Kjetil Fallan

Books

• Ecological by Design: A History from Scandinavia (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2022).
• Nordic Design Cultures in Transformation, 1960-1980: Revolt and Resilience (London: Routledge, 2023). Co-edited with Christina Zetterlund and Anders V. Munch.
• The Culture of Nature in the History of Design (London and New York: Routledge, 2019).
• Designing Modern Norway: A History of Design Discourse (London and New York: Routledge, 2017).
• Designing Worlds: National Design Histories in an Age of Globalization (New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2016). Co-edited with Grace-Lees-Maffei.
• Made in Italy: Rethinking a Century of Italian Design (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2013). Co-edited with Grace-Lees-Maffei.
• Scandinavian Design: Alternative Histories (London: Berg Publishers, 2012) ISBN: 9781847889119
• Design History: Understanding Theory and Method (Oxford: Berg Publishers, 2010) ISBN: 9781847885371
• Chinese edition, transl. Li Zhang (Nanjing: Phoenix Publishing, 2016) ISBN: 9787558003165

Book chapters

• 'Wood as Good: Precious Design and Cheap Nature', in Patricia G. Berman, Michelle Facos, and Dawn R. Brean (eds.), The Scandinavian Home: Art and Identity, 1880–1920 (Pittsburgh/Lewes: The Frick Pittsburgh/Giles, 2024), pp. 162-169.
• “Environmental Histories of Design: Towards a New Research Agenda” [excerpt], in Grace Lees-Maffei and Rebecca Houze (eds.), The Design History Reader Second Edition (London: Bloomsbury, 2025), pp. 218-222. Co-authored with Finn Arne Jørgensen.
• 'Lost and Found: Translational Thinking in the History of Nordic Design', in Charlotte Ashby and Shona Kallestrup (eds.), Nordic Design in Translation: The Circulation of Objects, Ideas and Practices (Oxford: Peter Lang, 2023), pp. 289-300.
• 'Dybt design i det Vilde vesten: Da norsk økofilosofi mødte amerikansk økodesign', in Tau Ulv Lenskjold, Trine Brun Petersen, and Rosita Satell (eds.), Grønne designkulturanalyser: Perspektiver på bæredygtighed (Odense: Syddansk Universitetsforlag, 2023): 59-75. [Danish translation of “Dyp design i Ville vesten: Da norsk økofilosofi møtte amerikansk økodesign”]
• 'The Way North: Merging Ideology and Methodology on the Road to Ecological Design', in Kjetil Fallan, Christina Zetterlund and Anders V. Munch (eds.), Nordic Design Cultures in Transformation, 1960-1980: Revolt and Resilience (London: Routledge, 2023), pp. 11-23.
• 'Introduction: Nordic Design Cultures in Transformation, 1960-1980', in Kjetil Fallan, Christina Zetterlund and Anders V. Munch (eds.), Nordic Design Cultures in Transformation, 1960-1980: Revolt and Resilience (London: Routledge, 2023), pp. 1-8. Co-authored with Christina Zetterlund and Anders V. Munch.
• “Internazionalizzare il disegno industriale italiano”, in Paolo Rosselli, Elisa Di Nofa and Francesco Paleari (eds.), Alberto Rosselli: Architettura, design e “Stile Industria” (Macerata: Quodlibet, 2022), pp. 385-395.
• 'When Design Developed a Conscience', in Denise Hagströmer and Helena Kåberg (eds.), Scandinavian Design og USA 1890-1980 (Oslo: Nasjonalmuseet, 2022), pp. 170-171.
• 'Think City Electric Vehicle', in Barbara Penner, Adrian Forty, Olivia Horsfall Turner, Miranda Critchley (eds.), Extinct: A Compendium of Obsolete Objects (London: Reaktion Books, 2021), pp. 324-327.
• 'Norwegian Wood: Trails to Ecological Design', in Claudia Mareis and Nina Paim (eds.), Design Struggles: Intersecting Histories, Pedagogies, and Perspectives (Amsterdam: Valiz, 2021), pp. 117-135.
• 'Aspen Comes to Scandinavia', in Bobbye Tigerman and Monica Obniski (eds.), Scandinavian Design and the United States, 1890-1980 (Los Angeles/Munich and New York: Los Angeles County Museum of Art/DelMonico Books Prestel, 2020), pp. 289-306.
• 'Introduction: The Culture of Nature in the History of Design', in Kjetil Fallan (ed.), The Culture of Nature in the History of Design (London and New York: Routledge, 2019), pp. 1-15.
• 'The Object of Design History: Lessons for the Environment', in Anne Massey (ed.), A Companion to Contemporary Design since 1945 (Oxford: Wiley Blackwell, 2019), pp. 260-283.
• 'Design Culturing: Making Design History Matter', in Guy Julier, Mads Nygaard Folkmann, Niels Peter Skou, Hans-Christian Jensen, and Anders V. Munch (eds.), Design Culture: Objects and Approaches (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2019), pp. 15-27.
