Danish Design Centre: Danish design as a brand for Denmark and Danish cities - Monica Maria Moeskær, Project Manager at Danish Design Centre

Thank you so much, Nikolaj, and thank you for inviting us to co-host this event. We are very excited to be here on behalf of the Danish Design Centre, I might say. So, yes, you're right, I'm working with the cities and I'm working as a project manager at the Danish Design Centre. I'm working mostly, most of my hours I spend on projects in the platform we call Design Cities. I've been working for the last five years with the city development and latest here at the Danish Design Centre. So, yes, Design Cities, that's one of our strategic platforms at the Danish Design Centre. We have five in total. The Danish, the Design Cities is focusing on how can we be even better at co-creating this city, our future cities together with the citizens, with the businesses, and definitely also with the decision makers and stakeholders in city development. So, we are, our ambition, our aim is to unite the design approach and the future cities that we're going to live in and unite that with new sustainable business opportunities and new business models. So, we are very interested in how can we involve the companies, the businesses, and a design approach to develop our cities in an even more user-friendly and citizen, human-centred way. Yes? So, just short about the Danish Design Centre. Our vision, our core focus is to get even more design into Danish businesses. So, it is to make design one of the three most important positions of strength in Danish businesses. We have five strategic platforms. So, we work at getting more design into businesses. We also, on the same site, work to develop and professionalise the design agency and the field of design. And third but not least, we are also working to brand Danish design nationally and also internationally. Yes? So, the approach in the Danish Design Centre, how we work, we always, we really believe in taking our own medicine. So, we always work design-driven. We use design methods to develop all our projects and all our ideas. Even when we are working on the design of the city, we are working developing our own strategy in Danish Design Centre. We do it with design methods and design tools. So, we have the platforms here and we always go into this prototyping phase, actually testing if the projects and the programs that we are rolling out, if they have an interest for the stakeholders, if it's actually for any use for the businesses that they're supposed to gain value for. So, we prototype it first. Then we go, if we find that we learn from that, we find that there's something about it, we adjust, we iterate, then we go into program and then, of course, the vision is to scale at last, to do projects where you also get into the huge scale and you get the ecosystem to actually adopt the programs and the ideas that we are working with. So, yeah, this is a new work model and, yeah, we are finding it very pleasing to be actually able to test and experiment before we are rolling it up. And, yeah, about the Danish Design. So, this is the front page of the September issue of Howard Business Review. It's no longer just for products. Design thing is no longer just for projects. This actually underlines the transformation that Danish Design and the definition of Danish Design has gone through the last decades. This business magazine actually devoted a whole issue to design thinking and to put design and business on the agenda. The Danish Design, most of you probably being like from, it's a good mix here, both Danes and also people from different countries. Well, at least my experience and our experience is that when I travel and I'm saying that I'm from Denmark, most people are, oh, Danish Design. So, there's no doubt about that. Danish Design is an Asian brand and most people know about the iconic furniture, Vien or Anne Jacobsen or some other pens and it has a huge impact for Denmark that Danish Design has been such a strong brand internationally. But what is Danish Design today? I just touched upon that. The Danish Design definition has gone through a transformation. So, it's been, it's no longer just about the craftsmanship. It's also about the best production. The designer's role has also changed. So, from being like this icon designer or star designer is just as much as being the facilitator of the processes of design-driven processes, co-creation and collaborative design, being the co-designer. And it's also, it's still also about products and nice furnitures, but it's just as much about designing services both for the public sector but definitely also for the businesses. It's about doing service system design, strategic design and it's something that we see more and more of. And it's also shown in various of research that where businesses are actually working more strategic with their business model and with their organization in total, they are actually creating more growth. They are gaining from that. It's also gone into be the much more digital, still analog, but also much more digital and also the combination of those two. And then it's gone from being growth to also being very focused on the social change. So, the designer is also very much into solving societal challenges, societal problems and this variety of qualities is also seen in this Danish design award that we are having each year. For example, creating the societal impact. One of the winners were life shelter. They created a sustainable tent solution for refugee camps. They won for the people's choice. So, actually something that the people actually voted for. A great design solution that's also creating an impact for a huge amount of people. Also, one in daily life. So, actually the tagline at the Danish design award was we celebrate the different design can make. And that's also underlining or highlighting the difference that design definition has gone through, focusing much more on the impact of the design instead of the product in itself. So, about design cities and branding. There's no doubt that Denmark, we are in the lead when it comes to livable cities and we are also some of you, of course, probably heard about that. Been branded in Denmark for being like