Pearl Lam (林明珠): Hello, this is Pearl Lam Podcast. I’m really happy today. I’m in Copenhagen and I have invited Anna Louise from Design Museum to join the podcast. I came here in last August. I went to the museum here. I had a brief conversation with Anna Louise and I think she definitely has to join my podcast. She’s one of the most interesting person I’ve met. So Anna Louise, can you just give a brief about yourself to the audience?

Anne-Louise Sommer: First of all, thank you for your very kind introduction and lovely to have you here. And I’m Anne Louise-Sommer, I’m the director of Design Museum Denmark. I have been here for 13 and a half year, which is quite a long time and we have been on a journey for these years and a lot of things have happened. I’m sure we’re going to dive into that when our conversation starts. And before that, I have a background from academia. I’ve been at the universities for so many years, teaching and researching and also at the Royal Academy of Art School of Design. So I have a kind of not museum like background before I came here.

Pearl Lam (林明珠): But from being an academia to running a museum. And I was told, and I just read that in 13 years you actually increase the traffic of this museum. You actually transform the museum as an academia. How? How did you do it?

Anne-Louise Sommer: Well, maybe I’m not just the usual academic person, you might say. I’ve always been interested in other things than traditional academia though. I have a background as a researcher, etc. And professor and all the stuff. But I’ve always been very interested in doing things which have a more immediate kind of outcome than being in these long processes. You are at the university. I’ve been very much engaged, engaged in leadership and organisation development. And I think what might be one of the reasons why we have had some good years here is that I combine all the different things. I mean governance, leadership, the background within design history and architectural history.

Pearl Lam (林明珠): How was the museum like 13 years ago?

Anne-Louise Sommer: Well, it was a very quiet museum, I will say. And I had a lot of considerations before I said yes, thank you to the position. There was about 60,000 visitors which had been like that for many, many decades. And what I saw when I came here was a wonderful collection with so many potentials and a museum which not really opened up to the audience. It was serving a community, you can say, of design and craft aficionados. And I thought there was so much more into it than just this and the potentials. I was very interested in unlocking the potentials.

Pearl Lam (林明珠): So this museum, I think, is really interesting for me because I came here, I visited that, and you see the history from. From how design is being developed. I remember last time that we were. You were doing some. There was videos, there were all different sort of. And you were talking about graphics, designer, fashion, design. It’s all about design in one whole culture.

Anne-Louise Sommer: Yeah.

Pearl Lam (林明珠): Was it like that before?

Anne-Louise Sommer: Yes, it was like that as part of the collection. But I will say it wasn’t activated.

Pearl Lam (林明珠): As such because there were tonnes of people visiting your museum.

Anne-Louise Sommer: I mean, we actually doubled the number of visitors. 2024 was the best year ever with 350,000 visitors.

Pearl Lam (林明珠): Congratulations.

Anne-Louise Sommer: Thank you so much. And what I think we do differently is. Well, I had this vision when I came here. I said to myself, I want the Design Museum Denmark to be an open and inclusive house for everyone. It should be a place where people would go and would learn and would be enlightened in many ways. And you mentioned just the historical collection. And maybe I should just say that the museum was established in 1890, which means we are almost 140 years old. We are in line with the museum tradition, starting with the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, which is what we in Danish call Kunst Industrimuseum, which is a slightly different. Different word from Museum of Decorative Art, because it focus on the industrial part of it instead of the artistic. And saying that. It’s also important to say that a lot of the Danish design success, I think, has to do with an artistic foundation and not just being like technological innovations or industry, etc. But the museum goes back to then and it was established at the time when the industrialization came to Denmark, quite belated compared to other countries in Europe. And it was a wish from different progressive people and interests in society to educate manufacturers, the industry, the craftspeople, the makers, what we would call designers today, and also the educational institutions and the common citizens. So it was a hugely and very, in many ways idealistic project, educational project. And it had to do with establishing a collection which should be world class in many ways, not just Danish, but also international. And it should be an educational collection which could be exemplary so that people could learn to appreciate good design, be inspirational.

