration
once accomplished.
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