Anker Bak is a Danish furniture designer with a deep-seated wish to solve daily problems and improve people’s lives with dignified and necessary furniture. Anker is equally a designer and storyteller and insists his designs must inspire us in a time when we need new solutions and different stories. 

During 3daysofdesign you can visit Anker Bak’s exhibition ‘The Furniture We Need’ in Kulturtårnet on Knippelsbro Bridge. 

What's your dream?

My dream is for assistive furniture to be normalized to the point where you use a cane before you fall.

I dream with bigger and bigger ambitions every day.

The potential of the designer’s role in the world is unlimited. I see us as a kind of everyday superheroes who have been given amazing powers from our knowledge of form and function to serve people who themselves do not have the voices or powers like we do. This is a gift and a curse that weighs heavily on me. And it should weigh heavily on everyone in these crucial times of change. So ultimately, I dream of changing the way we see ourselves as designers and our responsibilities toward society.

The only thing in life we are certain of is that we will grow older and one day die. This is incredibly hard for a lot of people to fathom or even talk about. It's steeped in a double taboo: when you are older or struggling physically - the taboo of death and the taboo of functional impairment.

I know and can see, from my own work, that design has the immense power to influence the way we think and speak of aging, of impairments, and death. I want my designs to help facilitate conversations about these subjects and bring hope and dignity to this phase in life.

My role and mission are simply to ensure that beautiful, respectful, and dignified designs can be delivered to everyone in all of life’s phases. Whether you are old or young, rich or poor, energetically living or soon dying, you should have the opportunity to get products that can bring pride and joy into your life. Not only function.

Physical impairment is something we all eventually have to deal with, and my wish is that as "ordinary" furniture or products, we should be able to buy the furniture and assistive aids we need in stores everywhere. Why do we still send people to special stores to find furniture that meets common needs? Many of us will face many of the same challenges as our bodies grow older, whether it be trouble with balance, sight, or strength. I hope one day it will be common to be able to get those needs met in a regular furniture store.

How do you dream of contributing to the world?

I’m a practical and stubborn dreamer. I am still up-and-coming in my field but with great dreams for the future. In the end, this is both a personal and societal mission for me: I want to contribute however I can with my skillset and be a part of the change I want for my child, friends, and family to enter a better future.

I have big ambitions that are slowly coming to fruition, but I try to focus on the small steps to not lose my grip. It is hard work trying to build bridges between furniture design and the assistive design industry. But I try to make all the changes I can while being present in my own life, with my family and friends. I have to be on top of myself for me to secure that my life’s mission is met. So you can say I'm in a slow hurry to get things done.

There is something essentially wrong when we fear getting older, when we don’t value our elders as resources, or when we are afraid to talk about the fact that life has an end. I want to change that. Growing older and dying are the only certainties in life and something we should cherish the same way we cherish a newborn beginning its life.

I dream of breaking these taboos in hopes of improving the quality of life for many and opening up important conversations in life with people in between. I believe that taboos are suppressing us as humans, which is why I find it so important to challenge them.

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What do you think the world needs more of? And less of?

I think the world needs less furniture and more furniture!

As an industry, we continue to produce the same types of furniture in new ways, while simultaneously leaving many needs unfulfilled. Around the world, people are increasingly growing older, and with that development comes a need for furniture that caters to the needs of this age group. Today, there aren't many options to choose from, and I believe that designers play an important role in devising beautiful and practical solutions.

I find it necessary for the industry to reconsider its view on what constitutes a piece of furniture. Many people will say that I design assistive devices. I would argue that I design furniture!

I take my profession incredibly seriously and aim to address the challenges I encounter in my day-to-day life. In my opinion, that is a designer’s most valuable role: to solve real problems.

The first step in doing that is to prioritize people's needs.