Pearl Lam (林明珠): You know, let’s talk about this Danish design, right? I think I learned about Danish design. Is is I mentioned to you is when I went first thing, I always thought the Danish design is very minimalist, very. You know, it’s about the forms. Everything is about the forms. And then I think decades, I think two decades ago, I cannot remember when exactly. I think two decades ago I went to Design Museum in London and I walked into the Verner Panton exhibition. I was completely flabbergasted. I mean, my God, the colours, I mean, you know, just colours and wild, wild. So looking at that and then I realised, oh my God, this is a Danish designer. I mean completely the contradiction of a par dime minimalist design. So after that I start by 1960s design books and books and books. So I start learning about the architect, I start learning about that. And then I was, wow. I was really, I mean inspired. Because all of a sudden I realised that 1960s is actually where people was focusing in the Scandinavian design. When they say Scandinavian design is actually Danish design in 1960s. But like Arni Yakosam is really. Is a big architect here in 1930s.

Anne-Louise Sommer: Yeah. Yes.

Pearl Lam (林明珠): I mean, and is it because of the lifestyle is changing that people all of a sudden they look at the Danish design, they look at the pardon design. But the 1960s was really a celebration of forms. And then it happens that it was all about Scandinavian design. I don’t know how the Scandinavian design such a big thing in 1960s because 1970s we talk about Italian design because of laser cut the machines. But 1960, why would 1960s the Scandinavian design become so big?

Anne-Louise Sommer: I think there are many reasons. And you just started by saying that it’s very minimalistic, Danish and Scandinavian, very simple, maybe even easy to grasp. But below that is so many things and also contradictory things, as you just mentioned by pointing to Verner Panton. But I think that time as given epoch might be mature to receive a specific impression of something due to many other factors. And what happens in the late 50s and the 60s was that the Second World War it lay behind and we had this kind of very affluent countries, especially in the western part of the world. And they wanted to do something new. They wanted to have a new beginning which was political, two world wars behind. It was social, it was considering the economic situation, everything. And then they saw these small countries in the north, the Scandinavian countries, they represented a welfare state model which was unique.

Pearl Lam (林明珠): Socialist?

Anne-Louise Sommer: Yeah, not socialist, but democratic. Very Important difference, because socialist is something different, but democratic is the essence. Welfare, Welfare. And then in the States they had some travelling exhibitions in the 50s going on to the 60s. And these exhibitions, they showcased Danish design and Scandinavian design. And suddenly it was like, whoa, when. When in America, North America and in Canada they saw a completely new world. And if you look at interior design magazines from that time, it was on front page cover all these things because they represented something which was, you know, the good quality, the beautiful form, the craftsmanship, nice materials. And maybe you remember or you can recall when Kennedy, Dave Kennedy and Nixon were running for presidents, they had one of their last debates. They were actually sitting in the round chair by Beigner. And that was a decision from JFK’s side. And it was sort of a way to say, I’m part of this young democracy, which is not a young democracy, because in Denmark it goes way back, like in the. The other Scandinavian countries. So there’s also this kind of narrative linking up to the specific design. So there are many, many reasons for this.

Pearl Lam (林明珠): But when I did my research, I realised that in Hong Kong at that time, apparently buying and Scandinavian furniture is very chic, very. It’s luxury, which is the opposite of what the initial design is about. Danish design is not about luxurious material at all.

Anne-Louise Sommer: No. But maybe it’s in spite of that, has a sense of luxuriousity in many ways, because it is the good materials, it is a beautiful form. A lot of people say that in the. Let’s call it the golden age Danish design, there’s this kind of, you know, timelessness. And I guess that’s the reason why it’s still so popular. And even if you visit Danish homes today, I mean, there’s a lot of young designers, they ask, well, what can we do? Because Danish design is about an old chair and we do not have a single place to put our marks. It’s all about the legacy. It has changed for the past decades. But, you know, it’s something which is. It’s timeless, it’s durable, it’s. In that way, it’s sustainable. Also minimalist. Minimalist, very good quality. And it’s not spectacular. But if you look at the details, I mean, if you. If you see a furniture by Vinyulo and Jacobsen or Wigner, and you look at all the refined details, it’s so exquisite in its own understated way, which I think goes very well with the Danish slash Scandinavian mentality.

