Revisiting: Artek 2nd Cycle

Photos ⎮ kuvat:   Sini Pennanen (Sininen Kuva), published in a Business Finland article "Artek: Manifesto of a 21st Century Design Company"

ENG It's Global Recycling Day, and to celebrate I'm revisiting some themes I've explored during my five years of blogging. Artek's 2nd Cycle was one of my first topics as a blogging novice five years ago – I would never give up my secondhand Artek!

Later on I bumped into the following interview (excerpt) of Mirkku Kullberg, former managing Director of Artek, on Northern Delights. Scandinavian Homes, Interiors And Design (Gestalten 2013) – also published five years ago:

"Please explain the idea behind Artek's 2nd Cycle Project. – Artek 2nd Cycle was a manifesto against the madness of Milan 2007 and the fair buzz in general: the press, dealers, and consumers were running after newness and the latest of the latest. Artek had been blamed often for showing the 'old' Aalto icons and nothing new. Our question was: so what if we think that old is better than most of the new things out there? 

In 2007, the word 'sustainability' was quite new, while the whole design scene was dancing tango with fashion – fast and furious. Artek wanted to challenge the whole scene and declared Sustainability as Attitude and started talking about authenticity and origin of the design. We wanted also to talk about quality and design as an investment. Artek is the only company that can really own the second-hand market as we still have the same production, same standards, and systems with product components. 

The main idea behind 2nd Cycle is to talk about longevity and durability – the main factors when talking about sustainability. Our motto is "One Chair Is Enough", meaning that the Artek product can live from one generation to the next one without losing its value or identity. The design, the beauty, and the quality stand for time. We also think that people need layers in their lives. 2nd cycle is an excellent way of combining the old and the new. This gives people wider perspectives.

FIN Tänään on maailmanlaajuinen kierrätyspäivä, ja ajattelin juhlistaa sitä nostamalla esiin joitakin teemoja, joita olen käsitellyt viisivuotisen blogiurani aikana. Artekin 2nd Cycle oli yksi ensimmäisistä aiheistani aloittelevana bloggaajana viisi vuotta sitten – minä en koskaan luopuisi kierrätetyistä Artek-huonekaluistani!
Myöhemmin törmäsin Artekin entisen toimitusjohtajan Mirkku Kullbergin haastatteluun Delights. Scandinavian Homes, Interiors And Design (Gestalten 2013) -julkaisussa, samoin viiden vuoden takaa, ja olen lainannut siitä englanninkielisen katkelman ylle.

Love (secondhand), Katja K.