Scandinavian design used to be something most of us thought we could readily spot: pale wood, simple furniture, clean lines, maybe a carefully chosen lamp and very little clutter. However, over the past few years it has become much more than a look – you can see its influence in the way we decorate our homes, the clothes we buy, the technology we use and even in the growing obsession with wellness and trying to make modern life feel just a little less hectic.
I think that’s why Swedish design feels so relevant right now. We have more stuff, more screens, more notifications and more things fighting for our attention than ever before. Against all that noise, cool simplicity suddenly feels rather luxurious.
Good Scandinavian design has never really been about making something sparse simply for the sake of it, though. It’s about removing what doesn’t need to be there, making what remains work properly and using materials that feel good, are sustainable and should last. In other words, it’s as much about how something makes you feel as how it looks.
That thinking has spread far beyond furniture. You can see it in the continued appeal of Nordic interiors, in fashion that favours clean shapes and good materials over obvious logos, and in the language we now use around wellbeing. Ideas such as hygge (creating a warm, cosy atmosphere) and lagom (just the right amount) may have become lifestyle shorthand, but they point towards something real: comfort without excess, pleasure without clutter and a feeling that the things around us should help life run more smoothly.
It’s easy to caricature Scandinavian style as relentlessly pale and pared-back, but the best examples are warmer and more human than that. Swedish design has always had room for colour, texture and personality; what tends to unite it is restraint and purpose. Nothing feels as though it’s there simply to shout for attention.
That makes the car an interesting test bed. Modern cars are incredibly complicated pieces of technology and, over the past decade, many interiors have responded by making that complexity very visible. Bigger screens, brighter graphics, more menus, myriad lighting options and more features can all look impressive in a showroom, but they risk making a journey feel busier than it needs to.
Volvo’s new EX60 takes a rather different approach. Håkan Samuelsson, Volvo Cars’ CEO, told me at the car’s unveiling that design at Volvo “cannot just make cars that somebody thinks look good”. The job, as he sees it, is to create something that clearly expresses the brand’s values and has a strong enough identity to be recognised from hundreds of metres away.
There’s also a fascinating engineering reason why the electric era gives Volvo more freedom to do that. Anders Bell, the company’s former chief engineering and technology officer who has just moved to a role focused on digital tech, explained at the event how much a combustion engine, gearbox, fuel tank and exhaust have dictated the basic shape of a car for generations. Remove them and designers suddenly have far more freedom over proportions, packaging and space.
The EX60’s architecture was designed from the start for electric power, which means the battery and structure can work together rather than one being squeezed around the other. Bell talked about being able to create cars that are low and sleek or high on the same architecture, while clever battery packaging can help rear passengers sit more naturally with their feet lower. It’s a good example of Swedish design-thinking at work beneath the surface: simplify the ingredients, use space better and let function shape the form.
Inside, that translates into a cabin that feels more considered than showy. Natural materials, an airy layout and useful storage all play their part, but it’s the way the details work together that feels most Scandinavian to me. There are dedicated places for phones, sliding cup holders and a split load floor in the boot – there’s even a waterproof bucket under there for the muddiest of muddy shoes. None of those things is going to stop anyone in their tracks at a motor show, but they’re exactly the sort of touches you appreciate every day.
There’s sustainability in that thinking, too. The EX60 uses a high proportion of recycled material, while its cell-to-body battery construction reduces the amount of structure needed around the battery pack. Volvo is also using mega casting, replacing more than a hundred smaller body parts with one much larger recycled-aluminium component. It’s clever industrial engineering, but the philosophy is wonderfully Scandinavian: fewer parts, less waste and make what remains work harder.
Technology follows the same principle. The EX60 contains enormous computing power, yet the ambition is for the driver not to feel overwhelmed by it. Systems such as Google Gemini are there to make interaction more natural, while other software works quietly in the background. For me, that’s where Scandinavian design feels most relevant to the future. The cleverness doesn’t need to be constantly advertised; it just needs to make life easier.
And perhaps that’s why Swedish design has moved from being an aesthetic we admired to something closer to a blueprint for how many of us want to live. It isn’t really about pale wood or minimalist furniture at all. It’s about editing out the unnecessary, choosing better materials, making technology less intrusive and creating spaces that leave us feeling calmer rather than more stimulated.
That feels like a pretty good ambition for a home, a wardrobe or a hotel room. And, increasingly, for a car, too.
Freedom to move. Electric
Find out more about the fully electric Volvo EX60
Range and charge time based on P12 battery using 350kw chargers mostly found on major arterial routes. These figures may not reflect real life driving results, which will depend upon a number of factors including cold weather and different battery options. Preliminary data.
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