Pearl Lam (林明珠): Because if we think about in France.

Anne-Louise Sommer: Yeah.

Pearl Lam (林明珠): Because the French design always influenced the world. When you look at Andre Putman. Andre Putman has been using a lot of par. Dime design. And I felt that that was the coil of the business is like Danish design or pardon, because she’s generally influenced by Eileen Grey. But when you see all those paradigms, simple design, which leads to minimalist design, I felt the very strong feeling of Danish design.

Anne-Louise Sommer: Yeah, I understand that I can follow you, definitely. But on the other hand, it’s also universal qualities. You can’t, as a nation or country, claim to be minimalistic per se. It’s something we all have access to. And I think I can’t.

Pearl Lam (林明珠): I cannot be minimalist.

Anne-Louise Sommer: No, I haven’t.

Pearl Lam (林明珠): I am maximalist.

Anne-Louise Sommer: I can’t.

Pearl Lam (林明珠): I cannot.

Anne-Louise Sommer: I think I know.

Pearl Lam (林明珠): Because the problem is, because if it is a trend, if even if you’re not minimalist, you want to decorate as a minimalist. I thought this is really not very, not very truthful.

Anne-Louise Sommer: No, but, but, but, but, but I. I hope you can follow me anyway. But it’s not bound to something which is specific for a nation. And for instance, we have been discussing a lot for the past, after all, many years, if Denmark is a specific country when it comes to design, you know, the legacy, the golden age and all the visitors coming here, because Danish design is like a mega brand globally.

Pearl Lam (林明珠): See, because you do a lot of things, the form is really. The Danish design is about the form.

Anne-Louise Sommer: And then people, they start to talk about Denmark as being a design nation. And I’m so much opponent to that because we are not. It’s not something exclusively bound to being nation, which is also in the way of reinterpretation, the whole way of thinking nations. So normally I say we are a design society, which means that we can act as a role model because we have quite a tradition within being a design society, providing design for everyone, accessible, inclusive. I mean, one of the most beautiful things when it comes to Danish design, if you ask me, is that if you go to the years between the two world wars, the 20s and the 30s.

Pearl Lam (林明珠): Yes.

Anne-Louise Sommer: And you just have a look around, you walk in Copenhagen, in the suburbs, around the country, what do you see? You see high quality architecture, high quality design. And it was meant to last. It’s still there. I mean, the Ph lamp, Danny Jacobsen furniture, you just name it. And the. The interesting thing is it was not the wealthy people’s extravagant villas. It was for the public school, it was for the hospital, it was for the dentist waiting room. It was for, you know, town hall equipment. That means, as I normally say, that everyone in Denmark Born and bred in Denmark, they have grown up with good design. Maybe they have not been a family where you lived in a home which was completely furbished with Danish design, but they access to it from all the public spaces, also including urban design, etc. And that’s something special because it has to do with investments in good design. And we had some very foresighted political politicians at that time who made it a prioritise to build the good schools of a lasting quality instead of having something you do like 40 years after. Or we’ll just tear everything apart and do something new. So there are so many things you can be inspired by, I think in.

Pearl Lam (林明珠): August, last August, I came and especially arranged an architecture and design tour. So I went and saw, yeah, 1930s architecture. I was very impressed because I saw these 1930s building which Jacobsen designed. But. But when I went to la, you know, I love those neutral building. Neutral architecture which is built in 1950s. But when I saw the Jacobsen, they’ve done it in 1930s. So my question was to find out whether these neutral buildings is actually based from the Jacobsen design.

Anne-Louise Sommer: I think what happened with the 20s and the 30s in Europe was. Was this huge revolution going on. Yes, you can say, you have the obvious statements like the Bauhaus, etc.

Pearl Lam (林明珠): And then Corbusier.

Anne-Louise Sommer: Yeah, everything all over. And we had our take here actually. Arne Jacobsen, he had like a two path profession where he was Le Corbusier on one hand. And he was very much in line with what we call the functional tradition.

Pearl Lam (林明珠): That’s what I want.