• 'Reale imaginierte Gemeinschaften: Nationale Narrative und die Globalisierung der Designgeschichte', in Eva Knopf, Sophie Lembcke, Mara Recklies (eds.), Archive dekolonialisieren: Mediale und epistemische Transformationen in Kunst, Design und Film (Bielefeld: transcript Verlag, 2018), pp. 223-240. Co-authored with Grace Lees-Maffei. [German translation of 'Real Imagined Communities: National Narratives and the Globalization of Design History']
• 'Altering a Homogenized Heritage: Articulating Heterogeneous Material Cultures in Norway and Sweden', in Kjetil Fallan and Grace-Lees-Maffei (eds.), Designing Worlds: National Design Histories in an Age of Globalization (New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2016), pp. 172-187. Co-authored with Christina Zetterlund.
• 'Introduction: National Design Histories in an Age of Globalization', in Kjetil Fallan and Grace-Lees-Maffei (eds.), Designing Worlds: National Design Histories in an Age of Globalization (New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2016), pp. 1-21. Co-authored with Grace Lees-Maffei.
• 'A Match Made in Utopia? The Uneasy Love Affaire of Art and Industry in Scandinavia', in Penny Sparke and Fiona Fisher (eds.), The Routledge Companion to Design Studies (London: Routledge, 2016), pp. 255-265.
• 'Things at Home: Pursuing the Genuine in Contemporary Norwegian Design', in Monika Rydiger and Solveig Lønmo (eds.), The Logic of the Local: Norwegian and Polish Contemporary Design (Kraków: International Cultural Centre, 2016), pp. 45-53.
• 'High Fidelity: Visioning Sound at Tandbergs Radiofabrikk', in Denise Hagströmer (ed.), Ekstrøm Extreme: Norwegian Furniture and Industrial Design (Stuttgart: Arnoldsche, 2016), pp. 75-93.
• 'Love and Hate in Industrial Design: Europe’s Design Professionals and America in the 1950s', in Per Lundin and Thomas Kaiserfeld (eds.), The Making of European Consumption: Facing the American Challenge (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015), pp. 134-156.
• 'LEGO, Denmark (Ole Kirk Christiansen, 1958)', in Grace Lees-Maffei (ed.), Iconic Design: 50 Stories about 50 Things (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2014), pp. 176-179.
• 'Rubik’s Cube, Hungary (Ernő Rubik, 1974)', in Grace Lees-Maffei (ed.), Iconic Design: 50 Stories about 50 Things (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2014), pp. 138-141.
• 'Annus Mirabilis: 1954, Alberto Rosselli and the Institutionalisation of Design Mediation', in Grace Lees-Maffei and Kjetil Fallan (eds.), Made in Italy: Rethinking a Century of Italian Design (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2013), pp. 255-270.
• 'Introduction: The History of Italian Design' [Co-authored with Grace Lees-Maffei], in Grace Lees-Maffei and Kjetil Fallan (eds.),Made in Italy: Rethinking a Century of Italian Design (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2013), pp. 1-33.
• 'Culture by Design: Co-Constructing Material and Meaning', in Kjerstin Aukrust (ed.), Assigning Cultural Values (Frankfurt: Peter Lang Publishing, 2013), pp. 135-163.
• 'L’histoire du design', in Alexandra Midal (ed.), Design, l’anthologie (Saint Étienne: Cité du design & Ecole supérieure d’art et design, 2013), pp. 453-462. [French translation of excerpt from Design History: Understanding Theory and Method]
• 'Introduction', in Kjetil Fallan (ed.), Scandinavian Design: Alternative Histories (London: Berg Publishers, 2012), pp. 1-12.
• 'A Historiography of Scandinavian Design' [co-authered Anders V. Munch, Pekka Korvenmaa, Espen Johnsen, Sara Kristoffersson og Christina Zetterlund], in Kjetil Fallan (ed.), Scandinavian Design: Alternative Histories (London: Berg Publishers, 2012), pp. 13-31.
• 'Goldfish Memories: Recounting Oslo's Streamlined Aluminium Trams', in Kjetil Fallan (ed.), Scandinavian Design: Alternative Histories (London: Berg Publishers, 2012), pp. 117-135.
• 'Epilogue', in Kjetil Fallan (ed.), Scandinavian Design: Alternative Histories (London: Berg Publishers, 2012), pp. 237-241.
• 'The Metamorphosis of a Norwegian Design Magazine: nye bonytt, 1968-1971', in Grace Lees-Maffei (ed.), Writing Design: Words and Objects (London: Berg Publishers, 2011), pp. 47-61.

