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D W E L L I N G W I T H D E S I G N
Appropriation
of design
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When the product is brought home, the imaginary trials become real
(Lehtonen 2003). The product tries to find its place within the household’s
temporal and spatial organisation, and the household makes adjustments
to meet the product’s requirements. My first research question was about this
aspect of a product’s appropriation, namely, what the appropriation involves
and what needs to be in place for a design to be appropriated and made a part
of the home.
According to my interpretation of the interviews and photographs, the
design’s appropriation consists of the product trying to survive the curating
processes going on in the household. Should it succeed, the product becomes
part of a home’s hotel, museum or gallery practices, and in doing so, it becomes
an integral part of a household’s everyday life by making dwelling in the home
easier, more delightful, or, for example, memorable. In my interpretation, a
product’s design becomes meaningful when it is able to play its part successfully.
The designed properties of a product have at least two distinct roles in
dwelling practices. On the one hand, some of the designed properties are
seamlessly, anonymously and invisibly working in the background. The performance
may be (and often is) excellent, but no one pays attention to it and
the product is recognised only after something goes amiss. On the other hand,
the designed properties form the building blocks for the stage, one where the
cannot-be-designed “not designed properties” take the leading role. For example,
design’s ability to meet a household’s sense of humour or its love of hunting
are examples of such cannot-be-designed properties, since the household may
be amused by its humorous arrangement of branded products and enjoys the
successful acquisition of the perfect item. In a successful appropriation, then,
though the cannot-be-designed properties may dominate in the sense that the