Anne-Louise Sommer: So he was doing both and he did the functional tradition for.

Pearl Lam (林明珠): Can you also explain to the audience what is Danish functionism, which I just learned.

Anne-Louise Sommer: Yes, I will do that as well. So then came second World War and a lot of these progressive architects, they went in exile. And Jakobsen, he didn’t go to the States, he went to Sweden, which was a neutral country at that time. So it was a European tradition coming. So that’s why you see neutral and you see the. The LA situation as it was. So it was really, you know, a kind of melting pot with a lot of different nationalities and inspirations. And Gropius and Mies van der Rohe, they. They went to the east coast and.

Pearl Lam (林明珠): Yes, Mies van der Rohe was in Chicago.

Anne-Louise Sommer: He was in Chicago. And Gropius went to Harvard. Yeah, so that was this kind of. Yeah, so that means there was all these different kinds of influx all over the world. Then we go to the Art Deco discussion. Because that was at the same time. And you just mentioned France and we know that in France they have this really lavish, exuberant, extraordinary stylistic expression which has to do with the Art Deco. And it’s about luxurious materials, it’s exuberant forms, it’s. It’s just so delicate and so also almost intimidating in its beauty. It’s so striking, I will say. And we have it in the States as well. Imagine the Chrysler building, all the new cinemas, etc. And we have a few examples of art deco in Denmark.

Pearl Lam (林明珠): Really?

Anne-Louise Sommer: Yeah. But they are very, very few when it comes to design. Actually Ko Klint, the. The father of Danish furniture designers, we normally coin him, he did a few things in 1917. 1917, 1920, which we would consider Arteco today. And we have from the pavilion for the Art DecoITIF exhibition in Paris in 25, we also have a pavilion having certain Art Deco traits. But it’s not Danish to be Art Deco. No, because I wouldn’t say that Art Deco is showing off, but in some ways it is like quite impulsive and extraordinary. And the mentality of Danes and Danish design is much more this understated. It should be, you know, in.

Pearl Lam (林明珠): You don’t show off all the materials, right?

Anne-Louise Sommer: Not. Not at all. So everything is low profile, Very low profile, very low key, very understated. But it has its own elements which goes with beautiful shape of forms. Exquisite craftsmanship because wonderful materials. But it’s plain wood. It’s not like including ivory. Ivory, parchment and all kinds of gems. And what do I know?

Pearl Lam (林明珠): Shark green, the most expensive wood from Africa.

Anne-Louise Sommer: Yeah. No, no, no, you wouldn’t find it in Denmark.

Pearl Lam (林明珠): So what is your comments when someone told me that the reason why Danish design is very pare down. Because they come from a passing culture.

Anne-Louise Sommer: It’s true.

Pearl Lam (林明珠): What’s your comments about that? Because you see houses, there’s no ornamental. They said because we come from a peasant culture. That is why everything is pardoned and minimalist.

Anne-Louise Sommer: But it is part of it. But it was not just the peasant culture and it was not just Denmark as a rural country. But it is a very important element. And then I will say if you go back to 19th century, we were not a rich country, but we have this rural background. And it’s also, if you know a term called vernacular design and architecture, things growing sort of in its own quiet way from the very place, the qualities in the landscape, the country, etc. So there are things which make the Scandinavian countries different from others. But with this idea of kind of a crossroads in the twenties where you either choose the idealistic, functionalistic path or you chose a more stylistic. I wouldn’t say that Art Deco is just a matter of style, but in.

Pearl Lam (林明珠): Some ways it is also political language as well.

Anne-Louise Sommer: It is. It is a very political language. But it’s also you. You do a makeover of previously known forms. Giving it like streamline is also part of the Art Deco in line with that. So in Denmark it was more a matter of, well, we look at the opportunities we have in design to create this better world. And of course it has to do with not a socialist background, but a social democratic background, which goes for all the Scandinavian countries.

Pearl Lam (林明珠): So Verner Panton. Well, walked into your room of Verner Panton, which is the opposite of the contradiction. Oh, definitely every of the Danish aesthetic when he. He was working here. Right. How does people feel that he was using plastic? He’s not using wood. He is a really a contemporary designer because at the time in 60s, plastic was the new newest material he’s inspired and he. And how does people feel that? And how did people feel about.