Articles

• “Designing is Mining: Historicizing Material Ecologies of Design”, Design Issues 41(1) (2025): 1-16.
• “Groundwork: Connecting Design, Materials, and Landscapes”, Resistance: A Journal of Radical Environmental Humanities 11(2-3) (2024): 155-178.
• “Dyp design i Ville vesten: Da norsk økofilosofi møtte amerikansk økodesign”, Nytt Norsk Tidsskrift 37(2) (2020): 98-112.
• "Environmental Histories of Design: Towards a New Research Agenda", Journal of Design History 30(2) (2017): 103-121. Co-authered with Finn Arne Jørgensen.
• "Real Imagined Communities: National Narratives and the Globalization of Design History”, Design Issues 32(1) (2016): 5-18. Co-authored with Grace Lees-Maffei.
• "Nordic Noir: Deadly Design from the Peacemongering Periphery", Design and Culture 7(3) (2015): 377-402.
• “It’s Personal: Subjectivity in Design History”, Design and Culture 7(1) (2015): 5-27. Co-authored with Grace Lees-Maffei. Special Issue: It’s Personal: Subjectivity in Design History, edited by Grace Lees-Maffei and Kjetil Fallan.
• “The Enthusiast’s Eye: The Value of Unsanctioned Knowledge in Design Historical Scholarship”, Design and Culture 7(1) (2015): 107-123. Co-authored with Paul Hazell.
• “Our Common Future: Joining Forces for Histories of Sustainable Design”, Tecnoscienza: Italian Journal of Science & Technology Studies 5(2) (2014): 13-44.
• "Milanese Mediations: Crafting Scandinavian Design at the Triennali di Milano", Konsthistorisk Tidskrift/Journal of Art History 83(1) (2014): 1-23.
• "Kombi-Nation: Mini Bicycles as Moving Memories", Journal of Design History 26(1) (2013): 65-85.
• "De-tooling Design History: To What Purpose and For Whom Do We Write?", Design and Culture 5(1) (2013): 13-19.
• “‘The “Designer”—the 11th Plague’: Design Discourse from Consumer Activism to Environmentalism in 1960s Norway”, Design Issues 27(4) (2011): 30-42.
• "The Realpolitik of the Artificial: Strategic design at Figgjo Fajanse facing  international free trade in the 1960s", Enterprise and Society 10(3) (2009): 559-589.
• ”Heresy and Heroics: The debate on the alleged ‘crisis’ in Italian design around 1960”, Modern Italy 14(3) (2009): 257-274.
• ""One must offer ‘something for everyone’": Designing crockery for consumer consent in 1950s’ Norway", Journal of Design History 22(2) (2009): 133-149.
• ”De-scribing Design: Appropriating script analysis to design history”, Design Issues 24(4) (2008): 61-75.
• ”Architecture in Action: Traveling with Actor-Network Theory in the land of architectural research”, Architectural Theory Review 13(1) (2008): 80-96.
• ”Form, function, fiction: Translations of technology and design in product development”, History and Technology 24(1) (2008): 61-87.
• ”How an excavator got aesthetic pretensions: Negotiating design in 1960s’ Norway”, Journal of Design History 20(1) (2007): 43-59.
• “Modernism or modern ISMS?: Notes on an epistemological problem in design history”, Nordic Journal of Architectural Research 17(4) (2004): 81-92.
• ”Visionaries and weathercocks: Norwegian furniture design c. 1920 – 1965”, Scandinavian Journal of Design History 13 (2003): 100-113.

• Fallan, Kjetil (2025). Wood as Good: Precious Design and Cheap Nature. In Brean, Dawn; Facos, Michelle & Berman, Patricia (Ed.), The Scandinavian Home: Art and Identity, 1880–1920. Giles. ISSN 9781913875565. p. 162–169. Full text in Research Archive
• Fallan, Kjetil & Jørgensen, Finn Arne (2025). Environmental Histories of Design: Towards a New Research Agenda. In Lees-Maffei, Grace & Houze, Rebecca (Ed.), The Design History Reader Second Edition. Bloomsbury Academic. ISSN 9781350133495. Full text in Research Archive
• Fallan, Kjetil (2025). Designing is Mining: Historicizing Material Ecologies of Design. Design Issues. ISSN 0747-9360. 41(1), p. 5–16. doi: 10.1162/desi_a_00789. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The modern design profession is often considered a product of the Industrial Revolution's division of labor, which separated the ideation of artifacts from their execution. As part of the same legacy, where industrial manufacturing—as a system—was premised on the exploitation of extractive materials and fossil fuels, designers are natural-born miners. Designing entails crucial decisions on which and how much materials to mine, blast, drill, excavate, or fell. This article argues for an expanded view of the subject matter and the methods of design history, as designing with, designing without, and designing out extractive materials are crucial parameters in both the history and the future of the human-built world.

