Børge Morgensen’s J39 Re-designed: Learning Inclusion Through a Dialogue Between the Past and the Future

This paper presents a framework within which inclusion is taught at the Royal Danish Academy – Architecture, Design and Conservation. During the ten-day course, students from the master’s degree program Furniture and Object were asked to re-design a chair, Borge Mogensen’s J39, in response to demographic shifts and the changing expectations of tomorrow’s older generations. The paper describes a novel approach that combines people-centered methods with the study of the chair’s tectonics and typological characteristics as a means by which to improve the quality of chair design, not only for an aging population, but for all people. The findings from the study highlight the effectiveness of this creative practice based on a critical dialogue between the past and the future as a way to explore the potential of design for improving the future of ourselves.