HDCB01203U DCC Danish Design
This course offers a survey of Danish design, focusing foremost
on the post-war era (ca. 1945-1960s). It concentrates on a design
tradition world renowned for, amongst other things, high-quality
crafts(wo)manship, functionality, humanism, contextualism,
simplicity, comprehensiveness, and creative continuity between
tradition and renewal.
Design is never merely a question of beautiful forms and surfaces,
and therefore this course purposefully explores below the surface
of things. It examines wider issues of ethics and aesthetics as
exemplified in designs for the welfare state. This course presents
in-depth examinations into a diversity of design fields and design
culture movements in order to reveal the essential considerations
and contexts shaping some of Denmark’s most successful post-war
designs.
Material designs ranging in scale “from the spoon to the city”, as
well as immaterial designs, shall be probed and discussed in
relation to their wider socio-cultural, political, economic, and
technical contexts.
We shall critically question the given topics through such lens as
‘design as common good’, ‘shattering the familiar’, ‘women in DD’,
‘decolonising design history’, and ‘Quo vadis, DD?’.
Furthermore, independent field studies to significant local sites
afford opportunities for to challenge experiential blindness and
deepen place-based learning. Zooming in on Danish design of the
past, including its roles in shaping the Welfare State, this course
explores the meanings and purposes of design, and the ways design
can enrich everyday life. Honing in on Danish design of the past is
also significant because it can aid us in shedding new light on our
understandings of contemporary societal issues and design’s roles
in relation to these – also aiding us in transforming our
comprehensions of how sustainable and equitable futures may be
envisioned and constituted.
NB: This Danish Design course does not directly overlap the course material covered in the Danish Architecture and Urban Design course. It is thus completely suitable to enrol in both courses in the same semester if so desired.
Danish Design at Danishculturecourses.ku.dk
Texts will be available online through Absalon.
- Category
- Hours
- Class Instruction
- 0
- Total
- 0
Registration through Mobility Online.
Questions to: visitingstudents@hum.ku.dk
Fee-paying (DK/EU/EEA/Swiss citizens) please see:Guest programmes – University of Copenhagen (ku.dk)
- Credit
- 15 ECTS
- Type of assessment
- Written assignment
- Type of assessment details
- Written take-home assignment with an optional subject following
active class participation. 11-15 standard pages.
The active class participation consists of an approved synopsis 2-3 standard pages.
Retake in case of non-approved active class participation consists of a written take-home assignment with an optional subject. 16-20 standard pages. - Aid
- All aids allowed
- Marking scale
- 7-point grading scale
- Censorship form
- No external censorship
- Re-exam
For students with an approved synopsis the retake consists of a free written take-home assignment of 11-15 pages.
For students without an approved synopsis the retake consists of a free written take-home assignment of 16-20 pages.
Course information
- Language
- English
- Course code
- HDCB01203U
- Credit
- 15 ECTS
- Level
- BachelorBachelor choice
- Duration
- 1 semester
- Placement
- Autumn
- Schedule
- See link under Timetable (after May 1st)
- Course capacity
- 30
Study board
- Study Board of Archaeology, Ethnology, Greek & Latin, History
Contracting department
- SAXO-Institute - Archaeology, Ethnology, Greek & Latin, History
Contracting faculty
- Faculty of Humanities
Course Coordinators
- skt448 skt448 (5-74808a7f765179867e3f7c863f757c)
Lecturers
Courtney Coyne-Jensen