SCA Wood Magazine 1/2021, ENG

SCA

Wood Magazine 1/2021

WOOD AND ITS PLACE IN CULTURE THE GREAT FOREST REVOLUTION A BRIEF HISTORY OF SCANDINAVIAN DESIGN

Peter Stormare The character actor from the forests of Sweden thanks Garbo, communes with Bergman and rejects cancel culture.

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A D

F R O M

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P A R T

T H E

O F

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S W E D I S H

I N I T I A T I V E F O R E S T

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S P R E A D

O W N E R S

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K N O W L E D G E

F O R E S T R Y

You can make so many climate-smart things from wood.

See more products and innovations from the growing forest at svenskaskogen.nu

Actor Peter Stormare navigates his life and career by listening to the voice inside.

26 Scandinavian design: an 80-year success story.

14 The violin is a prime example of creating in wood.

36 Author Vibeke Olsson writes about the history of sawmills.

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THE MASTER VIOLIN MAKER

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FORESTS OF THE WORLD

Meet Astrid Pullar, violin workshop proprietor

People live in and off of the forest,

since 1987.

wherever it is.

WORLD-FAMOUS ACOUSTICS

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MINIMALISTIC AND BEAUTIFUL

Gothenburg Concert Hall offers both sweet

Scandinavian design is a worldwide

music and eye candy.

concept.

PETER STORMARE

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THE FOREST INDUSTRY BUILT SWEDEN

On drive, reliance and dreams of building

The forest was the green gold of the

a new home.

nineteenth century.

THE MATERIAL OF THE 21ST CENTURY

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THE HISTORY OF SAWMILL FOLK

For French concern the ISB Group, wood is both

New jobs in the timber industry led to unique

history and the future.

social development.

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Back to the roots

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as a material have always been an essential part of human existence. We have lived in the forest, cultivated it and used wood as a building material and fuel.

While urbanisation has gradually made many of us more remote from nature, I feel that we are now reconnecting with it once again, as people increasingly come to realise the importance of sustainability.

Wood is moving in the direction of once again becoming our principal building material. Modern approaches to forestry mean that we are replenishing forests faster than we are depleting them. People are increasingly choosing to live closer to nature, or at least visit it more often.

There are many examples of the benefits of wood-rich environments to our wellbeing, such as houses in which wood is a major interior design element. These provide warm, positive feelings. And yet, not everyone appreciates the link between wood as a material and forestry. This is a gap that we will attempt to bridge in this issue by describing people’s relationships with the forest. How the culture in which we live has been built from and continues to rely on wood, something that applies all over world, albeit in different ways.

You can read about the nineteenth-century sawmill workers and timber barons who laid the foundation of the Swedish welfare state. About the Scandinavian design that has been taking the world by storm since the first half of the twentieth century. And about the growing demand for wood as a building material during the twenty-first century.

We also take a look at the cultural role of wood: as a material for the musical instruments we play and the concert halls we visit, and as an element of all of our lives. The forest also happens to be the environment in which one of Sweden’s greatest character actors, Peter Stormare, was raised. He has appeared in plays by Ingmar Bergman, starred opposite Tom Cruise and been directed by the Coen brothers.

Stormare also gathers wood he comes across, then dries and processes it – and is looking forward to building his own house.

It is our cultural heritage to cultivate the forest and utilise its wood. It gives me joy and reassurance to see that, more and more, we are seeking to return to our roots.

HE FOREST AS A PL ACE AND WOOD

JERRY LARSSON P R E S I D E N T, S C A W O O D

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PHOTO SOLIDEO

THE MOST S U S TA I N A B L E O LY M P I C S O F A L L TIME IS BEING B U I LT O F W O O D PARIS IS INVESTING IN MAKING the 2024 Summer Olympic Games the most sustainable in history. Given the lofty ambition of reducing the games’ carbon footprint by 55% compared to the 2012 London Olympics, building in wood is crucial.

Materials will be sourced from sustainably managed forests in Europe, primarily in France, and the project France Bois 2024 is bringing the French timber industry together to meet this challenge. This will also showcase the possibilities presented by renewable materials and cutting-edge technological developments in wooden construction.

The Olympic Village will consist of 314,000 square metres of accommodation constructed in glued laminated timber and cross-laminated timber. The buildings, which will be up to eight-storeys high, will be clad in wooden panels. Once the Olympic Games are over, the village will be reconfigured to provide around 6,000 homes plus offices accommodating some 6,000 workers, something that is also part of sustainability efforts.

The only permanent new sports facility being built in Paris for the games is the timber Olympic Aquatics Centre, as it is planned to hold all other events in existing arenas and sites. The timber structure and roof frame of the Aquatics Centre are designed to blend seamlessly into the surrounding parkland, adorning the location even once the facilities become a public baths.

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THE MASTER VIOLIN MAKER

Spruce and maple become tone and timbre T E X T M AT S W I G A R D T

PHOTO SANDRA LEE PETTERSSON

With patience, a sharp blade and carefully selected timber, it is possible to achieve almost anything with a piece of wood. But perhaps the crowning glory of the form is the violin – a beautifully designed, acoustically perfect instrument in which tones are formed and propagated through the unique properties of spruce.

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from the ceiling of the small workshop on the island of Frösön outside Östersund in northern Sweden’s inland. Along the walls hang strings, templates and tools. The workbench is covered with pieces of wood, small planes, gouges and knives of various kinds. A violin without a top waits to be repaired.

On the wall, beside an image of a beautiful Stradivarius, hangs an ornate, neatly printed document: the Royal Master Craftsman’s Diploma for Violin Making, awarded to Astrid Pullar.

“It was when my bow needed rehairing as a teenager that I first stepped into a violin workshop and discovered a whole new and exciting world of wood, scents, tools and instruments,” recalls Astrid.

A decade later, while searching through available craft studies, she came across a programme for violin makers at Leksand Folk High School, which specialises in handicrafts and the arts.

She applied and was accepted as one of the programme’s first students. Four years later, in spring 1986, she was awarded her journeyman’s certificate. Eight years later, in 1994, Astrid became one of a score of master violin makers in Sweden.

She has been running Astrids Fiolverkstad (Astrid’s Violin Workshop) since 1987, to the benefit of musicians, students and fiddlers throughout Jämtland County.

“I service, clean and repair instruments from the entire violin family,” she explains, “and I also make the occasional violin myself.”

The violin is an ancient instrument, first arriving in Sweden in the early seventeenth century, and during the eighteenth century it became the dominant voice in classical music. The instrument is IOLINS HANG IN A ROW

also commonly used in folk music, where it was received with open arms. Today, the violin is used in genres such as pop and jazz and is equally popular as a solo instrument or as part of an orchestra.

The violin is also a highly complex instrument to manufacture. Aside from skill and experience – both one’s own and that passed down through the ages – it demands a keen eye, sharp tools, absolute pitch and enormous patience to refine spruce and maple into an instrument with the tone and timbre to make itself heard among the other instruments in a large symphony orchestra.

“Just as voices sound different, there can be an incredible difference between two violins,” says Astrid. “Every violin maker has their style and the instrument should look good, feel good and sound good.”

The top of a violin is made of spruce, while the bottom and ribs are in maple, preferably flame maple from Bosnia. The fingerboard and tuning pegs are often made of ebony. Spruce, which is also used to make guitars and grand pianos, has long fibres. It should be dry and knot-free, with evenly spaced annual growth rings, and removed from the log in a slice like a piece of cake.

The arch of the top and bottom and the thickness of the wood are important factors in the sound of the violin. One tenth of a millimetre can make a big difference. Astrid takes two to all intents and purposes identical pieces of spruce that are to be glued together to make a top. She gently taps different parts of the wood to demonstrate how the sound changes character.

“But there is no formula or definitive explanation as to why it (sounds) so good on occasions and less so on others,” says Astrid.

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Astrid Pullar has been running her violin workshop since 1987. The wood-scented premises are filled with tools, strings and, of course, violins.

“One must simply trust one’s ears and experience, work painstakingly and listen your way forward.”

Many consider the finest-ever maker of string instruments to be Antonio Stradivari (1644–1737), a luthier from Cremona in present-day Italy. In 2011, one of his instruments sold at auction for almost £10 million. His instruments are also the model for most of the violins made today.

The rounded form and curves of the violin – and the viola, cello and double bass – are based on the golden ratio, which has been the norm for harmonic dimensions and proportions since Pythagoras.

The violin’s concave waist is intended to aid bowing. The two f-shaped sound holes on the top of the instrument emit the sound and help the lid to vibrate more freely. The violin’s body – its sounding box – amplifies the vibrations of the strings.

Inlaid wooden strips called purfling run around the edge of the top, both as a decorative element and to prevent the wood cracking at the edges in our uneven climate.

