The embedded knowledge in furniture types

In recent years, central themes such as ‘design thinking’, ‘extended notion of design’ and useroriented
methods have been top of the agenda among designers and design researchers.
International design research conferences and national political strategies have focused on how
design can improve and develop our society. The conception of the notion has changed radically
and includes e.g. the conception of strategies and services, work modes like co-creation and
design-thinking and even scientific Inquiries, evidence-based design and transformation design.
Design as a concept is undergoing radical changes and is loosing its close relation to art and
design of physical objects, and instead becoming a generic tool for the creation of new ideas,
strategies and innovation. This change has affected educational structures and teaching focus and
to some extent at the expense of the designer's core competence; Giving form. In the great
debate about the extended design concept, questions about form, material and tectonic has been
downsized. The authors of this paper believe that it is the designer's core competence; giving
form, that needs to be strengthened significantly. It is therefore proposed, based on the history of
design and the development of Danish furniture that the study of historical furniture types and
their development is used as a specific approach to innovation. A methodological approach based
on the acknowledgment of tradition and the notion that good works are based on and refer to
the knowledge inherent in other works. This paper discusses how a reinstatement of typologies
and the study of these can help, sharpen the designer's skills and connect important knowledge
about material, tectonics and form, from the past to the present? Based on an on-going research
project, this paper