In summer 1939, Swiss pioneering architect Berta Rahm (1910–1998) undertook a long-desired trip to Scandinavia with the small prize money from an architectural competition she had won. Young, impecunious, and eager, she took detailed notes and sketches, commenting on the whole range of Scandinavian everyday culture and observing the progressive professional situation of women there. She visited traditional, as well as contemporary buildings, admiring the smart layout and furniture of domestic architecture, especially detailing housing projects for small and modest incomes – all topics that she would develop later from a theoretical and social perspective. Having won a competition from a popular publishing house, Berta Rahm was able to release her travel diary, which garned noticeable success and  reflected the long-running fascination of Swiss people with Scandinavian culture.