• Fallan, Kjetil (2024). Groundwork: Connecting Design, Materials, and Landscapes. Resistance: A Journal of Radical Environmental Humanities (RJREH). ISSN 2998-8802. 11(2-3), p. 155–178. doi: 10.1353/res.2024.a953851. Full text in Research Archive
• Fallan, Kjetil (2023). Dybt design i det Vilde vesten: Da norsk økofilosofi mødte amerikansk økodesign. In Lenskjold, Tau Ulv; Petersen, Trine Brun & Satell, Rosita (Ed.), Grønne designkulturanalyser: Perspektiver på bæredygtighed. Syddansk Universitetsforlag. ISSN 9788740834574. p. 59–75. Full text in Research Archive
• Fallan, Kjetil (2023). Lost and Found: Translational Thinking in the History of Nordic Design. In Ashby, Charlotte & Kallestrup, Shona (Ed.), Nordic Design in Translation: The Circulation of Objects, Ideas and Practices. Peter Lang Publishing Group. ISSN 9781800792906. p. 289–300. Full text in Research Archive
• Fallan, Kjetil (2022). Internazionalizzare il disegno industriale italiano. In Rosselli, Paolo; Nofa, Elisa Di & Paleari, Francesco (Ed.), Alberto Rosselli: Architettura, Design e "Stile Industria". Quodlibet. ISSN 9788822908834. p. 385–395. Full text in Research Archive
• Fallan, Kjetil (2022). The Way North: Merging Ideology and Methodology on the Road to Ecological Design. In Fallan, Kjetil; Zetterlund, Christina & Munch, Anders V. (Ed.), Nordic Design Cultures in Transformation, 1960–1980: Revolt and Resilience. Routledge. ISSN 9781032290423. p. 11–23. doi: 10.4324/9781003309321-3. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The road to ecological design is a particularly prominent discursive formation in the transformation of Nordic design cultures in the 1960s and 1970s. This chapter argues that a key characteristic of this formation was the close and reciprocal interrelations between ideology and methodology, as practitioners, critics, educators, students, and activists awoken by the ecological crisis struggled to find new answers to the questions of what design should be, and how it should be practiced. Examples are taken from the fields of design education and design activism, where the interaction between ideology and methodology has been especially strong. Both education and activism are ideologically charged and methodologically explicit, and therefore lend themselves to analysis of the relation between the two modes of thought. These examples demonstrate that the dynamic relation between the why and the how was integral to the shaping of ecological design as it made its way north.

• Fallan, Kjetil (2022). Da design utviklet en samvittighet. In Hagströmer, Denise & Kåberg, Helena (Ed.), Scandinavian Design og USA 1890-1980. Nasjonalmuseet for kunst, arkitektur og design. ISSN 9788281541375. p. 137–143. Full text in Research Archive
• Fallan, Kjetil (2021). Norwegian Wood: Trails to Ecological Design. In Mareis, Claudia & Paim, Nina (Ed.), Design Struggles: Intersecting Histories, Pedagogies, and Perspectives. Valiz. ISSN 9789492095886. p. 117–135. Full text in Research Archive
• Fallan, Kjetil (2021). Think City Electric Vehicle, Extinct: A Compendium of Obsolete Objects. Reaktion Books. ISSN 9781789144529. p. 324–327. Full text in Research Archive
• Fallan, Kjetil (2020). Dyp design i Ville vesten: da norsk økofilosofi møtte amerikansk økodesign. Nytt Norsk Tidsskrift (NNT). ISSN 0800-336X. 37(2), p. 98–112. doi: 10.18261/issn.1504-3053-2020-02-02. Full text in Research Archive
• Fallan, Kjetil (2020). Aspen comes to Scandinavia. In Tigerman, Bobbye & Obniski, Monica (Ed.), Scandinavian Design and the United States, 1890-1980. Prestel. ISSN 9783791359168. p. 289–306. Full text in Research Archive
• Fallan, Kjetil (2019). The Object of Design History: Lessons for the Environment. In Massey, Anne (Eds.), A Companion to Contemporary Design since 1945. Wiley-Blackwell. ISSN 9781119111207. p. 260–283. doi: 10.1002/9781119112297.ch13. Full text in Research Archive
• Fallan, Kjetil (2019). Introduction: The culture of nature in the history of design. In Fallan, Kjetil (Eds.), The Culture of Nature in the History of Design. Routledge. ISSN 9781138601925. p. 1–15. doi: 10.4324/9780429469848-1. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The Culture of Nature in the History of Design confronts the dilemma caused by design’s pertinent yet precarious position in environmental discourse through interdisciplinary conversations about the design of nature and the nature of design. Demonstrating that the deep entanglements of design and nature have a deeper and broader history than contemporary discourse on sustainable design and ecological design might imply, this book presents case studies ranging from the eighteenth to the twenty-first century and from Singapore to Mexico. It gathers scholarship on a broad range of fields/practices, from urban planning, landscape architecture, and architecture, to engineering design, industrial design, furniture design and graphic design. From adobe architecture to the atomic bomb, from the bonsai tree to Biosphere 2, from pesticides to photovoltaics, from rust to recycling – the culture of nature permeates the history of design. As an activity and a profession always operating in the borderlands between human and non-human environments, design has always been part of the environmental problem, whilst also being an indispensable part of the solution. The book ventures into domains as diverse as design theory, research, pedagogy, politics, activism, organizations, exhibitions, and fiction and trade literature to explore how design is constantly making and unmaking the environment and, conversely, how the environment is both making and unmaking design. This book will be of great interest to a range of scholarly fields, from design education and design history to environmental policy and environmental history.

