Los Angeles, California, USA
Considering Scandinavian design’s enduring impact on the American culture, as well as the United States’ influence on Scandinavian Design – with over nearly 100 years of cultural exchange, Barbara Bestor of Bestor Architecture has developed the visual language of the Scandinavian Design and the United States, 1890 -1980, that tooks place in Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA).
Prompted by the images and objects the architects received, they have based the organizing concept on the design of world’s fairs and international traveling exhibitions where Scandinavian design was introduced and promoted to the general public.
The project has been awarded an Honorable Mention at the 2023 American Architecture Awards from The Chicago Athenaeum and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies.
Having been to different furniture trade shows and art fairs, they have found a certain competitiveness from exhibit to exhibit—each booth is trying to make the biggest impact.
It can be overwhelming, but some of the immersive techniques are very useful in a show like this, where we’re trying to unify objects of different scales and materials.
In order to connect the objects of the exhibition, Barbara Bestor has used the technique of supersizing some of the objects to become framing devices for the exhibition.
For instance, the architect has used Swedish-American architect and designer Greta Magnusson Grossman’ works the focal point of the entrance.
Her sculptural asymmetrical lampshades became both the big window into our Greta Grossman “office,” as well as the shape of the platform for chairs in the Migration and Heritage section, which focuses on the contributions that immigrants make to their adopted societies.
Also, the mauve-like pink color of her 1940s lamps became the defining color for that section.
The major elements used in the design of the exhibition are fields of vivid color, birch wall panels and columns, and painted sonotubes (extremely sturdy cardboard tubes typically used as a construction material to pour concrete columns.)
Scandinavia is still associated with wood exports and sustainability, and Barbara Bestor thought that it would be great to have actual tree-like peeler logs to bring natural elements into the show.
This is the first exhibition to examine the extensive design exchanges between the United States and the Nordic countries of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.
Project: Scandinavian Design and the United States, 1890 -1980
Architects: Bestor Architecture
Lead Architect: Barbara Bestor
General Contractor: Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)
Client: Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)
Photographers: Yoshihiro Makino