When making a violin, Astrid Pullar begins with the ribs and blocks. The ribs that form the sides of the instrument, which are only one millimetre thick, are bent into shape using heat and then left to dry in a mould in which the corner, top and bottom blocks are attached.

The ribs and bottom are then glued together.

The bass bar, which spreads the vibrations through the violin, is attached and the top is put in place.

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The sound post, often described as the soul of the instrument, is now mounted between the top and bottom. This is done using a special tool operated through the f-holes in the top.

Now all that remains to finish the instrument are the neck, fingerboard, bridge, scroll, tuning pegs, four strings and several coats of varnish. The position of the bridge and the length of the strings are also important factors in the sound of the violin.

“It usually takes around 300 hours to complete a violin,” says Astrid, who is a violinist herself, playing both folk and classical music.

To the layperson, the violins that hang from the ceiling of the workshop awaiting service or repair might appear more or less identical. While there is an ideal of beauty to be adhered to, with the trained eye it is possible to see small but noticeable details in the craftsmanship that distinguish one violin from the next.

Astrid points out the corners of the centre indentations, the design of the purfling and the lines of the body. When she plucks the strings, she also hears a distinct tone depending on the wood and how it has been used before arriving in the violin workshop.

“The more a violin is played, the better it will sound,” says Astrid. “It is an instrument made to be used. The pieces of wood it is made from need to be vibrated into life if they are to sound really good.”

FA C T S AT A G L A N C E Many people consider the violin to be the perfectly formed instrument in terms of acoustics. While it may look relatively humble, it consists of as many as seventy different components. Of these, the strings, bridge, top, sound post, bottom and ribs are crucial to the sound, as is the air inside the instrument. The trick lies in linking these components to achieve the specific sound of a violin.

If you would like to listen to classical music written for violin, the work of violinists David Oistrakh, Isaac Stern, Itzhak Perlman, Nigel Kennedy and AnneSophie Mutter are a good place to start.

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THE ROOM AS AN INSTRUMENT TEXT HÅKAN NORBERG

PHOTO OLA KJELBYE

A room clad entirely in wood, designed as a home for music. The auditorium of Gothenburg Concert Hall is almost an instrument in itself.

“The hall as a whole is based on reflections and an even distribution of sound,” says property manager Johan Björkman.

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Nils Einar Eriksson, Gothenburg Concert Hall on the Swedish west coast was completed in 1935. The building combines stylish functionalism with the warmth of natural materials and its auditorium is world-famous for its magnificent acoustics.

“We have both the words of praise and the measurements to affirm that the room is excellent for acoustic music.

So, both subjective and objective confirmation,” says Johan Björkman.

The room has a unique design with arched walls and ceiling clad in sycamore. Instead of straight lines and flat surfaces, the room has curves and arches. Why might that be? A document in the concert hall’s archive provides a clue: On the Acoustic Problems of Concert Halls, a book written

by Alfred Berg in 1922. Architect Nils Einar Eriksson himself wrote in 1935 that he had realised some of Berg’s ideas in the auditorium of the concert hall: firstly, the acoustic benefits of the thin outer shell of wood and, secondly, the concept of inclined walls and nonparallel surfaces.

ESIGNED BY ARCHITECT

Berg wrote: “What intensity there is in the tone of a violin!

But if we inspect the construction of a violin, we shall find that this instrument – the body or sounding box of which with such intensity and, if the instrument is good, such uniformity (egalite) reproduces every tone – does not have a single symmetrical plane!”

The wooden panels in the auditorium have a thick middle layer of alder sandwiched between three-millimetre layers of African whitewood, with veneer on the reverse and a millimetre-thick layer of sycamore veneer on the front.

The battens to which the panels are affixed are irregularly positioned for optimal sound attenuation.

Working in the concert hall has not dampened Johan Björkman’s enthusiasm for the building. The spacious cloakroom, the monumental staircase leading up to the concert hall, the polished concrete exterior walls and then the auditorium itself.

“It’s a tremendously beautiful room that really needs to be experienced first-hand. It feels like being inside an instrument, completely surrounded by wood.”

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I L L U S T R AT I O N T E N G B O M

HOUSING S H O R TA G E ?

BUILD ON TOP! BUILDING WOODEN extensions on top of buildings is tomorrow’s sustainable solution for new production in attractive urban locations. The project Timber on Top is currently working to increase knowledge of the use of wood to build smart extensions to existing buildings to provide more space and increase property values. In addition to the obvious climate advantages, building extensions using prefabricated timber building systems provides the ease, adaptability and speed required for construction projects in urban environments.

According to the Swedish National Board of Housing, Building and Planning, Sweden needs to build 64,000 new homes a year until 2027. If the country is to take full advantage of the opportunities offered by extending existing buildings, there is an urgent need to develop technologies and systems. To this end, municipalities, property owners, consultants, architects, building system suppliers and contractors are working together on Timber on Top with the aim of developing systems for building extensions so that they need no longer be classed as risk projects. Research is also underway at several universities.

Phase one of the project is complete and phase two will continue until August this year. You can learn more about the project at timberontop.se.

I L L U S T R AT I O N B J A R K E I N G E L S G R O U P ( B I G )

Top location for city dwellers exciting wooden extension project can be found on the roof of the Utopia Shopping Centre in central Umeå, where 49 homes have been created that seem to hover above the northern Swedish city. Tenant-owner association Glitne now occupies the building, which was constructed using locally manufactured cross-laminated timber and has a sedum roof.

ONE E X AMPLE OF AN

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Wooden satellites for less cluttered space

WITH MORE AND MORE satellites in orbit, the amount of space debris will only increase.

The Japanese are currently exploring the possibility of building the world’s first wooden satellite in order to reduce the amount of debris.

Around half of the 6,000 satellites orbiting the Earth are nonoperational and considered to be space junk. Over the next decade, almost one thousand satellites will be launched each year, all of which will leave metal particles and pollutants orbiting the planet for many years after they have finally

burned up in the atmosphere.

A wooden satellite, on the other hand, can burn up without leaving pollutants or hazardous debris in its wake. Japanese logging and processing company Sumitomo Forestry has therefore initiated an R&D collaboration with Kyoto University and Professor Takao Doi, himself a former astronaut. The team are studying how different types of wood behave in extreme conditions with the aim of launching a wooden satellite in 2023.

Tomorrow’s windowpanes may be made of wood transparent wood may replace glass. The new material developed by researchers is lighter and stronger than traditional window glass and has better insulating properties.

Transparency is achieved by removing almost all of the lignin that gives wood its colour in a bleach bath. Polyvinyl alcohol is then added as a filler.

The process has been developed in a collaboration between researcher Junyong Zhu of the United States Department of Agriculture’s Forest Products Laboratory and fellow researchers at the University of Maryland and University of Colorado. They see the path from concept to realisation as relatively straightforward, given that wooden glass can be manufactured using existing equipment. It is of course a major bonus that the raw material is renewable and reduces carbon dioxide emissions.

IN THE FUTURE,

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“To be able to work in the arts is the ultimate gift” TEXT JENNIE ZETTERQVIST

P H O T O PAT R I K G I A R D I N O

While the road from the forests of Hälsingland in northern Sweden to the star-studded world of Hollywood may seem long, actor Peter Stormare has known that his heart belongs in California since he wandered around his village as a daydreaming five-year-old.

“Reliance will take you far,” he says.

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“Hälsingland and Hollywood aren’t so far apart. There’s no great difference unless you create it yourself.”

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ELLO, PETER STORMARE calling.” The familiar, deep voice resonates from the telephone speaker into the dark Swedish winter. It’s late afternoon here, but just after dawn in Los Angeles.

Peter Stormare’s working day begins early, ideally with a cup of coffee or tea in the morning sun at his West Hollywood home. After our conversation, the school day starts for his 11-year-old daughter, who is home schooling during the pandemic.

“There’s a lockdown here in LA and the restaurants and everything else are closed. Still, it all feels fairly normal to me.

I’m not really one for gadding about; I’m usually working and when I’m not working I stay at home with the family,” he says.

Since moving to the United States 30 years ago, he has played over 150 roles. On screen, his English has been seasoned with various European accents on more than one occasion to enhance the eccentric or villainous roles he gravitates to. His Swedish, however, remains firmly rooted in the dialect of his childhood home in Arbrå, Hälsingland.

“I grew up surrounded by the forest, water and mountains.

That’s my foundation and I’m firmly rooted there. Hälsingland and Hollywood aren’t so far apart – they start with the same letter after all! There’s no great difference unless you create it yourself,” he declares.

THE FANTASTIC WAS RE AL

Already a dreamer as a child, he told his parents that he was planning to move to America, live close to Disneyland and perhaps work in films. Fantastic tales were a conspicuous element of a childhood characterised by a strong tradition of spinning yarns, so neither his daydreaming nor the idea of working with storytelling seemed especially unrealistic.

