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The paper Design as Geological Force: The Making of Norwegian Aluminium traces the material flows of aluminium produced by Norsk Aluminium Company (NACO) from its initial commercial-scale production at the beginning of the twentieth century until its exponential growth in the mid-twentieth century. The paper is accompanied by a digital representation, an interactive map depicting the places of extraction, production, manufacture, use, and discard, as well as the material trajectories and their evolution through the period using the software QGIS.
In the special Trade & Engineering Supplement of the Times of March 1937, one can find a poster depicting a waterfall at the end of a fjord. The cascade plunges onto a globe; at its point of impact appears the silhouette of a factory from which the water magically transforms into planes, ships, skyscrapers, pots, pans and cars. Designed by Paul Lorck Eidem, one of Norway’s leading advertisement artists at the time, and commissioned by NACO, the artist makes the industrial process seem effortless and local, almost natural. With powerful waterfalls at the end of deep fjords, Norway was indeed and remains an appealing location for aluminium producers seeking to lower costs of production by exploiting cheap hydroelectricity. At the time, NACO held a monopoly on the Scandinavian market and contributed greatly to defining the metal’s place in everyday objects, promoting it as a local material, as the poster proclaimed: Out of Norway falls aluminium. However, the main raw materials from which the metal is produced are absent from the country's geology. Like all aluminium smelted in the country, Norway is merely a stop on the metal’s journey.
In the early 20th century, companies driven by the promise of the light metal engaged in international coordination, extracting ore in one place, refining, smelting, manufacturing, and consuming in others. NACO’s smelters were supplied with cryolite from Greenland and aluminium oxide from Høyanger, which itself depended on bauxite imported from the Var region in France. Aluminium travelled and still travels, changing communities, environments and, form at each stop. Where were the raw materials extracted from, where were the refined materials sent to and what impacts did each stop entail? By focusing on material flows, here aluminium, design historians can provide a new understanding of how design shapes consumption, and a detailed assessment of its broader socio-ecological impact. The paper traces the circulation of aluminium to and from Norway during the early decades of its production, revealing the intricate transnational effects that designing with the metal involved.
The paper and map are based on primary and secondary sources, using existing writings in the field of business history combined with corporate archives from NACO and its subsidiaries in Sweden, Denmark, and France.