• Fallan, Kjetil (2019). Design Culturing: Making Design History Matter. In Julier, Guy; Folkmann, Mads Nygaard; Skou, Niels Peter; Jensen, Hans-Christian & Munch, Anders V. (Ed.), Design Culture: Objects and Approaches. Bloomsbury Academic. ISSN 9781474289849. p. 15–26. doi: 10.5040/9781474289856.0007. Full text in Research Archive
• Fallan, Kjetil & Jørgensen, Finn Arne (2017). Environmental histories of design: Towards a new research agenda. Journal of Design History. ISSN 0952-4649. 30(2), p. 103–121. doi: 10.1093/jdh/epx017. Full text in Research Archive
• Fallan, Kjetil (2016). Things at Home: Pursuing the Genuine in Contemporary Norwegian Design. In Lønmo, Solveig & Rydiger, Monika (Ed.), The Logic of the Local: Norwegian and Polish Contemporary Design. International Cultural Centre. ISSN 9788363463618. p. 45–53. Full text in Research Archive
• Fallan, Kjetil (2016). High Fidelity: Visioning Sound at Tandbergs Radiofabrikk. In Hagströmer, Denise (Eds.), Ekstrøm Extreme: Norwegian Furniture and Industrial Design. Arnoldsche. ISSN 9783897904606. p. 75–93. Full text in Research Archive
• Fallan, Kjetil & Lees-Maffei, Grace (2016). Real Imagined Communities: National Narratives and the Globalization of Design History. Design Issues. ISSN 0747-9360. 32(1), p. 5–18. doi: 10.1162/DESI_a_00360. Full text in Research Archive
• Fallan, Kjetil & Zetterlund, Christina (2016). Altering a Homogenized Heritage: Articulating Heterogeneous Material Cultures in Norway and Sweden. In Fallan, Kjetil & Lees-Maffei, Grace (Ed.), Designing Worlds: National Design Histories in an Age of Globalization. Berghahn Books. ISSN 9781785331558. p. 172–187. doi: 10.2307/j.ctv8bt1mv.14. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  From consumer products to architecture to advertising to digital technology, design is an undeniably global phenomenon. Yet despite their professed transnational perspective, historical studies of design have all too often succumbed to a bias toward Western, industrialized nations. This diverse but rigorously curated collection recalibrates our understanding of design history, reassessing regional and national cultures while situating them within an international context. Here, contributors from five continents offer nuanced studies that range from South Africa to the Czech Republic, all the while sensitive to the complexities of local variation and the role of nationstates in identity construction.

• Lees-Maffei, Grace & Fallan, Kjetil (2016). Introduction: National Design Histories in an Age of Globalization. In Fallan, Kjetil & Lees-Maffei, Grace (Ed.), Designing Worlds: National Design Histories in an Age of Globalization. Berghahn Books. ISSN 9781785331558. p. 1–21. doi: 10.2307/j.ctv8bt1mv.4. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  From consumer products to architecture to advertising to digital technology, design is an undeniably global phenomenon. Yet despite their professed transnational perspective, historical studies of design have all too often succumbed to a bias toward Western, industrialized nations. This diverse but rigorously curated collection recalibrates our understanding of design history, reassessing regional and national cultures while situating them within an international context. Here, contributors from five continents offer nuanced studies that range from South Africa to the Czech Republic, all the while sensitive to the complexities of local variation and the role of nationstates in identity construction.

• Fallan, Kjetil (2016). A Match Made in Utopia? The Uneasy Love Affaire of Art and Industry in Scandinavia. In Sparke, Penny & Fisher, Fiona (Ed.), The Routledge Companion to Design Studies. Routledge. ISSN 9781138780507. p. 255–265. Full text in Research Archive
• Fallan, Kjetil & Hazell, Paul (2015). The Enthusiast’s Eye: The Value of Unsanctioned Knowledge in Design Historical Scholarship. Design and Culture. ISSN 1754-7075. 7(1), p. 107–123. doi: 10.2752/175470715X14153615623763. Full text in Research Archive
• Fallan, Kjetil & Lees-Maffei, Grace (2015). It’s Personal: Subjectivity in Design History. Design and Culture. ISSN 1754-7075. 7(1), p. 5–27. doi: 10.2752/175470715X14153615623565. Full text in Research Archive
• Fallan, Kjetil (2015). Nordic Noir: Deadly Design from the Peacemongering Periphery. Design and Culture. ISSN 1754-7075. 7(3), p. 377–402. doi: 10.1080/17547075.2015.1117718. Full text in Research Archive
• Fallan, Kjetil (2015). Love and Hate in Industrial Design: Europe’s Design Professionals and America in the 1950s. In Lundin, Per & Kaiserfeld, Thomas (Ed.), The Making of European Consumption: Facing the American Challenge. Palgrave Macmillan. ISSN 9781137374035. p. 134–156. doi: 10.1057/9781137374042_7. Full text in Research Archive
• Fallan, Kjetil (2014). Milanese Mediations: Crafting Scandinavian Design at the Triennali di Milano. Konsthistorisk tidskrift. ISSN 0023-3609. 83(1), p. 1–23. doi: 10.1080/00233609.2013.878389. Full text in Research Archive
• Fallan, Kjetil (2014). Our Common Future: Joining Forces for Histories of Sustainable Design. TECNOSCIENZA: Italian Journal of Science & Technology Studies. 5(2), p. 13–44. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  A common ground is emerging for social and cultural studies of design. Design history is exploring the socially constructed and networked nature of our material surroundings; at the same time, STS is investigating design as the interface between humans and technology. This common ground is particularly interesting where it intersects with the rapidly growing fields of environmental history and environmental humanities. Today, environmental concerns, especially issues of sustainability, are essential parameters in all design practices. However, this ‘green revolution’ is a glaringly white spot on the design historical map, still awaiting its scholarly historicization. Historical understanding of, and critical reflection on, the rise of sustainability as the primordial trope in design discourse is essential to building a solid knowledge base and to underpin present and future decision-making. This article will argue for the urgency of charting this terrain, and call for design history, design studies, STS and environmental history to join forces in the pioneering efforts at studying histories of sustainable design.