Anne-Louise Sommer: Do you want to hear the truth?

Pearl Lam (林明珠): Yeah.

Anne-Louise Sommer: They were terrified. So what could they do? They sort of marginalised him, you can say they consider him to be an odd size. What can we do with him within this very fine tradition? Maybe of course, you know Finjul and I guess a lot of your audience knows Finn Juhl because he’s one of the really great.

Pearl Lam (林明珠): I visited his. The house in August. I did.

Anne-Louise Sommer: It’s amazing, isn’t it? Yes. But the interesting thing is that Finn was also the odds number at that time and he was huge abroad and many places. But in Denmark he was too artistic, they said he was too extravagant because he had this very sculptural furniture and also very expensive. So he was also, for different reasons marginalised along with the Verner Panton thing. So actually you had a quite a narrow path you couldn’t follow when it comes to the good design of the post war.

Pearl Lam (林明珠): But now they are celebrated.

Anne-Louise Sommer: Now they are celebrated and they are not among us anymore. As you know and I know it was kind of tough for different reasons for both of them. When Finn Juhl, he lived in the 80s, the 90s, he was. He was. He was not recognised in any ways. There was no interest in his furniture whatsoever. And imagine you have been great around end of 40s, 50s, you’re really been praised all over the world and suddenly you fall into oblivious situation. No one. Yeah. No one remember you. No one. And then you have Seen what happened for the past two decades.

Pearl Lam (林明珠): Oh my God.

Anne-Louise Sommer: High rising. Everyone is crazy.

Pearl Lam (林明珠): Everybody. And his prices rocketing.

Anne-Louise Sommer: Yeah. As a poor museum, we can’t be part of that, you know, that race. But at the time he was not really something. And the same with the Vanderpanten, he. He left Denmark, he moved to Switzerland and he had that as a career platform and he was much more appreciated there. And one of his. He’s so cool at that. And many of his big commissions, they were not in Denmark, they were in Germany or Switzerland or other places in Europe. And that was. I mean, he’s big. Yeah. I wouldn’t say we’re narrow minded in Denmark, but judgmental, I think.

Pearl Lam (林明珠): Very judgmental.

Anne-Louise Sommer: Judgmental and somehow also narrow minded at some. You need to follow a certain path, otherwise you’ll be the odd one.

Pearl Lam (林明珠): You were featured in one of the newspaper recent. I mean, just not recent today or yesterday. And you talk about design as a soft power. Yeah, it’s a culture, diplomacy. I mean, can you elaborate about the project you did?

Anne-Louise Sommer: Yes.

Pearl Lam (林明珠): And you’re. I mean, it’s just being presented.

Anne-Louise Sommer: Yes.

Pearl Lam (林明珠): And I think it’s really interesting that, you know, because we always say culture is soft power. How would design become a soft power?

Anne-Louise Sommer: If I may just put a few words on. On that one. It was. It was in the Italian newspaper 24 Order. And it was together with five colleagues from European design museums, from the Design Museum in Bosch, a design museum in Belgium, in Brazil and Literienale in Milan and Mudag in Lausanne and the Domain des Bois Boucher in France. And we have been doing a joint exhibition in the Design museum Den Bosc, where you can see it until May. And what we want to do with this exhibition and with this statement published in 24 hour is that we want to draw attention to the potentials of design Museum. What is the role of design museum in a changing world? For the moment, how can we be a source of making the world a better place to be? How can we better the understanding of the importance of design in the world? And how do museums have an opportunity, which is quite unique for the moment, to be a platform for, let’s say, a critical conversation among citizens? It’s important that we as museum also take a stance and also in a political way, but not in a political political way, but in. In the boat of this soft power or diplomacy. There has been a tendency to underestimate the power of culture in many ways. And maybe the time has come to not to overestimate, but to be open to the potential.