“I had many older people around me and I was wide eyed as they told me tales of how the little people had saved them from being snowed in and the cow from dying – or given someone the strength to walk 30 kilometres through the forest in a snowstorm. I was born half into some kind of nineteenth century and half into the modern world of Jimi Hendrix and Black Sabbath,” he says.

He could not have guessed that the road to the Hollywood

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Nothing deters Peter Stormare as he sets about fulfilling more dreams than ever, both professionally and personally: “I want to build and decorate another home in my lifetime, perhaps in Los Angeles or in Japan, where my wife comes from.”

PETER STORMARE Age: 67 years old.

Family: wife Toshimi Stormare and daughters Kaiya, 11, and Kelly, 30.

Selected filmography: Fargo (1996) Armageddon (1998) Dancer in the Dark (2000) Minority Report (2002) Constantine (2005) Upcoming: Pandemic thriller Songbird, Swedish film Tuesday Club (premiere 2022) and a number of projects with his own production company, Viking Brothers.

dream factory would go via the National Academy of Dramatic Art. His first encounter with the theatre and acting did not come until he moved to Stockholm after graduating from upper-secondary school, when he was given a spare ticket to the Royal Dramatic Theatre. For the 20-year-old Peter Stormare, when the curtain rose it was as if the gates of heaven had opened.

“The show, Gropen (The Pit), might well have been one of the biggest flops ever at the Royal Dramatic Theatre, but I was moved to tears and thought: ‘This is my home’,” he explains.

Five years later, he stepped onto the stage as a trained actor and aspiring director, with great successes ahead of him. He developed a special relationship with legendary director Ingmar Bergman, for whom he played leading roles in acclaimed productions; however, the call of America remained strong and when he was refused leave of absence from the Royal Dramatic Theatre, he resigned and left Stockholm with a one-way ticket and no plan B.

He has never been able to ignore that inner voice.

“Sure, there have been exciting contrasts in my life and it does seem a bit strange looking back.

But it’s all based on my faith in what I call God, or whatever it is that leads me and helps me progress. I’ve listened and followed my path.

Reliance will take you far,” he says.

After his international breakthrough in the Oscarwinning Fargo in 1996, Stormare appeared in blockbusters such as Armageddon and Jurassic Park and on television in series such as Prison Break.

These days, he chooses his roles with great care, driven by the opportunities acting offers to satisfy his curiosity and explore new areas, rather than stardom or fame.

“I don’t see myself in big Hollywood movies any longer. That’s more of a machine that I feel I’ve already been through. These days, I’m drawn to people with more unconventional ideas and I’d rather make a smaller film with a maniac who wants to create something brilliant – and daring,” he says.

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“I want to make good use of the winning ticket I recieved in life’s lottery.”

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A couple of hours from the streets of West Hollywood lie forests that remind Peter Stormare of the Swedish forests where he grew up and has his roots: “The difference is that everything here is a little bigger. The pines are a little bigger. The firs – a little bigger. But the scents are the same! Unfortunately, there are no chanterelles. I do miss those.”

CLUTCHING HIS WINNING TICKET

Peter sees the experiences and contacts he has amassed as the prize in a lottery, a unique pass to every ride in the fairground. He clutches this winning ticket close to his heart and intends to make the most of it.

“In my opinion, to be able to work in the arts is the ultimate gift. As an actor, I am allowed to revert to childhood time and again and ask all of those ‘why’ questions to get into the role.

I constantly gain new impressions, which is incredibly enriching and keeps the mind young.”

His inborn restlessness leaves him uninterested in getting involved in anything long-running, in being typecast in similar roles, or in sticking to a single form of expression.

“It’s exactly the same as working with any other craft.

Standing at a lathe making identical wooden candlesticks year after year – I’d get pretty tired of that! Of course, a carpenter can make anything out of wood: boats, houses, guitars, even bicycles. I want to try as much as possible within my profession.”

Peter Stormare lacks the ability to see his own limitations – something that has often helped him along the way, such as when, despite having no experience, he auditioned for stage school and played all of the roles himself. And the older he gets, the more the path ahead seems to widen with opportunities.

“When I was 20, it seemed narrow, almost like I was pressed up against a wall. Now I see an autostrada ahead of me and I think that’s really cool.”

If you have a dream, follow it! It sounds so simple and perhaps it is, as long as you don’t sit around too long getting comfortable, becoming a “couch potato”, as Stormare puts it.

“If you dream of starting a dance band, you should do it – regardless of whether you’re 17 or 73. As long as you’re reasonably healthy, it’s never too late. You won’t go to prison for opening a florist’s shop at the age of 69. And at that age, nobody is going to tell you to go to hell either,” he adds with a chuckle.

PANDEMIC THRILLER RAISES HACKLES

Pandemic thriller Songbird is the only Hollywood movie to be both shot and released during 2020. Peter Stormare plays the part of the feared head of the Los Angeles sanitation department. The coronavirus has mutated, causing the highly deadly disease COVID-23, a fictional scenario that has not been met with universal acclaim. Some critics have found it crass to terrorise audiences in this way in the midst of a real pandemic.

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PHOTO BENGT WANSELIUS

Ingmar Bergman (1918–2007) was like a father to Peter Stormare and he continues to guide him through life and acting. The photograph shows them with Pernilla August in rehearsals for a 1986 production of Hamlet at the Royal Dramatic Theatre.

“You would have to be pretty reactionary not to realise that this is a classic Romeo and Juliet story in which love conquers all. The script was written to bring hope and spread light and, if you can’t write about what’s happening here and now, what the hell can you make films about? We need to ride out this storm, just like generations before us have done so many times,” says Peter Stormare, evidently irritated by the protests.

He points out that burying our heads in the sand only makes matters worse. Nor is he on board with cancel culture, silencing disagreeable opinions and blacklisting famous people and their work for any indiscretion. He recently took issue with online casinos and the famous people who appear in adverts for them knowing full well that gambling addiction ruins so many lives.

“I have a forest revolutionary inside me! When something is absolutely wrong, I get fucking angry.

Simply talking about and exposing problems is generally the beginning of a solution. I’m used to quick decisions on stage or in front of the camera.

When you’re there, you can get angry, fight, agree on a cut, shake hands – and move on.”

HELP FROM THE DEPARTED

When confronted with problems of his own, he still listens to his inner voice. The powerful experience of being guided through life makes Stormare open to inner dialogue with the departed. Ingmar Bergman

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is still on hand to help him through a scene.

“I doesn’t seem in the least odd to be able to speak to those who have meant so much to one, like mentors and parents. If I find myself alone with a problem, I try to find a calm, a stillness in which I can shut out all sound and, often, I receive an answer, a sense of the right thing to do. This has come naturally to me since I was a child,” he says.

Peter Stormare tends his cultural heritage by placing himself in a broader context and thanking those who have gone before. He thanks Greta Garbo every day for paving the way for Swedish actors in Hollywood.

“Many people live as if the world were created just for them, here and now. But we only exist because previous generations struggled to overcome adversity and we are here so that, hopefully, future generations will be able to live in a slightly better society than our own,” he says.

While he carries the forests, lakes and marshes around his childhood home with him forever in his heart, he experiences the same sense of being grounded in the desert landscape close to where he lives now.

“I have wondered why this is and arrived at the conclusion that it has to do with our origins. The desert was once covered by water, an ocean, and it was beside waterways and in the forests that we once lived. It has always been there and always will be. It is we who are only visiting,” he concludes.

FOTO ADOBE STOCK

PETER STORMARE ON Playing the villain: “All male actors would rather play the evil prince than the good one. Anything else is boring! Hopefully, you’re already the good prince in real life.”

Never taking vacations: “It’s enough for me to take a 90-minute hike up into the mountains to cleanse my spirit. My father was always working, if nothing else doing DIY at our summer cottage.

There was always building going on, so I guess it’s in my genes. In Hollywood, time off is usually a euphemism for unemployed.”

Following your own path: “I see it as following an illuminated trail. Sometimes I might get a little lost but then I simply climb back up into the light. I am convinced that everyone has their own journey to make here on Earth. It’s just a matter of listening carefully to the voice inside.”

The simple life: “I learned early on here in the USA to put a little bit away so that there’s always something to fall back on. And then, you don’t need three, four cars, big houses, fancy kitchens and multiple bathrooms. I have a car, but I usually cycle.”

Building houses: “If I wasn’t an actor, I might well be a carpenter. We’ve had our house for 20 years now and I love it. My father, brother and close friends have been here to lend a hand.

Their imprints are everywhere in the house and it feels safe. Before the lights go out and I fall into the big sleep, I would like to build and furnish one more house.”

Creating in wood: “The scent of wood alone is wonderful! I have gathered wood from Japan, driftwood from the shore here and Swedish wood from the forests around the river Ljusnan that I have dried and worked. Some of it is in the suite I decorated at the Orbaden Hotel in Hälsingland. At the moment, I have a felled peach tree with quite uniquely beautiful knots that I have to get to grips with.”