• Fallan, Kjetil (2014). Rubik’s Cube, Hungary (Ernő Rubik, 1974). In Lees-Maffei, Grace (Eds.), Iconic Designs: 50 Stories about 50 Things. Bloomsbury Academic. ISSN 9780857853523. p. 138–141. doi: 10.5040/9781474293921.ch-028. Full text in Research Archive
• Fallan, Kjetil (2014). LEGO, Denmark (Ole Kirk Christiansen, 1958). In Lees-Maffei, Grace (Eds.), Iconic Designs: 50 Stories about 50 Things. Bloomsbury Academic. ISSN 9780857853523. p. 176–179. doi: 10.5040/9781474293921.ch-037. Full text in Research Archive
• Ringdal, Siv & Fallan, Kjetil (2014). 110 Volts at Home: the American Lista. Journal of Design History. ISSN 0952-4649. 27(1), p. 79–96. doi: 10.1093/jdh/ept046. Full text in Research Archive
• Fallan, Kjetil (2013). De-tooling Design History: To What Purpose and For Whom Do We Write? Design and Culture. ISSN 1754-7075. 5(1), p. 13–19. doi: 10.2752/175470813X13491105785389. Full text in Research Archive
• Fallan, Kjetil (2013). Kombi-Nation: Mini Bicycles as Moving Memories. Journal of Design History. ISSN 0952-4649. 26(1), p. 65–85. doi: 10.1093/jdh/eps051. Full text in Research Archive
• Fallan, Kjetil (2013). Annus Mirabilis: 1954, Alberto Rosselli and the Institutionalization of Design Mediation. In Fallan, Kjetil & Lees-Maffei, Grace (Ed.), Made in Italy: Rethinking a Century of Italian Design. Bloomsbury Academic. ISSN 9780857853899. p. 255–270. doi: 10.5040/9781474294133.ch-014. Full text in Research Archive
• Fallan, Kjetil & Lees-Maffei, Grace (2013). Introduction: The History of Italian Design. In Fallan, Kjetil & Lees-Maffei, Grace (Ed.), Made in Italy: Rethinking a Century of Italian Design. Bloomsbury Academic. ISSN 9780857853899. p. 1–33. doi: 10.5040/9781474294133.0004. Full text in Research Archive

View all works in NVA

• Fallan, Kjetil (2022). Ecological by Design: A History from Scandinavia. MIT Press. ISBN 9780262047135. 368 p. Full text in Research Archive
• Fallan, Kjetil; Zetterlund, Christina & Munch, Anders V. (2022). Nordic Design Cultures in Transformation, 1960–1980: Revolt and Resilience. Routledge. ISBN 9781032290423. 230 p. doi: 10.4324/9781003309321. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Challenging the traditional narrative, this volume argues that the roots of the most prominent features of Nordic design’s contemporary significance are not to be found amongst the objects for the home collectively branded as ‘Scandinavian Design’ to great acclaim in the 1950s, but in the discourses, institutions and practices formed in the aftermath of that oft-told success story, during the turbulent period between 1960 and 1980. This is achieved by employing multidisciplinary approaches to connect the domains of industrial production, marketing, consumption, public institutions, design educations, trade journals as well as public debates and civic initiatives forming a design culture. This book makes a significant contribution to current, international agendas of historiographical critique focusing on transnational relations and the deconstruction of national design histories. This book will be of interest to scholars in design, design history and Scandinavian studies.

• Fallan, Kjetil (2019). The Culture of Nature in the History of Design. Routledge. ISBN 9781138601925. 257 p. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The Culture of Nature in the History of Design confronts the dilemma caused by design’s pertinent yet precarious position in environmental discourse through interdisciplinary conversations about the design of nature and the nature of design. Demonstrating that the deep entanglements of design and nature have a deeper and broader history than contemporary discourse on sustainable design and ecological design might imply, this book presents case studies ranging from the eighteenth to the twenty-first century and from Singapore to Mexico. It gathers scholarship on a broad range of fields/practices, from urban planning, landscape architecture, and architecture, to engineering design, industrial design, furniture design and graphic design. From adobe architecture to the atomic bomb, from the bonsai tree to Biosphere 2, from pesticides to photovoltaics, from rust to recycling – the culture of nature permeates the history of design. As an activity and a profession always operating in the borderlands between human and non-human environments, design has always been part of the environmental problem, whilst also being an indispensable part of the solution. The book ventures into domains as diverse as design theory, research, pedagogy, politics, activism, organizations, exhibitions, and fiction and trade literature to explore how design is constantly making and unmaking the environment and, conversely, how the environment is both making and unmaking design. This book will be of great interest to a range of scholarly fields, from design education and design history to environmental policy and environmental history.