the most happy people in this annual happiness report. We are definitely also front runners in the smart city technological movement. So, a good example on how design become relevant into the cities is, for example, being rewarded with the design award from wallpaper. This year Copenhagen won the prize for best city 2016. And it was not just for being a beautiful city. It was actually more for the holistic approach. What was actually highlighted in the text here, that's the hidden, but that was just for being, that was both for being the infrastructure, the organization of the city, but also being, having like a variety of cultural activities, the street food, the new Nordic food movement. So, the whole holistic approach to the city development was one of the highlights that they pushed forward when deciding, the jury decided that Copenhagen was the best city. Another example is this Cykelslangen, the Danes, you would definitely know that one, but to those of you not being from Denmark, this is a 200 meter bicycle lane. It goes to, it connects like the street level, like from where the cars go to the sea level. And so you can actually, instead of formally, you had to like kind of bike this way around, you carry your bicycle up the stairs to actually cross the harbor. So, that's actually one of the things that we also see in Denmark is that we're good at adjusting our cities, involving the citizens, like in terms of democratic principles, to actually find out that there is a hazard here that we need to actually adjust this problem and to solve it, to make it even more comfortable and livable for the people using the city. So, they created this, they inaugurated this bridge in 2014, the bicycle snake, as it also translates into, and it transports people, even being both aesthetic beautiful and then also being very functional for the city transportation and transportation flow. We actually won the European prize, and that's also a good example of how urban space can become a brand for the city. We won the European prize for urban innovation space. And actually it was kind of a debate in this competition because three projects out of 25 projects in total were from Copenhagen. And they were actually fighting over if it should be the new Neuport or is it the transition station area in Neuport, or if it should be this, or if it were kind of which of the winners. So, they actually decided for the first time to kind of disrupt their own prize and give the prize to Copenhagen, the city of Copenhagen, instead of one project because they actually wanted to reward Copenhagen, the city of Copenhagen, for their political vision in creating urban spaces that's innovative and supporting the functionality for the livability for the citizens. And another thing that the human-centered approach, that's very much the basis for the designers, the human needs, to take the human, to actually focus on the human needs and be able to transform them into concrete solutions. Combined with the democratic principles is actually what I think that is rolled out in the Danish cities. So, from coming from the traditional design DNA, we have like this design culture in Denmark that's actually showing itself in the Danish cities as well. Another good example of this democratic involving culture is the Copenhagen Street Lab. Copenhagen Street Lab, for you who doesn't know, it's a living lab. It's just actually just right in front of us out here in Vestavolkede and at Andersons Boulevard. It's just opened. It's a three-year project with Copenhagen municipality, the city of Copenhagen, together with three big partners. It's a city loom, TDC group, and a huge mobile company and internet company. And then the Cisco, American Cisco. So, that's huge businesses and the city of Copenhagen that's actually inviting everyone in, the businesses and the citizens, to co-create an experiment in the middle of the street. So, they're putting up sensors that are constructing the whole smart city infrastructure and then they're inviting people in to be part of creating new solutions and new business models in the city. Yes. And where I think we could actually, the whole, where I think we could actually see another good example is the Copenhagenize, the bicycle culture. It's also something that we've become very famous for and known for outside of Denmark and also within Denmark. But yeah, the Copenhagenize actually comes from the huge project that Jan Gael, Gael architectures did in New York City, rolling out three, helping New York City roll out more than 3,000 kilometers of bicycle lane. So, they were Copenhagenizing the city. So, that's actually a good example, I think, of how a city become also a brand to Copenhagenize. That actually means to roll out the bicycle lane and to roll out the bicycle culture. So yes, I also just, I brought in a few challenges that we see from our work with designing in the city development. One is definitely how do we even better involve the businesses in the city development? What is it that it takes? How do we co-create new solutions so we get even better and more sustainable business solutions in the city? We find it from some of the projects we've done. We see that the public sector, they're very trained because of the tradition of the involvement of the citizens and the democratic principles. The public sector is very used to think and trained in thinking about the citizens, involving them. But then when it comes to involving the businesses, there's still a huge potential, for growth and for bringing in a design approach to actually co-create the solutions together. That's one of the challenges that we see. And then when it comes to smart cities, that's also how do we actually design cities for people? So, we are not just getting lost in the whole fascination of technology and just being, let's do it just because we can. Let's make a smart washer just because we can. Or let's make a smart app but actually focusing on the human needs. And that's where we also think that the design approach will definitely have an important role to play. And then for the future perspectives, one of you also mentioned that it's actually interesting that the Danish Design Centre is sitting here in these old traditional buildings and