The word 'Lagom’ is Swedish but the concept is something deeply embedded in the Nordic way of life. Its meaning can be summarised as “not too much, not too little – just right.

It is universally applied, from food to clothing, to work and leisure, in the attempt to find contentment in the everyday aspects of our life. A contentment that seems to elude our society more and more. The proverb “There is virtue in moderation” seems to hint more to a moralistic view than to a happy one, while lagom is definitely about happiness over restraint. A lagom view suggests that things are sufficient just as they are. So too many working hours are as bad as too many hours of sleep. As too many slices of cake are as negative for you as starving yourself for the sake of dieting.

After all it is the philosophy at the base of Scandi design: functional, stylish, simple and sustainable. And lasting.

Lagom underpins all that we’ve come to admire in Scandinavians: a lack of fussiness and pretentiousness, plenty of contentment and quiet confidence, functional architecture and pared-back design, modesty and wholesomeness, unfussy cuisine and an emphasis on the communal over the individual. Not bad if lagom could become an universal value.