• Fallan, Kjetil (2017). Designing Modern Norway: A History of Design Discourse. Routledge. ISBN 9781472456625. 212 p. Full text in Research Archive
• Fallan, Kjetil & Lees-Maffei, Grace (2016). Designing Worlds: National Design Histories in an Age of Globalization. Berghahn Books. ISBN 9781785331558. 296 p. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  From consumer products to architecture to advertising to digital technology, design is an undeniably global phenomenon. Yet despite their professed transnational perspective, historical studies of design have all too often succumbed to a bias toward Western, industrialized nations. This diverse but rigorously curated collection recalibrates our understanding of design history, reassessing regional and national cultures while situating them within an international context. Here, contributors from five continents offer nuanced studies that range from South Africa to the Czech Republic, all the while sensitive to the complexities of local variation and the role of nationstates in identity construction.

• Fallan, Kjetil & Lees-Maffei, Grace (2013). Made in Italy: Rethinking a Century of Italian Design. Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN 9780857853899. 325 p. Full text in Research Archive

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• Fallan, Kjetil (2026). Taking Stock for Sustainable Design: The World Resources Inventory. Full text in Research Archive
• Fallan, Kjetil & Halland, Ingrid (2026). Moving Matter: Design History as Pathfinding. Full text in Research Archive
• Vetås, Hege Rogstad; Fallan, Kjetil & Halland, Ingrid (2025). Historikerne som forsker på materialenes livsløp. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  En gruppe historikere har et år til å drive nysgjerrighets-forskning på materialers livsløp og utvikling ved Senter for Grunnforskning. Målet er å øke vår materialforståelse.

• Fallan, Kjetil (2025). Material Ecologies of Design. Full text in Research Archive
• Halland, Ingrid & Fallan, Kjetil (2025). Materialeøkologier, kunsthåndværk og design. [Journal]. Formkraft. Full text in Research Archive
• Fallan, Kjetil (2025). Ideology & Methodology: A History of Ecological Design in an Educational Setting. Full text in Research Archive
• Fallan, Kjetil (2025). Ecological by Design. Full text in Research Archive
• Fallan, Kjetil (2025). ’In 1972 there was still grass…’: Design Activism at the 1972 UN Conference on the Human Environment. Full text in Research Archive
• Fallan, Kjetil (2024). Transparency: The Material History of an Idea by Daniel Jütte (review). Technology and Culture. ISSN 0040-165X. 65(2), p. 711–712. doi: 10.1353/tech.2024.a926338. Full text in Research Archive
• Fallan, Kjetil (2024). Hva er ond design? Full text in Research Archive
• Fallan, Kjetil (2024). Greed Can Move Mountains: The Iron Will of Modern Design Culture. Full text in Research Archive
• Fallan, Kjetil (2024). ’In 1972 there was still grass…’: Design Activism at the 1972 UN Conference on the Human Environment. Full text in Research Archive
• Fallan, Kjetil (2024). Groundwork: Materials and Landscapes in Design History. Full text in Research Archive
• Fallan, Kjetil (2024). Groundwork: Materials and Landscapes in Design History. Full text in Research Archive
• Fallan, Kjetil (2023). Designing is Mining: Historicizing Material Ecologies of Design. Full text in Research Archive
• Fallan, Kjetil (2023). La linea scandinava: Reading Scandinavian Design in the Italian Design Press in the 1950s and 1960s. Full text in Research Archive
• Fallan, Kjetil (2023). ...Dust to Dust: Material Ecologies and the Future of Design History. Full text in Research Archive
• Fallan, Kjetil (2022). The Graphic Language of Protest: Design Activism at the UN Conference on the Human Environment. Full text in Research Archive
• Fallan, Kjetil; Zetterlund, Christina & Munch, Anders V. (2022). Introduction: Nordic Design Cultures in Transformation, 1960–1980. In Fallan, Kjetil; Zetterlund, Christina & Munch, Anders V. (Ed.), Nordic Design Cultures in Transformation, 1960–1980: Revolt and Resilience. Routledge. ISSN 9781032290423. p. 1–8. doi: 10.4324/9781003309321-1. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The socially, culturally, politically, and economically turbulent period between 1960 and 1980 saw profound transformations of Nordic design cultures through dramatic changes to the production systems, consumption regimes, economic policies, and ideological paradigms in which they were enmeshed. But unlike the previous ‘golden era’, it has received surprisingly little attention. This introduction outlines the scope and ambition of the project and positions the book in a broader context of historical developments which shaped and constituted the profound transformations to Nordic design cultures in this period. The first part discusses the overarching issues of revolt and resilience in the realms of politics, institutions, and practices. The second part of the introduction presents the contributions and links them together by means of highlighting common themes and theoretical concerns.