architecture instead of sitting in a lighthouse architectural icon building, lighthouse. But we actually are going to do that. We just moved here to be part of this innovation hub that's called Blogs Hub. Blogs Hub is a foundation, an organisation where you can be a member. We are the resident members. All the people situated here, all the organisations, the Danish Design Centre, the Danish Architecture Centre, actually also Copenhagen Solutions Lab behind the street lab. They're also placed just above us up here in the offices. The Danish Fashion Institute, different other organisations, research institutes and the International Federation of Housing and Planning. This whole hub, we're starting here for promoting this innovation and sustainable city solutions. That's what the purpose of Blogs Hub is to be this lighthouse for building, architecture, design, city development to both brand it nationally but definitely also internationally. So this Danish lighthouse is what you are going to find over here behind the yellow building in Blogs in 2018. So there is a huge potential for actually exporting and scaling these urban solutions and that's definitely going to be something you'll see more of. And then there's our own darling which is called Cities by Design. It's a project, a programme that we're rolling out right now in the Design Centre. The Cities by Design is actually focused on making urban solution travel by design. We believe that we experience that so many cities experience the same challenges like if it's flooding or if it's traffic junction or if it's air pollution or there's so many of the same challenges that the cities are experimenting and we believe that we could create a global platform for design solutions helping sharing the concrete solutions in cities so we can actually take a good idea from Tokyo or from New York to adjust it into the Danish context and actually use it here or the other way around. It's definitely also a way that we can make good Danish design solutions in the city travel and create a throughout the world. So it's definitely also a branding platform for sustainable city solutions. So it's a global platform that we're starting and it's going to be the purpose of sharing digitally but also by networking, meetups and different activities and we look very much forward to that. And yeah, then it's open for questions. Questions anyone? And thank you Monica, very interesting. Thank you. I don't know if this gave you a different image of Copenhagen and Danish design than you had already. Maybe not the Danes but you that are visiting. Question, Sarah you have a question there's a microphone coming. First thanks a lot for your nice presentation and I know what I did yesterday cycling around Copenhagen. So I know the word. Thank you. I was really surprised, not surprised but I liked your statement that business is number one challenge for city design. Copenhagen sold us many some hints and tips and ideas. It's really a challenge for Russia because in Russia all urban ideas come from either designers or power authorities and businesses not involved. They feel like boring, they're constructing and changing the roots of people so we open your restaurant somewhere and it's businesses in opposite to that. I think that it's more for I don't know authorities before elections or something like that. So some ideas how you manage to involve business here? It's a very good question and it's also that the thing that we're actually trying to find like experiment with right now it's actually we are setting up new partnerships with the cities to both include designers and companies. We are trying to work very closely as advisors but also within the whole process to follow and always push forward for the business agenda but it's definitely one of the things that we would like to also share across cities share good insights because it is one of the challenges that we are still fighting with and we experience that as a huge opportunity and potential that's unleashed. So I think that close partnerships and a lot of dialogue that's what and then we're looking into exactly promoting and gaining knowledge from other cities that's actually working on the same thing. So but it's like the concrete this is the way to do it. Unfortunately I haven't got that one but it's we are going to learn and experiment and explore as much as we can and together with a concrete approach where we also go into the partnerships and projects with the public sector and businesses. I have a question for everyone here who is not a Dane. When we tell the story about the new way of thinking design in Denmark as a design nation is this different from what you guys are thinking when you think about Denmark? Is this another story or do you already think of Denmark as a democratic design country who makes social solutions and city design? I feel that kind of competition between Sweden and Denmark. For me it's a kind of Scandinavian design. I call it Scandinavia. The identity is very important for each of nations but for me it's Scandinavian design in any case. Sorry it's a view from the east. All right finally thank you. I'm from Holland and I worried a little bit about the bike, the Copenhagenize thing but okay. I have a question there about how is politics, is it natural for the Danish to be like this or is it also because I know a little bit that also the government put a lot of money into the food thing or in the film industry to help and it was really successful so the film, the Danish television series. Is it also involved in the design thing or are politicians also designed to create all this or is it a natural thing for Denmark? I definitely think we are building on a tradition and a culture of design but it's also something that has a political focus. We are supported by the Ministry of Growth and Business and they are very much into the creative business and the creative industry as an indicator and a catalyst of growth so that is something that's also on the political agenda in Denmark. You're talking about the Danish design and the nation brand a bit converging so how do you, just to also make a bridge to the Brexit, how do you experience it when Denmark is suddenly known for something that's not necessarily