12 Feb 2019 / Projects

What makes a home your home?

When Design School Kolding invites you in at Milan Design Week, the focus is on the objects that help us make a sense of home
By Katrine Worsøe

In the 21st century, home has become hybrid, mobile, and global. Many people have a home that is constantly in motion. Today’s digitally impregnated lifestyle has influenced us to be present anywhere, everywhere and without limits. So where do we feel at home? Design School Kolding seeks an answer to that question with the exhibition ‘A home is a home is a home’.

Through collecting stories about personal objects that move around with people, we seek to understand which values of ‘home’ remain significant, and what kind of new aspects of home have developed. With the world's greatest playground for design as the setting, the exhibition explores the relationship between the personal belongings we care most for and the idea of a 'home'. A student, a lorry driver and a newcomer to Denmark are some of the people that have generously told their stories and pointed out the five objects that give them a sense of home. Like the lorry driver who has crossed 25 national boundaries in the last year and who feels at home in more than one place:

"I have two homes: a 'big home' , which is my house and my 'small home', which is the van I drive around the World. I cannot imagine being away from my 'big home' more than five weeks, but at the same time, I cannot stay there for longer periods of time. I miss my trips. Not everyone can live like this." 

Design with sentimental value
On the basis of workshops conducted by jewellery artist Yuka Oyama, students from Design School Kolding have designed three sculptures and accessories that interpret the stories of three selected  people:

"Our installation will create a scene where you can be both the actor and the beholder simultaneously. It will unfold how objects that belong to us not only have a functional value, but remind us who we are and provide feelings of security. That is particularly true of jewellery. A piece of jewellery is like a memento of the wearer's history, of where they come from, and where they are going" said Yuka Oyama.

In a time where scarce resources and climate crisis demands both innovation and green awareness, the exhibition demonstrates how a study into emotional value that is enshrined in objects can be used to develop meaningful design. That means, among other things, that as a student - both in the project and at Design School Kolding in general - you do a great deal of fieldwork to prepare for a design process. Not only to further your insight in human needs and relations but also to figure out what it takes to ensure the design's value and longevity. And that is precisely the ability to shape identity-creating design that the students are trained in every year:

"What all new designer graduates have in common is that they step into a world shaped by global crises and which is powerfully conscious of resource scarcity - which is a question that will be actualised by Milan Design Week, which at the same time exposes a fascinating but also slightly overwhelming cornucopia of new designs. Which is precisely why it is important that we as designers create something that people can identify themselves with and will take care of", Josephine Winther stated.

Photos 

 Experience ’A home is a home is a home’ at Ventura Future, Via Tortona 54, when Milan Design Week takes place April 9-14 2019. Opening hours: All days 9.30 - 20.00 except Sunday, where the exhibition closes at 18.00. Wedensday open until 22.00.

Follow the process on Instagram: @a_home_is_a_home_is_a_home and on the website www.designskolenkolding/ahomeisahomeisahome

Artistic Director: Yuka Oyama
Head of Subject Accessory: Josephine Winther
Students at Design School Kolding: Josephine Graff Vallant (Instagram), Anne Sonnichsen (Instagram), Frederikke Ryhl Toft, Diana-Maria Cercel, Thora Thestrup Okkels, Eimile Zalubaite (3D digital tech), Elzbieta Pietak
Communication and PR: Visual Identity/Graphic Design: Jacque et Brigitte, Photographer Katrine Worsøe, Designer Allan Schmidt, Producer Jens Bo Thomsen, Communications Worker Marianne Baggesen Hilger and Head of Communication Charlotte Melin

Thank you to the LEGO Foundation, Augustinus Foundation, Gabriel, Milife and Kolding Municipality

Video: Frederikke Ryhl Toft tells stories about the 5 things that make her feel at home.