There are sketches on a bench drawn with a well-sharpened pencil. Fredrik Henriksson, design engineer, assistant lecturer for product development, construction and design and researcher in materials and repurposing, receives at his bookshelf in a block not far from the city's student pub.
- Yes, I've hung out there over the years, he laughs and looks at the sketches.
- I know I should be able to do better, but I can't... And so I now try to sit with it a little every day...
He is persistent and seems to have an iron will. But also flexibility.
-You know, when you teach, you learn to take new paths when the students' eyes are blurred in general distraction or crass disinterest.
And what is your main job focus, besides teaching?
-Everything I work with is about materials, design and use. To find smart solutions to the problems that exist. How can we best use the materials we have? For example waste products. One of my later fascinations is also about how to design light. Sketches like to become a form. But light is communication. How do we use light in the design?
It is about changing already in the chain of thought. Building it in from the start. To also use movement, smell and sound as design material. On a door behind me hangs a sewing project. The idea is that it should become a garment to use.
- The only problem is that I can't sew, he says while a cool smile plays on the corner of his mouth.
But the practical, tangible is there. With a mother who always loved to do things and was aware of recycling, there are genes there that point towards further development.
But movement and light as materials?
- Yes, architects have worked on it for a long time, but still mainly so that the house is drawn first and then the question is asked about how we can illuminate it. It has also been seen in the fashion industry; how does the garment fall when you move? But there is still a lot to research about there. And even if the product line is not described in this regard, it does not mean that the idea was not included. There is often very old knowledge in the spinal cord of those who work with this, in an intuitive glance or in the fingertips of the experienced. It's cool but hard to learn. TIME is the solution there. And in product design, we try to map out which questions will be relevant to pass the knowledge on, without simplifying so much that the art aspect of it becomes too schematic.
- Much of my everyday work is about setting up projects, seeing what is difficult and what we can learn from it. To seek guidelines and try to explain what the process looks like. It is not certain that those who do the work best know how to explain how they did it and why, they just know. The chef thinks it feels right, and then it also tastes good. But why and how... That is often unclear. An intuition. And exciting to try to call in.
What courses do you currently offer?
-Design materials is a course I am taking at the moment. It is about how to choose new materials, and how it affects the product. It is aimed at design engineers and tries to raise questions about the consequences of your choices. But it is also about getting better at replacing certain materials that we need to get rid of, for example, chrome. How can we make products that work without it? And that they then also, for example, age in the right way... That's where the choice of material comes into play again. A recurring question. In general, it is about taking the material issue seriously, to understanding as many aspects as possible. And to be able to think about this with "repurposing"; is another way to reuse.
He runs his hands across the table between us. It is from 1963.
-We can take this as an example. A table. If you want to use the tabletop for something else, for example for the production of stools when the table is done, can I design from the beginning so that it will be possible to reshape the product in the long run? The pandemic and the war in Ukraine also pushed this forward. Suddenly, the deliveries did not arrive as planned. What do we do now, how can we solve our production differently? The thing about rethinking. And to include the sustainability aspect right from the start.
- Then it is also about business organization. Many companies are not organized to be able to ask the right questions. They adapt to the products they are making right now and are built just for that. And that interests me... Like the question of how the wood industry can enter more industries.
Where does your interest in it come from?
-I grew up in Iggesund, a small farming town. There was, and still is, a paper mill where the vast majority are employed or work for businesses that help keep the factory running. So I've seen trees roll in there throughout my childhood. And saw cardboard, in a variety of shapes and sizes, come out. And that got me thinking. It is also the case that the processing industry leaves behind enormous amounts of cardboard that cannot be used. And some of all that went to us at school to create. My mother, who was a nurse in elderly care, became an active part in keeping us children and young people busy with crafts. She was even at school. And the question is who thought it was the funniest, her or us, he laughs.
Dad also worked at the factory and had a hobby business as a motorcycle mechanic. Both my parents encouraged further studies and I chose nature in high school. At the same time, I opted for ALL art courses. The idea was that I did the math for safety and the art for the heart. For a while, I was interested in becoming a vehicle designer, but there are forty people in Sweden who start vehicle design training per year and how many get a job? Nah, but design and product development are close enough, so I chose it. For the first two weeks, we only had maths. But then week three began the courses in design and product development. And then I could state that yes, this is what I want to do!
- On the other hand, I had no idea about study technology. I had never had to study before, so I didn't know what to do. So THAT was what I learned, first of all... And so I have always had a hard time seeing the point of taking in information about things I'm not interested in and where I don't see the benefit of knowing it, especially when the teachers think "For that it's fun!” There they lose me... And that was partially the case.
- Some have a basic talent for pedagogy... And there you see, not least among my colleagues, that more students pass with a pass.
Are you one of them?
- I would probably say that my course is too simple for people to know. I also "earn" by teaching a course that many students are interested in reading; they want to learn what I'm talking about. It makes it so much easier. But of course I try to be as good a teacher as I can...
And when you're not at work?
- Then I'll be working in the garage. I have a hobby car, a project to build a car that "could have been but never was" sitting there. And co-founded LiU Formula Student when it started, an association that now has a hundred members. We built our own racing car from the ground up. And in the process we began to describe materials and count on durability. We thought there was something missing, and sent an email to one of my teachers. She responded immediately and wondered if it might be time for me to start researching. And once the doctor was finished, I realized that it's a lot of fun...
Fredrik Henriksson received his doctorate with the thesis On Material selection and its consequences in product development in 2021.
ANNA VALENTINE
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