According to Peter Stormare, stubbornness, humility and gratitude are three essential attributes for making a career in Hollywood movies. Personally, he expresses his gratitude to Greta Garbo every day for being one of the trailblazers for Swedish actors: “Without her, I wouldn’t be here.”

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Wood is history and the future TEXT HÅKAN NORBERG

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PHOTO SOLIDEO

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is renowned for ordering the planting of plane trees along roads to provide ample shade for his marching troops. Not quite as well known is the fact that his nephew, Napoleon III, laid the foundations for parts of the French forest industry by planting large areas of coniferous forest in the mid-nineteenth century.

“Since then, the deciduous forests of France have been successively supplemented with coniferous forest,” says Benjamin Bodet, managing director of the ISB Group, France’s leading wood products company for the DIY and building sectors.

Despite Napoleon’s best efforts on behalf of the forest industry, France still imports the majority of its forest raw materials and the ISB Group is no exception. Among other places, the company’s timber comes from Scandinavia, Russia and the Baltic States.

APOLEON BONAPARTE

FOTO ISB GROUP

The world’s search for a sustainable future leads into the woods.

There, we find the material that humankind has used throughout the ages and that is now being embraced to an even greater extent.

The ISB Group intends to lead this development in France.

PARIS 2024 SUMMER OLYMPICS

Much like the rest of the world, timber construction in France is currently undergoing a renaissance. Major construction projects are increasingly using mainly timber, including for the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics. Public authorities are supporting timber construction and in some cases making it mandatory to use a given percentage of wood in buildings.

According to Benjamin Bodet, the main restriction on the use of wood today is that the French timber industry still does not have totally the capacity to meet the needs of the market.

The ISB Group is gearing up to meet this demand within its two business areas: processing and trading. In the interests of greater efficiency, the company is reducing its ports’ storage facilities on the west coast of France from five to three, all adjacent to factories, and will be keeping all products in stock.

At the same time, logistics will be centralised onto one national platform, thus reducing transport and infrastructure costs.

“We are growing in areas such as engineered wood products and we are recruiting new employees with the right skills. Our goal is to provide the building sector with the timber products and skills that it is demanding,” says Benjamin Bodet.

Benjamin Bodet, managing director of the ISB Group.

ISB GROUP Group head office is in Pacé in northwest France.

The company has 430 employees and operates from five factories and three ports. In 2020, the ISB Group’s turnover was €240 million.

THE MATERIAL OF THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY

Development work at ISB is intended to support a more innovative building industry in France, with the emphasis on sustainability for both people and the environment. Wood is the key or, as ISB puts it: Metal was the material of the nineteenth century. Concrete was the material of the twentieth century. Wood is the material of the twenty-first century.

“We are convinced that wood will play a major role in the building industry and interior design for a long time to come.

Wood is both our history and our future,” says Benjamin Bodet.

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TEXT JENNIE ZETTERQVIST

FOTO ADOBE STOCK

A VITAL CULTUR AL BEARER I N S I C K N E S S A N D I N H E A LT H

Pantry, workplace and refuge: the world’s forests are tightly interwoven with the cultures and needs of the people who live off of and in them.

These relationships vary but they are vital and enduring.

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OUR MILLION HECTARES of unevenly distributed forest covers just over 30 percent of the Earth’s land area. How the vegetation in a forest looks – from northern coniferous to tropical rain forest and southern savanna – depends on climate, bedrock, water supply and human management.

According to the FAO report The State of the World’s Forests 2020, “roughly one-third of humanity has a close dependence on forests and forest products”. The report also states that 2.4 billion people use wood-based energy for cooking, while approximately one in ten people globally uses wood fuel to boil and sterilise water to make it safe for drinking and food processing. The forest’s storehouse is a crucial asset to many of the world’s poorest communities, whose livelihoods are based on the natural supply of timber, fuel, medicine, food and fodder.

In the industrialised world, there is renewed and growing interest in even more forest-based products linked to the desire and need to increase the sustainability of our societies. Lifestyle trends also affect the level of interest in the forest. Since

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energy-packed acai bowls became a major eating trend among the health conscious, the status of the acai palm, which grows in Central and South America, has increased. And that is only one example.

Living in and around the forest is another trend among the well-heeled, especially now that digitisation allow more and more of us to work from anywhere we choose. The search for increased quality of life is leading people to relocate from crowded. stressful cities to the tranquillity of the rural landscape in a process known as amenity migration.

The FAO report shows that some of the world’s most ecologically intact and impressively biodiverse forests are managed by indigenous peoples. The recipe for success appears to be a combination of a deep cultural and spiritual relationship to the forest that their ancestors cultivated and precious knowledge passed down the generations.

Human needs shape and reshape the value we place on our forests. And one thing is certain: we cannot live without them.

THE WORLD’S FORESTS There are currently approximately four million hectares of forest worldwide, divided as follows: 25 % in Europe (including Russia) 21 % in South America 19 % in North and Central America 16 % in Africa 15 % in Asia 4 % in Oceania Source: Forest Sweden There are over 60,000 known species of tree.

This is the number registered in the database GlobalTreeSearch, which is managed by Botanic Gardens Conservation International.

Between them, five countries have over half of the world’s forest area: Russia, Brazil, Canada, the United States and China.

Did you know that the world’s first forestry law was enacted in Sweden in 1903? This legislated at a national level the obligation of forest owners to ensure that new forest was planted after felling.

During the nineteenth century, felling had exceeded growth and the new law was intended to ensure that those using the forest must also care for it, something that is equally important today.

The international definition of a forest is an area of land larger than 0.5 hectares with a tree canopy cover of more than 10 % when the trees have reached a height of 5 metres. This definition was adopted by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations in order to be able to measure the world’s forest stocks.

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TEXT DAN GORDAN

PHOTO JENS MOURITS

SCA NDIN AV I A N DESIGN A N

8 0 -Y E A R

S U C C E S S

S T O RY

Stripped down and functional. Minimalistic and beautiful.

Scandinavian design has been revered around the world for over 80 years – and the love affair continues.

“T

design has never been stronger than it is today.

It is a strong selling point around the globe.”

So says Anders Färdig, founder and CEO of Design House Stockholm, who has spent three decades as an active ambassador for young Swedish designers of furniture and design objects. Currently, he sees the furniture side of the company’s catalogue increasing the most, thanks to success stories such as Mathieu Gustafsson’s canework series, Karl Malmvall’s stepladders and Gunilla Allard’s new tea trolley.

It is often suggested that Scandinavian design has its origins in the environment – in the climate and natural landscape. The British author Elisabeth Wilhide believes that the darkness, cold and snow, and the short summers, have forced people in the north to find functional, resource-efficient solutions.

And long before the motto of modernism – form follows function – was coined, everyday objects were being manufactured in exactly this spirit.

Today, the people with the short summers have created a world of furniture and design that is one of the country’s major industries, employing over 50,000 people and, Ikea’s extensive operations excluded, exporting goods worth over SEK 25 billion annually.

HE TERM SCANDINAVIAN

GENDER EQUALITY AND DEMOCRACY

Even in our own time, nature remains the greatest source of inspiration. To this, we might add a sense homeliness, a still-vibrant craft tradition and a practical approach to design. Not to mention a society that generally emphasises equality as an ideal. The idea that everyone should have the opportunity to have a functional, bright and beautiful home, regardless of whether they come from a wealthy family or poor working-class roots, was an idea whose time had come in post-war Europe.

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The latter is something that Ikea in particular highlights when launching its low-price furniture with the slogan “democratic design”. This is furniture for the masses, unlike the design classics of the 1950s, which were often advanced handcrafted pieces, not infrequently designed for some luxury setting.

Consider the Egg and Swan chairs designed by Arne Jacobsen for the Royal Hotel in Copenhagen.

It goes without saying that Ikea has had an immeasurable impact on how millions of consumers worldwide view Scandinavian furniture design. After all, 422 stores in 50 countries speak for themselves.

Nike Karlsson and the siblings Knut and Marianne Hagberg are among the designers that have returned to the Swedish folk tradition time and time again for inspiration. Like Design House Stockholm, Gärsnäs is a minor player on the international market yet also one of the country’s most interesting furniture makers with a growing share of exports.

“I generally say that we are part of the Scandinavian design tradition,” says Dag Klockby, partner and CEO of Gärsnäs. “It’s about the aesthetic, a lightness of touch without any excess, about social ambition, about basic quality, concentrating on the essentials,about functionality.”

There are many words to describe the Scandinavian. These days, ambitious manufacturers would do well to add the two cornerstones of sustainability and recycling. The foundation of Gärsnäs’ collection is furniture by the doyen of Swedish furniture designers, Åke Axelsson. His many furnishings and chairs have been the subject of a major retrospective at a Copenhagen gallery during the autumn and winter. “Åke is like our tree trunk,” says Dag Klockby.

