Ark Journal - Vol 04

In Volume IV, Ark Journal recognises the shifting changes of the world, and take this opportunity to look introspectively at the home as a living reflection of our passions. The past months have reinforced the importance of the home: as a sanctuary, a safe place, somewhere to share intimate moments with family and friends. For Nordic modern furniture dealer and designer Rune Bruun Johansen, his Copenhagen apartment is an ascetic space, creating a perfect backdrop for his selected design pieces. In London, Michael Anastassiades lives as he works, in a deeply pared back and considered way, and the designer shares his international perspective on Danish design. The Nordic residences they visit in this issue each reflect the values of the building itself as well as a yearning to be close to nature. The Ark team are taken on an intimate journey through the family home of Magniberg founders Bengt Thornefors and Nina Norgren in an exclusive photo essay by Mikael Olsson. They visit a perfect small house on the coast north of Copenhagen designed and built by Halldor Gunnløgsson in the late 1950s. Combining influences from US modernists and Japanese aesthetics with Danish building traditions, the house is today considered an iconic 20th-century work. The only museum building outside Finland that Alvar Aalto designed, Kunsten Museum of Modern Art Aalborg is a light-filled work of art itself. Designed with his wife Elissa Aalto and Jean-Jacques Baruël, Kunsten houses furniture and fittings specifically produced for the spaces. A restaurant conceived by artist Olafur Eliasson is a living experiential work of art, architecture and gastronomy. They talk to Michael Maharam about how he chose to furnish his John Pawson-designed home in South Tyrol, and his love for Danish design throughout. Originality, craftsmanship and democracy are fundamental elements of Danish design, historically and today. As a Copenhagen-based magazine, it felt natural to highlight these principles in this issue. In two case studies Ark explores new talents on the local design scene and architect made furniture from the golden age of Danish modern. Volume IV includes two special inserts: a collection of radical and rare Danish chairs from the archives and a poetic film noir evocation of fashion and metallic retro accessories.