Pearl Lam (林明珠): I think it’s very important for the audience to understand that actually design every design of a period of time, it reflects political and about the social condition and also the economic condition. Because when we talk about 1960s, we talk about plastic because it was a new material, everything was round because people going to the moon and because of the invention of the contraceptive pills. And then we were just talking about Napoleon invading Egypt. So all of a sudden you have these empire furniture with. And Egyptomania. So this is what you’re talking about is using design to reflect.

Anne-Louise Sommer: To reflect, to understand and to shape. Because you also shape.

Pearl Lam (林明珠): Yes.

Anne-Louise Sommer: Through your reflections, through putting form shape to things. So in that respect, I think design is quite powerful.

Pearl Lam (林明珠): Design is very powerful because, you know, you have new materials. I mean, it really represents the economic situation and the social. Absolutely. About the society.

Anne-Louise Sommer: And it’s not just a question of making beautiful things. It’s also important to have beautiful things because you need beauty in your life. But it’s much more than that.

Pearl Lam (林明珠): Yeah, I think how is your design museum engaged with the international community then?

Anne-Louise Sommer: Yeah, that’s a very good question. Because in many ways, in many ways we have these communities, but we also like islands being very much the same. We are not having a lot of collaborative exhibitions normally. Sometimes we do take travel exhibitions in. We have also created a few exhibitions together with other museums travelling. So I think we have to differentiate between museums as platforms for exhibitions, which is of course a very important thing being a museum. Differentiate that from being places who systematically collects, reflects through the collections upon the time being what has been, what will come. And also being platforms for conversations. Conversations is really important and conversations could be like. I mean, when we had the opening in Denbosch two days ago, we had this roundtable panel discussion, the six directors together. And it was actually wonderful to see also how the audience engaged in this discussion. I really. I really saw the Dutch people as someone very keen, very engaging, very curious. And I think curiosity is everything you need to be curious.

Pearl Lam (林明珠): Yes, absolutely. Your design museum in Denmark, is this fully funded by and by government?

Anne-Louise Sommer: No, not at all. We have. We have state subsidises, which is about 20%.

Pearl Lam (林明珠): Only 20%,

Anne-Louise Sommer: Maybe 25. It depends. But it’s own, it’s.

Pearl Lam (林明珠): It’s so and so.

Anne-Louise Sommer: And the rest we generate ourselves.

Pearl Lam (林明珠): So you have to raise sponsorship.

Anne-Louise Sommer: Ticketing is the all-pervasive thing. We. We have every single Danish kroner on the front door and our different activities and our shop.

Pearl Lam (林明珠): But I thought this is a social welfare Country.

Anne-Louise Sommer: Yeah.

Pearl Lam (林明珠): You’re not giving, you’re not getting money from the government. Oh my God. With all the tax, why are you not getting money from the government?

Anne-Louise Sommer: We get from the government, but it’s still a small part. We have like six state museums in Denmark. They are primarily funded by the state, but they still have to generate via sponsorship, private foundations, ticketing, etc. And the rest of us, we are 97 state recognised museum, as it’s called, which means that we have, we are filling some kind of an important role in the complete national museum landscape. We have the national responsibility for design, craft and East Asian art also. And we have main library within our field, a research library and archives. So when we do things like completely renovation of our historical listed buildings, you.

Pearl Lam (林明珠): Have to raise money.

Anne-Louise Sommer: Yes, that was one of the important things I’ve been working on for 10 years and now we just succeeded and completed.

Pearl Lam (林明珠): Bravo.

Anne-Louise Sommer: So there’s always a lot of projects going on. Never dull moments.

Pearl Lam (林明珠): So. So. Ann Louise, I need to ask you, you know today the hot, the hottest topic is about AI.

Anne-Louise Sommer: Yeah.

Pearl Lam (林明珠): How would AI affect design? Well, what’s your point?