“He connects us to history. To antique role models, the timelessness of the Gustavian style and the modernist school.”

A BRIEF HISTORY OF SCANDINAVIAN DESIGN

1925

1930

International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts in Paris. An English art critic launches the term “Swedish grace” to describe Swedish glassware.

The Stockholm Exhibition of 1930, the breakthrough for functionalism in Sweden.

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PHOTO CBS

PHOTO ARTEK

1960 John F Kennedy and Richard Nixon sit on Hans J Wegner’s chair during the first televised presidential debate.

1933

1958

Alvar Aalto’s furniture displayed at the department store Fortnum & Mason in London.

The Royal Hotel in Copenhagen furnished with Egg and Swan chairs.

FROM BENTWOOD TO STEEL TUBING

Åke Axelsson remains active even as he approaches his 90th year. Today, the company is also an attractive gathering place for many younger furniture designers: Fredrik Färg and Emma Blanche, a couple whose Emma easy chair harks back to the classic of the same name; Pierre Sindre, whose Dandy easy chair became an object of desire in both homes and offices; and David Ericsson, a graduate of Malmstens and a designer and cabinetmaker whose furniture, more than any other current designer, links the skilled craftsmanship of the 1950s with modern execution.

Modern Scandinavian design can look back on over 80 years of success. In the early 1930s, Alvar Aalto’s bentwood furniture was shown to great acclaim at Harrods of London by Finnish company Artek. Swedish designers made their mark when the gates opened for the 1939 World’s Fair in New York, their blonde, carefully considered interiors presented under the manifesto Swedish modern – a movement towards sanity in design. The Swedish pavilion displayed furniture by Svenskt Tenn, Josef Frank and Axel Larsson of Svenska Möbelfabrikerna.

Carl Malmsten and Nordiska Kompaniet also participated, as did Elias Svedberg, Bruno Mathsson and G. A. Berg – all under the same roof.

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Millions of visitors viewed the simple and unassuming blonde wooden furniture, its practical, warm aspect lacking the slightly chilly aesthetic of early modernism’s tubular steel designs.

The magazine House and Garden dubbed Svenskt Tenn’s Estrid Ericson the “Mistress of Modern”. The previous year, the magazine had listed its “7 trends to watch”, five of which represented the styles of previous eras; the two exceptions were “Exposition modern” och “Swedish modern”.

THE CHAIR WINS TELEVISED DEBATE

After World War II, the baton was handed to the Danes. Hans J Wegner and Finn Juhl were among the first to be embraced by a wider public. Radiating craftsmanship and elegance, their furniture was often manufactured in dark woods. Wegner’s stated ambition “to bring life to the wood” was a lifelong mantra, resulting in over 500 chair designs.

The major breakthrough for his chair Den Runda Stolen (The Round Chair) came in 1960 when a dozen examples were purchased by US television network CBS for the first televised debate between presidential candidates John F Kennedy and Richard Nixon. This chair was considered so shapely and refined that it became known as simply The Chair.

1937, 1939

1954–57

1955

World’s fairs in Paris and New York.

A breakthrough for Swedish furniture, referred to as “Swedish Modern”.

The Design in Scandinavia exhibition tours the United States and Canada.

The H55 Exhibition, Sweden becomes “the country you designed”.

PHOTO DESIGN HOUSE STOCKHOLM

PHOTO IKEA

PHOTO DITTE ISAGER

2010s Mathieu Gustafsson’s Air Cabinet from his canework series.

1995 The first Ikea PS collection is a major success at the Milan Furniture Fair.

Today, it is primarily Wegner’s Wishbone Chair, designed for furniture company Carl Hansen & Søn, that continues to conquer the world some 70 years after it first saw the light of day. The venerable Carl Hansen & Søn is now in good company with Scandinavian upstarts such as Muuto and HAY, both of which were recently acquired for enormous sums by US furniture giants Knoll and Herman Miller respectively – another sign of just how vital Scandinavian style remains.

The term Scandinavian Design was minted in conjunction with the exhibition Design in Scandinavia, which toured the United States and Canada between 1954 and 1957. The Helsingborg Exhibition of 1955, also known as H55, attracted a great deal of attention in Sweden with its displays of Nordic arts and crafts, contributing to making the 1950s the decade of design.

The success of Nordic furniture companies continued well into the sixties, both commercially and at international expositions and trade fairs.

Scandinavian style conveyed the optimistic belief in the future so characteristic of the post-war period.

A WORLDWIDE CONCERN

Anders Färdig observes that, historically, the Nordic countries contributed in different ways.

“From Finland and Alvar Aalto, came the form and innovative idea of bentwood, Denmark provided the craftsmanship, while Sweden’s main contribution might well have been ergonomics. Consider Bruno Mathsson’s Jetson armchair – there’s surely no better way to sit!”

It was Bruno Mathsson who merited a full-page headline in the New York Times when he returned for an exhibition at New York’s Museum of Modern Art in 1978: “Bruno is Back!”, exclaimed the newspaper.

Even if the target group for Scandinavian furniture design has increased exponentially over the past 80 years, Anders Färdig emphasises that the world is awash with accomplished competitors.

The formal expression is often similar, not least in Japan and China.

“We in the Nordic region will need to sharpen our weapons if we are to continue leading the way in Scandinavian design!”

DAN GORDAN

Former editor of interior design magazine Sköna hem for over 20 years, specialising in design. His book Svenska stolar och deras formgivare 1899 till idag (Swedish chairs and their designers 1899 to the present day) was published in 2019.

1978

1998

2005

Exhibition of Bruno Mathsson’s furniture at MoMA in New York.

Stockholm is the European Capital of Culture, young Swedish design gains international recognition.

The Swedish government proclaims Design Year 2005 to highlight the societal role of designers.

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TEXT JENNIE ZETTERQVIST

I L L U S T R AT I O N M I K A E L E J E M A R V I K S T R Ö M

THE GREEN GOLD RUSH T H AT

F O U N D E D

A

C O U N T RY

From untouched and state-owned to the export commodity on which Sweden’s prosperity was built. During a brief period in the nineteenth century, thanks to new trading conditions, a hardworking population and enterprising timber barons, the Swedish forest was refined from a dormant resource into green gold.

“The modern forest industry is founded on a cultural heritage that reflects the development of society,” says Nils Johan Tjärnlund, author and science journalist.

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forest industry began to take shape during the eighteenth century to meet the demand for charcoal from ironworks, which tended to be located close to densely forested areas rather than mines because it was easier to transport the iron ore to the wood than vice versa. Government policy dictated that blast furnaces be distributed along the east coast in northern Sweden, often in the region around Sundsvall, where the remnants of mills such as Galtströms, Lögdö and Åvike can still be seen.

HE SWEDISH

FREE TRADE TAKES OFF

The social upheaval of the nineteenth century soon altered the conditions for Sweden’s forested counties. Industrialisation was more advanced in Europe and Britain, resulting in high demand for beams and sawn timber for enterprises such as mining. When the Swedish Government issued a decree extending freedom of trade to all citizens, free trade increased and investments were made in infrastructure such as log rafting routes, railways and, later, forest roads, opening up completely new export opportunities.

“Freedom of trade was an important factor that was extended in several stages. From the 1840s onwards, it became possible for more people to build factories, workshops or other types of industry, something that had previously been guarded by very strict privileges,” explains Nils Johan Tjärnlund.

This advanced the interests of a new middle class characterised by entrepreneurial spirit. At the same time, customs duties and other state trade barriers were also abolished.

FORESTRY SPREADS ON A BROAD FRONT

Although small water-powered sawmills were already operating in many places, the advent of the steam turbine meant saws could be scaled up and located in port locations more advantageous for transport. In many cases, ironworks, which were beginning to experience an economic downturn, retooled to become sawmills, extending the timber frontier along a diagonal line from Norway across the entirety of northern Sweden and northern Finland to the Russian border. From here, wood was collected that, having stood untouched for so long, was suddenly highly valued.

Seeing the potential in the forest industry, foreign entrepreneurs began arriving in Sweden fully prepared to make risky investments with borrowed money in sawmills and rafting routes.

“Among the bold and visionary timber barons fuelling the industry’s explosive development were names such as Bünsow, Dickson, Kempe and Francke. Swedish businessmen also invested and the strategic Sundsvall area between the outlets of the Indal and Ljungan rivers soon had the world’s greatest concentration of sawmills, with over 40 steam saws,” says Nils Johan Tjärnlund.

The forest gold rush reached its peak between 1850 and 1900, requiring access to a labour force corresponding to the period’s large population growth. A large steam-powered sawmill might need anything from 200 to 250 workers.

“The population grew very quickly. Peacetime, improved hygiene and better conditions for health meant that more people survived into adulthood.