• Fallan, Kjetil & Munch, Anders V. (2022). Dissolving Design: Ecology and Environment as Destabilizing Agents. Full text in Research Archive
• Fallan, Kjetil (2021). Designed in Denmark, Assembled in California: Windmills in Lands of Plenty. Full text in Research Archive
• Fallan, Kjetil (2021). Deep Ecology as Deep Design. Full text in Research Archive
• Fallan, Kjetil (2019). Design’s Ecological Restraints: Hans Palmstierna and Sweden’s Environmentalist Awakening. Full text in Research Archive
• Fallan, Kjetil (2019). Response and Responsibility: The Social Turn in Scandinavian Design. Full text in Research Archive
• Fallan, Kjetil (2019). The Sea Ranch: Architecture, Environment, and Idealism. Journal of Modern Craft. ISSN 1749-6772. 12(3), p. 281–285. doi: 10.1080/17496772.2019.1678890. Full text in Research Archive
• Fallan, Kjetil (2019). Förlagd form: Designkritik och designpraktik i Sverige 1860–1890. Konsthistorisk tidskrift. ISSN 0023-3609. 88(4), p. 210–213. doi: 10.1080/00233609.2019.1711162. Full text in Research Archive
• Fallan, Kjetil (2019). Ecosophy D: From Deep Ecology to Deep Design. Full text in Research Archive
• Fallan, Kjetil (2019). Making Design History Matter. Full text in Research Archive
• Fallan, Kjetil (2018). Norwegian Wood: Økologiens estetikk i norsk designhistorie. Full text in Research Archive
• Fallan, Kjetil (2018). Aspen Comes to Scandinavia: Displaced Dreams and Misplaced Means. Full text in Research Archive
• Fallan, Kjetil (2018). And After Us... Robert Esdaile and the Emergence of Ecological Design. Full text in Research Archive
• Fallan, Kjetil (2018). Carl A. Zimring, Aluminum Upcycled: Sustainable Design in Historical Perspective. Journal of Design History. ISSN 0952-4649. 31(2), p. 209–210. Full text in Research Archive
• Fallan, Kjetil (2017). Kast eller fiks. Ekko, NRK P2, 26. mai 2017. Full text in Research Archive
• Fallan, Kjetil (2017). Appetite for Construction: Design History as Environmental History. Full text in Research Archive
• Fallan, Kjetil (2017). Norwegian Wood: The Ethics and Aesthetics of Ecological Design. Full text in Research Archive
• Fallan, Kjetil (2017). Reparatørene kommer! Om varighet, tilknytning, og åpenhet i vår produktkultur. Full text in Research Archive
• Fallan, Kjetil (2016). Ingeniørkunst: teknologen som designer. Kunsthåndverk. ISSN 0333-1059. 36(140), p. 7–11. Full text in Research Archive
• Fallan, Kjetil (2016). Future Anterior: A Historiography of Contemporary Design. Full text in Research Archive
• Fallan, Kjetil (2016). Hi-Fi: Visualisering av lyd ved Tandbergs Radiofabrikk. Full text in Research Archive
• Fallan, Kjetil (2016). Learning from Nowhere? Locating William Morris' Eco-Fiction in Design History. Full text in Research Archive
• Fallan, Kjetil (2016). Grønt forbruk: et designhistorisk perspektiv. Full text in Research Archive
• Fallan, Kjetil (2016). An Educated Guess: History Lessons for the Environment. Full text in Research Archive
• Fallan, Kjetil (2015). The Station of the Nation: National Narratives and the Globalization of Design History. Full text in Research Archive
• Fallan, Kjetil & Lees-Maffei, Grace (2015). National Design Histories in an Age of Globalization. Full text in Research Archive
• Fallan, Kjetil (2015). Gullfiskminner: Aluminiumstrikken fra Holmestrand og Strømmen. Full text in Research Archive
• Fallan, Kjetil (2015). Ruth Oldenziel and Mikael Hård, Consumers, Tinkerers, Rebels: The People Who Shaped Europe. Journal of Design History. ISSN 0952-4649. 28(2), p. 212–213. doi: 10.1093/jdh/epu040. Full text in Research Archive
• Fallan, Kjetil (2015). The Making of Design History. Full text in Research Archive
• Fallan, Kjetil (2015). For the Love of It: Enthusiasts, Collectors, Amateurs, and the Value of Unsanctioned Knowledge. Full text in Research Archive
• Jørgensen, Finn Arne & Fallan, Kjetil (2015). Environmental histories of design. Environment and History. ISSN 0967-3407. 21(4), p. 641–644. Full text in Research Archive
• Fallan, Kjetil (2015). Green is Beautiful: Design History as if Nature Mattered. Full text in Research Archive
• Fallan, Kjetil (2014). Introduction to ‘110 Volts at Home: The American Lista’ by Siv Ringdal. Journal of Design History. ISSN 0952-4649. 27(1), p. 76–78. doi: 10.1093/jdh/ept047. Full text in Research Archive
• Fallan, Kjetil (2014). Weapons of Mass Deception: Deadly Design from the Peacemongering Periphery. Full text in Research Archive
• Fallan, Kjetil (2014). Design Culturing: Making Design History Matter. Full text in Research Archive
• Fallan, Kjetil & Zetterlund, Christina (2014). Minoriteters materielle kultur: en utfordring for nordisk designhistorie. Full text in Research Archive
• Fallan, Kjetil (2014). Material Memories and Subjective Scholarship. Full text in Research Archive
• Fallan, Kjetil (2014). New Nordic: Contemporary Design. Full text in Research Archive
• Fallan, Kjetil (2013). “Kombi-Nation: Mini Bicycles as Moving Memories”. Full text in Research Archive
• Fallan, Kjetil; Myrvang, Christine & Valle, Peder (2024). So Different, So Appealing: Mediations of Modern Design Culture in the 1963 Norwegian Industrial Design Exhibition at the Oslo Museum of Applied Art. Universitetet i Oslo. Full text in Research Archive

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