going to this row of democratic design and everything but for example with the refugees crisis and there was a lot of media attention about Denmark moving a little more hostile towards refugees. Do you feel that that in some ways collide with the image and concept and all the values that you promote through Danish design or do you see it as different spheres that are not that much connected? That's a difficult question. It is a difficult question. I need to make a disclaimer here. I'm not the brand expert. I'm more design but I think you have a good point there. You have this on one side, the kind of, what would you say, light and positive brand about the design and the democratic principle and involvement and on one side and then you have a conflict with actually the political, the whole fear and populist approach on the other side and I think you have a point there that it could be conflicting. I'm not with a specific answer on how it's going to be. No, it's just when you look at a nation brand and there's always different stakeholders and in a way everybody is influencing the way we think about Denmark and Danish. What are you buying when you're buying something Danish or buying into a Danish way of doing things? Definitely. So I was just wondering if it's something you encounter in your day-to-day practice with people or people will take it for what it actually is. It's a really good question you're raising and I see there are several answers coming up and I think it's fair to say that the way that refugees and the debate about refugees has been handled is probably not a good example of Danish design because it's not been varied. But you see for example in Sweden and IKEA, it's almost like the politicians have for a long time tried to promote an image of Sweden that coincide with the design brand embodied in IKEA for example and I don't think the Danish politicians are that much aware of the bridge between our very strong Danish design nation brand and the... Yes. Let's hear Peter Brown, you have a comment on this. This is fascinating. Tony Blair who was actually very good at branding, he developed the idea of the rose to represent new labor, so a shift from the old labor to the new labor. He also developed the concept of cool Britannia if you remember that in the late 1990s and this kind of cultural renaissance of Britain and it was Britain rather than England or Scotland. So cool Britannia and a commentator, a brand expert said just after Brexit, overnight Britain stopped being cool. It was as simple as that. All that equity that had been built around Britain being cool Britannia, modern, innovative, young, overnight somehow that ended although the Scottish brand is having a huge renaissance at the moment. Great, thanks and Trine you had a comment if you could pass on the microphone. It's a comment for you, yeah. I think we have to deal with like in branding and national branding we are also talking about contesting cultures and you have like a national culture saying about design during processes and citizen involvement, but actually I think when it comes to the refugee situation that's actually what's happening as well because since the politics, the political didn't really support it what was going on. All the civil society raced and designed a lot of different organizations which actually took care of the whole refugee crisis. So from not having like political support we had like suddenly a civil society rising up and taking responsibility and I think that actually correspond a lot to what this is designing cities with the in co-creation citizen involvement and all this it actually has a national brands but all brand national brands are like contesting. Good point. It's a really good point. And there was another one and I think that's going to be the last comment. Nikolai this is in response to your question as to how people from outside look at Denmark as an area of, as a place for design. Now in India we do not have as many design institutions as we do in India. We have a lot of people who are very familiar with the concept of design thinking and this is for the past 50 years. So all the design graduates that emerge out of India understand the concept of design thinking and the role that it plays in society very well. Now the difference is it becomes very difficult for us in India to implement it because you also need the other side, the people and the culture around to kind of embrace it so that you can see the impact of design really there. So whatever we've read, we've learned, we've understood when we travel overseas for example a place here in Denmark for me as a designer it becomes easy to correlate and look at things that I had learned in my classroom actually being actualized. So the context of design education is to us a westernized concept in a given framework of development but what we've been trying in India to do is to take a similar concept and principles and adapt it to our majority of rural economy. So what we're looking at designing cities, what we are trying to do in India is looking at designing villages and that is what comes right from Mahatma Gandhi's concept when he wrote a book of self sustainability. It looks at a concept of how a village can become the single most unit of urban development and what was interesting if I can add was your second challenge where you said that smart cities just need not be made because cities wanted but it is not required for the people. That is the challenge that we are facing in India because the current political dispensation has come to power and as soon as it came to power one of the major offerings that it gave to the people of India was that in the next X years we are going to develop 100 smart cities and the conversation that we have amongst the think tanks that I am associated with is what India needs are not smart cities but smart people because first we need to cater to the basics that a developing economy like India needs and then you layer it and bring technology to aid that. So this was my little input about design in India. Yeah, fantastic. Thank you so much. Alright, so time is up. Monica, thank you for your presentation and thank you for letting us be here. Yeah, thank you so much. It's wonderful. Thanks a lot.