It was therefore fortunate that the forest industry was able to provide so many jobs,” says Nils Johan Tjärnlund.

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The rebuilding of central Sundsvall was financed by the timber barons and designed according to their dream of a major European city.

VIBRANT COMMUNITIES EMERGE

PHOTO SCA

Strong, vibrant communities coalesced around the mills, which in itself must have had a great impact on those arriving from the countryside.

“In this new life of associations, one learned about the structure of society, the rules of democracy, about involving oneself in social issues and organising to achieve change. Much of the emergence of modern society can be linked to the Sundsvall area in the late nineteenth century,” he says.

Communities sprang up around sawmills to which whole families moved, encouraged by forest companies keen to ensure access to vital labour. Many who had become used to living in multigenerational homes in rural areas, who might only have met a handful of villagers in their life, suddenly found themselves adjusting to a community of people from diverse places, living in a small household in a new normative constellation: the nuclear family.

While the work at sawmills was demanding, free accommodation and access to doctors, bathhouses and communal bakeries contributed to a day-to-day existence that was at least more tolerable than the poverty and servitude many had arrived from.

The 800-metre-long timber chute down the mountain Glimån, which flows into the River Indal, a popular attraction for rafting tourists. The logs slid at tremendous speed along the Glimån chute before plunging into the water with a loud splash.

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“Life in a sawmill community clearly involved a higher standard of living, even if it was hardly optimal and many would certainly have wished for a faster pace of improvement,” he says.

ADMIRABLE INDUSTRIAL METROPOLIS

Together with the surrounding regions of Ångermanland and Hälsingland, Sundsvall formed an impressive industrial metropolis. Tourists were particularly impressed by the rafting of logs, which allowed even the inland to flourish. By 1880, the state was beginning to take a holistic approach to timber rafting routes, which in only 20 years had grown from 5,000 to 20,000 kilometres in a vast network of branches. In 1897, King Chulalongkorn of Siam, now Thailand, was lured to Sweden to study the modern forest industry and examine the possibility of introducing similar technologies at home. Among other spectacles, the King was able to admire the 800-metre-long timber chute down the mountain Glimån.

“There, the timber was propelled out, plunging into the River Indal, resulting in enormous cascades of water,” explains Nils Johan Tjärnlund.

Timber rafting was a labour-intensive business and the rafters became the action heroes of their day, the subject of songs, novels and, later, films that romanticised their task.

“The rafters, balancing on slippery logs out in the rapids, became almost mythical figures as their profession was considered adventurous and dramatic,” says Nils Johan Tjärnlund.

LIFE AND PERSPECTIVES CHANGE

As felling sites moved further and further away from watercourses, the natural course of action was to begin carving out the forest roads that now snake throughout the interior of Norrland.

The introduction of lorries in the 1960s reduced the transport time from months to a single day.

The final rafting in Sweden took place on the river Klarälven in Värmland in 1991.

At the same time, the pulp and paper industry was taking off, leading to the establishment of other types of businesses to meet the industry’s needs: machinery for paper and pulp manufacture, logging machinery, vehicles and logistics for transportation.

“One sometimes overlooks the fact that the forest industry has played its part in building such a large part of the Swedish welfare state in so many different ways. The modern forest industry is founded on various businesses: ironworks, shipyards, sawmills and processing industries.

This heritage encompasses both cultural and industrial history.”

Entire families worked in the sawmills performing various tasks. “Although the heaviest manual labour was performed by the men, many women also worked in the sawmill at the same time as dealing with the household chores,” says Nils Johan Tjärnlund.

Both life and perspectives changed in the wake of the forest industry’s emergence. Record numbers migrated from rural areas to Sundsvall during the golden age of the sawmills. After the fire of 1888, a unique city of stone was constructed on a European scale to house the modernised society.

The Stone City’s spires and towers still remind us of the timber barons’ wealth and vision of a city into which international winds blew vessels from every corner of the world, carrying exotic imported goods for the growing trade.

“This new urban life offered wider horizons.

People became more aware of a wider world across the ocean. The sawmill society contributed to a mental readjustment that completely transformed people’s worldview,” says Nils Johan Tjärnlund.

Nils Johan Tjärnlund is currently in the planning stage of a book on nineteenth-century Nordic timber barons.

P H O T O P R I VAT E

In reality, the job was far more stressful. The season began as soon as the ice melted in spring and nights spent in forest cabins were chilly.

A change of clothing was a rare luxury and rubber boots were not common in Sweden until the 1940s. Leather boots were impregnated with tar to provide at least some level of protection from the water.

PHOTO SCA

PHOTO SCA

PHOTO SCA

This residential area of Skönvik, north of Sundsvall, is one example of what grander sawmill communities might look like. In homes built close to sawmills, people from diverse places came together to find new ways of life.

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PHOTO BRIO

A prized classic

BRIO WOODEN TR AINS have been a familiar toy to many generations.

This classic has been upgraded and awarded the accolade Toy of the Year 2020 (for preschoolers) by the Swedish Toy & Baby Association. Brio, a maker of wooden toys of over a century, has added smart technology to its train tracks, so that exciting things happen along the route.

Playful smiling lines DANISH DESIGNER K AY BOJESEN (1886–1958) gave life to his much-loved wooden animals with joy and boundless imagination. These playful monkeys and many other ingenious creatures live on and continue to make people smile all over the world.

Kay Bojesen, the creator of over 2,000 arts and crafts pieces, actually began as a silversmith, serving his apprenticeship with the master Georg Jensen. His fascination with children, toys and wood was awoken on the birth of his son, Otto, in 1919. From this, grew a series of wooden animals embodying his vision that design should be “round, soft and have a good feel to it”. Kay Bojesen’s animal designs are based on a child’s own world where “lines need to smile”. This ambition is clearly evident in his famous monkey, born in 1951 with a wooden body of teak and limba. The monkey, which was apparently designed as a coat hanger for an exhibition of children’s furniture, still enlivens many children’s rooms – and PH OT O indeed the homes of stylish adults who are still in touch with KA Y BO JE their inner child.

SE N DE

NM

AR

K

PHOTO ANGELICA BROCKNE

FROM TOY TO PRESIDENTIAL GIFT A PAINTED TOY HORSE that has become a part of Sweden’s cultural heritage and a gift fit for world leaders. The iconic Dala horse, carved from carefully selected pine, galloped into the finer salons after making its international debut at the 1939 World's Fair in New York.

Production of the distinctive Dala horse began in the wooden cabins of eighteenthcentury foresters, who carved them to keep themselves busy in the evenings. The horse was given its familiar painted kurbits pattern during the 1830s and with the aid of commercial travellers it quickly spread around Sweden, later becoming world famous.

The biggest Dala horse in the world is 13 metres high and welcomes visitors to Avesta Municipality in the county of Dalarna, from where it gets its name. This particular example has a steel frame, so the biggest wooden Dala horse is to be found in Mora at 3.7-metres tall.

The horses are still handcrafted in their native landscape of Dalarna in the village of Nusnäs, which has become a place of pilgrimage for tourists. These days, this toy horse is deemed suitable as a presidential gift. In 1996, US President Bill Clinton was presented with a 75-centimetre Dala horse by Prime Minister Göran Persson as a gift from the Swedish people.

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TEXT JENNIE ZETTERQVIST

PHOTO SCA

SAWMILL FOLK WHO CHANGED SWEDEN

The timber industry changed the lives of the people. And the people who worked in the sawmills changed Sweden. Author Vibeke Olsson’s fascination with the epoch of the sawmills deepened successively while she was working on her series of novels on Bricken of Svartvik, a woman working at a sawmill south of Sundsvall in Mid Sweden.

“It was a hugely fascinating period of belief in the future and community,” she says.

T

HE YE AR WAS 1879 . Although the sawmill industry was experiencing explosive growth along the coast of Norrland, wages had been reduced.

At its height, the great Sundsvall strike saw 6,000 workers down tools to join peaceful protests demanding a return to the previous year’s hourly rate.

This well-organised strike immediately aroused the interest of author Vibeke Olsson the first time she heard about it. When publisher Libris asked if she might be interested in writing a historical young adult novel, the subject soon became clear. Sågverksungen (The Sawmill Kid) begins in 1879, when the main character Bricken is 11 years old and working long days in the sawmill in Svartvik.

“It’s unusual to receive a request from a publisher, so I felt I had to grab the opportunity! I have always been interested in history and even as a child I would interrogate grandma about life when she was little. All eras are interesting, but then there are those that really grab one’s attention so I took the opportunity to zoom in on the nineteenth century,” says Vibeke Olsson.

