Reinventing Furniture Design in the post-communist Era in Albania: towards the Mass customization Paradigm

The dynamics of the Albanian market in lieu of the multifaceted transformations following the collapse of the communist regime and moving towards the accession processes in the European Union as well as the demographics of the Albanian society as a whole, deeply impact the ways in which home furniture products are designed, development and produced. This study is interested in exploring the development of the home furniture product design in Albania and its transformation from communism to post-communism and free market economy. Furthermore, the study looks into ‘Do-it-yourself’ (D-I-Y) product design as an emerging pattern in home furniture in Albania responding to both the consumers’ needs as well as global trends. This constitutes an under researched area in Albanian scholarship. First, a thorough and systematic study on the furniture design process and development in communism has not been conducted earlier. Second, a comparative framework of furniture design between two different main time period, i.e. communism and free market economy, has been missing in Albania. Third, studies on the ‘D-I-Y’ market in Albania has also been scarce. ‘D-I-Y’ market is recently established and currently attempting to catch-up with the regional and international advancements and respond to the Albanian customers’ needs, interests and demands. The central aim of the study is to explore in what ways and to what extent the home furniture design and development process has been transformed from communism to post-communism and free market economy by exploring dynamics of the political and socio-economic context. The cutting point for the analysis here is the early 1990s that represent major social, political, cultural and economic changes in Albania towards democratization. The chronological analysis is divided into three main segments: from 1950s to 1990s; from 1990s to 2010s and after 2010s. This doctoral study puts forward the hypothesis that: the impact of moving from mass production in a centralized economy to free mass customisation in market economy has not radically transformed the fundamental properties of home furniture but has affected the design, development, delivery and materiality of products. This is done through a qualitative research approach, which is flexible, inductive and exploratory. A single case study is analysed and archival research, interviews and systematic observations are the key data collection methods. The main merit in this case is that it allows for an in-depth analysis of the case study and provide data, insights and conclusions for a topic that has received almost no scientific attention before. The added value of this doctoral study lies in the historical analysis of furniture design process and products and the interrelated factors such as socio-economy, political and cultural. In addition, this doctoral study has produced an original database of furniture design from 1945 to 1990 as well as an original database of D-I-Y furniture designs after the first decade of post-communism. These databases could be used by academic for further studies. Also they could be used by business to bring back original furniture designs in the market, but also by the government.