Anne-Louise Sommer: It’s a very, it’s a very good question. You know our museum now and you know that we are not digitally driven in any ways. And that actually goes some years back where I said to myself, instead of being the last with the first, we want to stick to the analogue experience, to the experience of authenticity. Because a lot of things you can reach digitally via the Internet. You can see situation in Shanghai and access Design Museum Denmark’s website. But if you are here on the premises, you should really dive into this wonderful experience to see objects where many of them is the only one in the world. Because it becomes so, so grateful that actually museums collect and they exhibit. So that’s one thing. When it goes for design mode and AI design. Well, I think AI might design a lot of things. But we have been discussing not just, you know, ordinary designers. You mentioned Arna Jacobsen, one of a kind, Anna Panton, etc. Fin you. You could just mention all of them. I don’t think that AI could generate anything like that. But that goes for this state of.

Pearl Lam (林明珠): The art, because how about a designer just draught, just draught, a style of a furniture, whatever, or a beauty. Then they press the button. The AI does all the construction details.

Anne-Louise Sommer: Yeah, but I think you can do combinations. What would be the tipping point for me is if you, if you are, I mean, if you are in the Jacobsen, for instance, he hasn’t been doing all the drawings of all the wonderful things. He do a sketch and then he hand over to his staff and they do the construction, the construction, everything. And that part could probably be done by AI. I think so. And especially if you talk about Geni and you talk about the generation, the coming generations, I think that will happen a lot when it comes to AI in the years to come. For the moment, it’s primarily the things already known it can generate. But you, you know, they are talking about you. And I could have an avatar of each of us and we could. This avatar could do things. It knows how you think, it knows how you speak, it knows how you do a lot of things. That will be the future. Probably. It might change things, but I think for the moment, what would be needed and missed in an AI driven situation is the artistic dimension, the strike of genius. You can say the unexpected. Because all the good designers, not just from Denmark, but all over the world, what makes them unique is they do something which is unpredictable. They grasp the essence of a specific time and they push it further to something which no one could have imagined. And that put them in a position where they are timeless at the same time as very much rooted in their specific time.

Pearl Lam (林明珠): Another big question today about design and architecture is sustainability. What is your comment on sustainability?

Anne-Louise Sommer: I think there are many, many, many comments. If I just had one comment, I will say, take a look at Danish design and look how a chair was made in 1920s. Good quality, exquisite craftsmanship, more or less timeless expression in the shape and you still use it today. That’s sustainability. Because it’s not use and throw away and new, new, new. We all know that the solution when it comes to sustainability is to have fewer things, things of good quality, things will last and you will use it till the end of their lives. And then it should be recycled in different ways. So that was. Would be. Could we dive into new materials, new construction technologies, for instance? It’s always. It’s already, I mean basic that things should be possible to separate afterwards and you should change things. And you should. If, if a leg of the chair is broken, then you can put on a new leg instead of throwing away the whole chair.

Pearl Lam (林明珠): Do you think sustainability is important?

Anne-Louise Sommer:I think it is. I think it is. But.

Pearl Lam (林明珠): But for collection or for people. You know, people always like to change styles, right? So obviously after a while they want to change. Sustainability is essential when you keep on changing style.

Anne-Louise Sommer: Yeah, but maybe you could do a combination of having some kind of a, I say generic shape or, you know, the basic thing and Then you can change things. It’s already there at the market. You have a sofa, for instance. You can very easily change the cushions or set the components in a different order to form another situation. You can. I don’t know. I think it’s very much like this. But maybe it’s also a call to action that you do not have to change style.

Pearl Lam (林明珠): Change is all effect from the outside elements.

Anne-Louise Sommer: It is. There’s so many components.

Pearl Lam (林明珠): The last thing I want to ask you. I came here in August and I was very. And I saw the graphics of the Blue Girl. Irma.

Anne-Louise Sommer: Yeah.

Pearl Lam (林明珠): And I want to mention, okay, because I grew up in Hong Kong and just dawned on me there was this beer. This beer was marketed in Hong Kong, is in television, it’s in everywhere. And I was laughing, I was looking at it. I said, yeah, this is the graphics I’ve been seeing when I was a little girl. And I saw this Irma. It was a beer. It was very funny because it is this graphics that really. You remember. And this was the first time I realised now that it was the first Danish design I ever saw. And it’s such a great pleasure to talk to you, to speak to you.

Anne-Louise Sommer: Thank you so much.

Pearl Lam (林明珠): It was great. Thank you