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Olsson had previously written ten novels set in the Roman Empire and in the autumn she released her seventh book on the sawmill epoch. Som skuggan följer ljuset (As the Shadow Follows the Light) is set in 1932, by which time Bricken has reached 63 years of age. That she would have to write more than one book on the subject was already apparent to Vibeke Olsson on her first visit to Svartvik in 2008, when she was warmly welcomed by the Svartvik Cultural Heritage Society, which actively safeguards the memory of the sawmill community and the remaining mill buildings.

“My husband and I were overwhelmed by the knowledge and dedication we encountered in Svartvik. The exciting thing about this era and the sawmills is the special environment in which peasant society met the modern industrial society and became a model for a future Sweden,” says Vibeke Olsson.

“The workers failed to regain the previous year’s wage. All they managed to do was change Sweden for ever.” This is what Vibeke Olsson usually tells her audience when she lectures on the Sundsvall strike, which the workers were forced to call off after only one week. This nascent labour movement had come to stay and would gradually improve

P H O T O S VA N T H E H A R S T R Ö M

employment conditions. The Free Church was Sweden’s first popular movement and it strongly influenced the strike with its democratic organisation and sense of justice. The temperance movement and sporting associations also emerged in sawmill communities as people from different walks of life gathered and sought new social security.

“As a Christian and a socialist myself, the Sundsvall strike is close to my heart and I feel a very deep respect for the people of that era, their strong social commitment and sense of duty in the early years of popular movements. If one also considers the heavy manual labour they performed, it is even more impressive that they took responsibility for temperance, adult education and supporting their families,” says Vibeke Olsson.

In order to depict historical events, she has inhabited the reality of people’s lives and conducted extensive research in history books, fictional accounts, dissertations and documents in archives and collections.

“In a way, it’s easier to write about historical events, because I know how it ends! That said, one must be humble before the fact that those living then and there did not know how things would end.”

Christine Persson as Bricken in local amateur dramatic society Svartviksspelet’s production of Olsson’s Sågspån och eld (Sawdust and Fire).

THE WOMEN OF THE SAWMILLS While there was a strong masculine culture in the country’s first real major industry, Vibeke Olsson has chosen to depict life at the sawmill from the female perspective of Bricken.

“I find this duality very exciting. On the one hand, the timber industry was very male-dominated.

On the other, women were present in an entirely different way than in other industries. The timber barons preferred to employ men with families, where women dealt with the household chores such as cooking and laundry while at the same playing an important part in production at the sawmill. Shipping companies, for example, preferred women to load boards and planks as they were deemed to be more careful when doing so. It was important that the cargo didn’t shift onboard once the ship had sailed, as this could be disastrous.”

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PHOTO LIBRIS

In her series of novels about Bricken and the sawmill in Svartvik, Vibeke Olsson depicts the age of sawmills and how it came to play a decisive role in Sweden’s growth.

Despite the participation of 6,000 sawmill workers in the Sundsvall strike, only a handful of incidents were reported to the police: the theft of a barrel of soft drink, a minor assault as the inspector (the site manager) was removed, and a couple of home invasions as the strikers attempted to convince reluctant comrades to join their cause.

The strikers were afraid of being shot and had no idea that the strike would go on for a week. While the workers’ lives were hard by modern standards, Vibeke Olsson’s novels are imbued with hope, pride, love and joy.

“One must look at it through contemporary eyes.

What alternatives were there for those without property in the nineteenth century? Many people forget that perspective. For many people, it was much more bearable to work 14 hours a day in the sawmill than as a farm labourer,” she observes.

What was originally to be a single young adult novel has grown into something much greater.

The eighth book in the series is underway.

“To me, it feels vital to remind ourselves of where we come from and the struggle that preceded us.

Neither democracy nor the welfare state simply popped into existence and we all have a responsibility to maintain them,” she says.

Olsson points out that, prior to the Sundsvall strike, the sawmill era was an industrial revolution taking place out of the media spotlight.

“But after 1879, the newspapers became aware of the working class and began to write about events. This appears to have been an awakening along the lines of: ‘Wake up!

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We have a major industry that is in the process of completely transforming society’.”

She also observes that these collective forces were crucial to Sweden’s position in the world.

By the end of the sawmill era in the 1930s, while country after country in Europe was succumbing to dictatorship and fascism, Sweden’s strong people’s movements were putting democracy into practice.

“The fact that they lived and breathed it was in some way a vaccination against fascism, which only ever became a marginal upper-class movement here. It failed to gain a wider foothold because other forces were stronger,” she says.

And despite the fact that the country was so impoverished at the beginning of the sawmill era, it saw the founding of newspapers, societal functions and companies that remain the cornerstones of society. The government’s decision to build the railways still touches an author who has spent so much time researching and writing about the era.

“The gleaming rails of the future were laid out among the grey cabins of this poor country.

This is poignant. And amid all of this, the sawmill workers are a vanguard for the new society,” says Vibeke Olsson.

The forest’s cultural heritage deep in the heart of Sweden

CHILD LABOUR AT THE SAWMILL Gathering off-cuts and putting down straw were a couple of the tasks performed by children in nineteenth-century sawmills. Those who grew up as sawmill kids lived in an open industrial environment entirely different to other factories with their closed gates.

“While we consider child labour to be a dreadful thing, one must remember that, above all, families were dependent on income.

It was also a matter parental care; the child’s survival depended on being able to cope with manual labour and acquiring artisanal skills. It was considered advantageous to begin early, to learn to work and support oneself.”

THE R AILWAY AND THE OLD E4 MOTORWAY run right through Svartvik, just outside Sundsvall in northern Sweden, once home to one of the country’s largest sawmill communities.

By train, we rush through one of the birthplaces of modern Sweden.

The lively sawmill community is long, long gone but dedication to Svartvik has become a big part of my life.

When I was offered the opportunity to delve into the Sundsvall strike, I became more and more fascinated by the sawmill era and its people.

The sawmills were Sweden’s first major industry. This was the meeting between the peasant society and what would become modern Sweden. From this perspective, the old sawmill sites are the places we all come from, irrespective of where our biological roots lie.

One day when I was nine years old, my parents, my sister and I were travelling through Värmland by train. My sister and I were engrossed in our homemade quiz on pop stars and movie stars when dad said to us: “Come and look, because you will probably never see this again”. Beyond the train window was the river Klarälven, covered in floating timber.

Dad was right. I have never seen timber rafting again.

Once, with the possible exception of the farthest northern and southern reaches, timber rafting was a common site all over Sweden. The age of the sawmills was relatively brief and it left few physical traces. A chimney here, a mansion there.

The bases of saw frames, the remains of support posts and charcoal ovens can be found is one knows what to look for.

Then again, modern Sweden itself is in a way one gigantic vestige of the sawmill era.

Houses built during the age of sawmills are cherished by many; the ancient inherent knowledge of woodworking combined with the new possibilities offered by series production, the profiled mullions, the beaded tongue and groove boards, dado rails and beautiful door panels. The cultural heritage of the forest industry is deeply embedded in the heart of Sweden. It is so ubiquitous that we barely register it.

As the saying goes, we can’t see the wood for the trees.

My grandfather started working in the forest when he was 10 years old. He remained a forester for the rest of his working life and he could still level a saw blade at the age of 90.

Newspapers spread across the kitchen table, the saw blade laid there, his strong working hands were full of knowledge.

Great knowledge was demanded of all who built the country.

VIBEKE OLSSON AUTHOR

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TEXT JENNIE ZETTERQVIST

PHOTO MADELENE SCHREINER

“My security and freedom lies in the forest” Adventure lay in the forest as Mattias Andersson-Stadig grew up. His father felled trees for SCA for 30 years, continuing work on his own property after his shift – with Mattias at his side. Mattias himself now works at SCA Wood Scandinavia and continues to care for the forest with his own son as playful apprentice.

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HE PL ANE DOCTOR , that was the somewhat unusual title bestowed on Mattias Andersson-Stadig when the Tunadal Planing Mill in Sundsvall, Sweden, was upgraded and the bandsaw replaced with a split saw. An experienced mechanic driven by curiosity, Mattias was responsible for testing and developing the saw blades. His main responsibility now is as maintenance coordinator and he is pleased with his decision in 2013 to go from self-employed to working for SCA, where his father began work felling trees by hand in the 1960s.

“He came to Sweden from Finland, where he had been in the forest with his father since childhood. He had a good way with tools and knew how to maintain them. As a youngster, I didn’t understand the value of that knowledge and experience, but as an adult I often think about what an immense job he did,” says Mattias.

The physical labour was hard and staying overnight in barracks during cold months took its toll. Mattias feels deep gratitude for how the work environment and health and safety have developed into one of the most important aspects within the forest industry and SCA’s corporate culture.

SECURE AND FREE IN HIS OWN FOREST

The end of the working day did not necessarily mean that the forestry work was done. At home in Ljustorp, in Timrå Municipality in Mid Sweden, his own forest awaited on the family croft. Even as a child, Mattias tagged along while his father

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chopped wood, building his own huts to pass the time. At the end of each session, they would gather all the brushwood and light a fire.

