ABSTRACT
The turn of the century witnessed a new approach towards the design of the visual, material and spatial world which, while initiated by an elite group, quickly became hugely influential. The body of ideas that were generated by those protagonists amounted to a movement that went on to determine the ideas and policies of many important twentieth-century design institutions, among them educational establishments, museums and governmental bodies. By the end of the nineteenth century a new design vocabulary had emerged in Britain which repudiated what was seen by many as the mindless products that had simply sought to stimulate consumer desire. In the tradition of William Morris, one face of design modernism remained closely linked to social and political idealism. Swedish architects and designers also understood the power of the links between modern design and social democratic reform.