“This was one of the highlights for me as a boy.

You can keep the forest in fantastic condition when you thin it by hand and tidy up after yourself.”

Mattias has taken over the forest plot and now has a son of his own who is growing up close to nature on the same property. The forest represents great security for him, both in financial terms and in its highly personal worth.

“It is a powerful experience of freedom to wander your own forest and land and know that this belongs to our family. I can walk, hunt, chop wood or simply lie down and listen to the wind in the leaves and the chirping of the birds. It is a very special feeling to be at one with nature.”

PROFESSIONAL PRIDE

Another thing Mattias has inherited from his father is the ambition to always do his best, no matter what the task. His father kept a long-service award from SCA in a small green case with a silk lining, a lapel pin with a red ruby. He was very proud of it, just as Mattias himself is proud to bear the group’s logo on his jacket. He hopes to follow in his father’s footsteps for a long time, with curiosity as his guiding light.

“Wood processing is new to me, having only seen logs become timber before I started working at the planing mill in Tunadal. If you look 50 years back in time, so much has happened and I am absolutely certain that the wood products industry has a bright future in store.”

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The forest is the kernel of SCA’s business. Around this unique resource, we have built a value chain based on renewable raw materials from our own and other’s forests. Our five business areas are forest, wood, pulp, containerboard and renewable energy, plus logistics. SCA Wood Magazine represents our wood business area.

XRay premium decking

Form, function and finish Generous areas, multiple functions and a beautiful finish.

This is how couple Sanna Grannas and Joel Book sum up their new decking.

“We catch both the morning and evening sun. And we alternate function depending on the season,” says Sanna Grannas. have made renovation and building projects part of their lives. No sooner was their apartment completely renovated than they began to consider moving to a house. And once the house was finished, it was time to build a deck.

When the weather is warm, the decking is an extension of the ground floor’s generous social spaces. In summer, it connects the house to the surrounding landscape. And last winter, the couple transformed a planting box into a fireplace that illuminated the dark northern evenings.

“My first tip is to build bigger than you initially planned.

Then you can ask yourself what you want to use the decking for,” says Sanna.

She continues at rapid pace: How does the sun move across it? Which direction does the wind usually blow? Do you want to eat and perhaps even cook on the deck? How will the space work in the autumn, winter and spring? Does the decking necessarily need to be in the traditional rectangular shape?

“And remember that you will get through a lot of screws!

We used about 6,000 of our 120 square metres of decking,” she says.

When it comes to choosing material, budget is of course a factor. The couple saw no need for “fantasy wood”, that is to say luxurious and thus very expensive timber, but experience has taught them that cheap wood is often knotty and warped.

“Then you have to discard a lot of the total volume,” says Sanna Grannas. “We’ve been through a few homes now and learnt from our mistakes.”

She was dubious about pressure impregnated timber for aesthetic reasons, but was persuaded by its durability. And she was pleasantly surprised by XRay. “The surface has mellowed very nicely already and become lighter and silvery. I’m really pleased with that and the wood suits the house’s silicon painted facade, where the wood is also visible.”

SANNA GR ANNAS AND JOEL BOOK

Learn more about XRay on the next spread.

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I N S P I R AT I O N Follow Sanna Grannas and Joel Book on Instagram @bookgrannasbygger.

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The forest is the kernel of SCA’s business. Around this unique resource, we have built a value chain based on renewable raw materials from our own and other’s forests. Our five business areas are forest, wood, pulp, containerboard and renewable energy, plus logistics. SCA Wood Magazine represents our wood business area.

XRay premium decking

Better for the customer and the tradesperson Clearly better than standard decking. For the quality conscious customer. After two years of testing, these were the criteria on which retailer Optimera chose XRay from SCA. “We have been selling XRay as premium decking since 2017 in all of our locations,” says product range manager Henrik Björk. both in price and quality. For customers who are tired of searching for decent planks among standard decking in budget DIY stores, there is now XRay. “The consumer wants a beautiful deck. And tradespeople want to leave a good result behind them, where their craft has come into its own. XRay decking packages exude quality and are the natural choice between standard and very high-end decking,” says Henrik Björk.

He stresses the importance of making the overall difference between standard decking and the next step up in quality abundantly clear, given that variations will always occur in a living material. Optimera identified this quality at SCA, where x-ray technology makes it possible to find the finest boards.

So, what kind of decking does a product range manager have at home?

“I have XRay decking – and I built it myself! At work, I work with wood in spreadsheets, so to come home and work with wood with my hands is highly beneficial. I learn a great deal from it.”

Retailers!

You can learn more about smart timber products here THE MORE YOUR CUSTOMERS KNOW about timber, the more sustainably, cost-effectively and simply they can build. As a retailer, you are one of the most important sources of knowledge for the consumer. It is you who can explain why smart timber makes a difference. This is why we have compiled a training programme specifically for retailers, providing the knowledge and tools you need to guide your customers to the right products to meet their needs.

The courses last around five minutes each and deal with subjects such as sustainability, our products and the merits of wood as a material.

You can find SCA’s e-learning for retailers at scasmarttimber.com.

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PHOTO SCA

TIMBER R ANGES WIDELY,

PHOTO JOTUN

SCA SmartTimber

A premonition of your dream Big decisions deserve to be based on good information. This is why SCA and Jotun offer the opportunity to paint your entire house in advance using a digital colour picker.

“It provides so much more that simply looking at small colour cards,” Joakim Nehrer, marketing and sales manager at SCA Wood Scandinavia.

You can find our colour picker at scasmarttimber.com.

DARK OR LIGHT, traditional or modern, contrast or complement. Changing the colour or cladding on your house is a big decision and a major investment. Often the choice is made solely on the basis of small colour cards, followed by an entire summer of painting. Now, you can preview the colour on your specific type of house and order the panels with an intermediate coat in the correct colour.

“For many people, it is important to form an impression of how the finished result will actually look, to have a premonition of their

dream. And by choosing cladding with an intermediate coat, the entire summer holiday doesn’t need to be spent painting,” says Joakim Nehrer.

Cladding with an intermediate coat saves time and money and is a wise choice from an environmental standpoint, as the optimal amount of paint is applied in a controlled environment. The house also looks finished as soon as the panels are installed.

In the colour picker at scasmarttimber.com you can see colour combinations on panels, corner boards, linings and roofs. There are several house types, so that you can get as close as possible to your own reality.

“I’ve changed the colour of my own house a few times and it’s not easy. Ideally, you want to know that you’re thinking along the right lines.

Being able to start from the colour picker’s combinations and make your own adjustments is a big help,” says Joakim Nehrer.

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C O M B I N AT I O N STUDIO AND HOME WINS SWEDISH WOOD AWARD 2020 Award Gala 2020 in early December, Ateljé Södersvik was awarded the Swedish Wood Award 2020.

The project is the work of architects Anders Johansson and Anja Thedenius, who designed the studio building for their own practice in Roslagen outside Norrtälje.

The jury describes the building, which is a combined home and studio, as a thoughtful way to experiment with spatiality.

Wood has been used everywhere, on every scale, from the structural frame to furniture.

“Our discussions on the jury have centred around the leading role of wood in the spaces and the spatial experiences offered by the buildings. Ateljé Södersvik provides a genuine encounter with the material, with its simplicity providing a beautiful and multifaceted environment in which to live and work. It’s inspiring, to say the least,” says Carmen Izquierdo, chair of the jury for the Swedish Wood Award 2020.

The winner of the Swedish Wood Award 2020 receives SEK 100,000 and a 3D-printed statuette in nanocellulose and shou sugi ban-treated pine, designed by Brightnest.

AT THE SWEDISH WOOD

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Even with an industrial painted cladding you can choose among all beautiful Jotun colors!

The house is perhaps your most important property. When you choose a paint and color from Jotun you can be sure of getting a beautiful and durable result.

It will take a long time until you have to paint again.

Pick any color in Jotun’s colorcards Choose the color freely from Jotun’s large color range. Find your color and choose an outdoor paint from Jotun for a good and long lasting protection.

Read more, find inspiration and get color advices to your project at emagasin.jotun.se

Miljömärkt trycksak 0341 0129 • Tryck: bille Jotun Industri DRYGOLIN Nordic Extreme

Jotun Industri OPTIMAL 2i1

Supreme protection

A good choice for the environment

Extreme color- and gloss durability

UV-protection and water repellent

Up to 5 years until final coat

Excellent color- and gloss durability

Jotun Industri TREBITT Lasyr Naturally transparent

Miljömärkt trycksak 0341 0129 • Tryck: bille Prevents moist absorption Up to 5 years until final coat

Up to 2 years until final coat

www.jotun.se Jotun Sverige AB, Box 151, 421 22 Västra Frölunda Tel. 031-69 63 06