Danish design - Designmuseum Danmark

DANISH
DESIGN
F R O M T H E 2 0 T H C E N T U R Y

The catalog Danish Design presents a selection of works from
the Danish Museum of Art & Design’s comprehensive
collection of design from the 20th Century.
Danish design
From the 20th Century
The Danish Museum of Art & Design is the national Danish museum
for design. The museum was founded in 1890 by the Society of
Industries and the Carlsberg Foundation and since then it has collected
international and Danish industrial design and craft. The extensive
collections, archives and library at the museum today constitute an
important centre in Denmark for design research.
The museum was established with the purpose to bring about a
conception of quality in design. The founders wished to inspire Danish
designers and producers to develop the best industrial products
through analyzing products of quality from different times and places.
At the same time it was the intention to enhance the quality-mindedness
in the Danish population. With its always expanding collections
and numerous exhibitions the museum had a central part in the
development of the Danish design culture during the 20th century.
The Danish educational institutions for architecture and design have
since the beginning of the 20th century worked closely with the Danish
Museum of Art & Design and much teaching has been based on the
historical and contemporary objects in the museum. Much of the best
in Danish Design has been exhibited at the Danish Museum of Art &
Design throughout the century.
Danish Design became internationally known, when American
magazines became aware of the new Danish furniture, which was
presented at the exhibition of the Copenhagen Cabinet-makers’ Guild
at the museum in 1949. Industrialisation came late to Denmark and
it turned out to be an advantage in the international competition that
the traditions had been upheld. Danish designers brought the virtue
of craftsmanship across to industrial design, which is worked on with
great understanding of the detail, the proportioning and perception of
the material.
Danish designers have always been more engaged in finding practical
shapes that can enhance the utility and aesthetics of existing objects
for everyday use, than in revolutionizing society with utopian ideas and
theoretic artistic manifests. Danish industrial design is widely inspired
by foreign revolutionary shapes and ideas and improves and refines
these to fit the Danish pragmatic and democratic way of life. Danish
designers of today have to consider the Danish design tradition, but
they are also part of the global production reality and design debate, in
which design is oriented towards sustainability as well as free art.
3

Thorvald Bindesbøll (1846-1908)
Label for beer bottle, 1904
Paper
Thorvald Bindesbøll was one of the most original Danish craftsmen
and graphic artists and a central figure in the Danish Skønvirke
movement around 1900, similar to Art Nouveau, Jugend and Arts and
Crafts movements. Bindesbøll worked in many areas of crafts and
architecture. He was especially known for his powerful and original
ornaments, which he displayed in his ceramic works, in jewellery, book
bindings, silver works and graphics. Many people know Bindesbøll’s
style and expression from the label he designed for the Calsberg Hof
beer, which is still in use and has embellished millions of bottles.
The label tells a story with the little hop flower and the elephant’s
trunk above the word pilsner referring to the four metres tall granite
elephants, who carry the gateway to the brewery buildings in Valby,
Copenhagen.
Knud V. Engelhardt (1882-1931)
Gentofte Municipality Road Signs, 1923
Iron, enamel
4
Knud Valdemar Engelhardt was educated as an architect and already
during his study years he emerged as the first functionalistic designer
in Denmark, when he designed and equipped a new tram type for the
Copenhagen Tramways. All equipment had rounded shapes and his
credo was: “Why add anything that use wears off?” It was however as
a graphics designer he mainly became known. I central Copenhagen
his signs (from 1915) with street names in cast bronze letters are
still seen. In Gentofte Municipality North of Copenhagen he is the
originator of the black-enamelled street signs with white letters and the
heart above the letter j as well as the characteristic mushroom shaped
advertising pillars. The rounded solid shapes and easily legible letters
are characteristic for Engelhardt, as well as the heart, which signals
courtesy.
Poul Henningsen (1894-1967)
Opal glass pendant, 1926
Louis Poulsen & Co
Brass, copper, opal glass blown by mouth
Poul Henningsen – known as PH – was educated as an architect and
was born into a radical Danish cultural environment. PH was a multi
artist – architect, painter, light maker, song writer, educator, designer
and kite builder. He was a convinced modernist and created a number
of remarkable buildings, furniture and an original light design in
cooperation with the lamp makers Louis Poulsen & Co. This led to
the construction of his glare free PH- lamp. To solve the problem of
lighting and create a warm and glare free light with pleasant shade
effect and smooth changes became the driving force in all of PH’s
work as lighting designer. PH developed a complete shade system with
varying numbers of shades in different positions, hues and materials.
As a culture critic PH became the provocateur, who attacked thinking in
authoritarian upbringing, Victorianism, sexual denial, conformism and
commercialism. He advocated democratic design and a product culture
that could unite beauty and utility.
5

Kaare Klint (1888-1954)
Buffet, 1929
Rud. Rasmussen Cabinet Makers
Cubamahogany, ebony, brass
Being the first professor in the art of furniture making at the Royal
Academy of Arts in Copenhagen Kaare Klint educated and influenced
a whole generation of Danish furniture designers with his pronounced
attitudes and methods. Klint worked systematically, scientifically and
analytically. The furniture should be adapted to man, the room and
their functions – it had to have standard measurements. But contrary
to the modernists of the 1920’s in Central Europe amongst others
he rejected the conception of throwing all experience over board and
submit to an industrial aesthetic with for instance steel. He was a strong
exponent for the new classicistic wave in Denmark in the beginning
of the 20’th century. He continued the Danish cabinet-maker tradition
and his design as well as his teaching were always based on the study
of older types of furniture, the basic ideas of which could be reused
in the development of furniture for his time. Much of Klint’s furniture
was developed as study projects in cooperation with his students. The
Buffet from1929 is the best known example. Klint and his students
measured a standard service for 12 persons and proportioned the piece
of furniture to fit perfectly to the contents it was to hold. The idiom and
the fine craftsmanship were as many of Klint’s other pieces of furniture
a continuation of the English furniture making in the 18’th century.
Peder Andersen Fisker (1875-1975) & Anders Fisker
The Bumblebee, 1934
Nimbus, Fisker & Nielsen
Metal, rubber, bakelite
6
Fisker & Nielsen were known for their thoroughly solid vacuum cleaners
in aluminium and marketed under the name ‘Nilfisk’. Their motorcycles
were called ‘Nimbus’ and were as dependable. The most successful
model was produced in the period 1934-1960 and was nicknamed
the Bumblebee because of its humming sound. It was for many years
the preferred motorcycle for the post office, the police and military
in Denmark. It presented itself as a compact whole, all parts were
integrated in the frame, which encompassed the engine and petrol tank
in a characteristic unity. The production was inspired by Henry Ford’s
mass production and the first models were, like Ford’s model T, only
made in black.
Børge Mogensen (1914-1972)
J39, 1947
FDB Fællesforeningen for Danmarks Brugsforeninger
Oak, paper yarn
Børge Mogensen was trained as a cabinet-maker and was a student
of Professor Kaare Klint. He continued Klint’s rational, systematic
and analytic working method. Like Klint he was engaged in further
development of good historical types of furniture, to make them
suitable for the contemporary needs. Mogensen succeeded in bringing
the ideals of craftsmanship across to the industry. As head of the
design office of the Danish Co-operative Society (FDB) he came up
with the idea for an industrial furniture production that could satisfy the
needs of an average family. Mogensen designed several dining tables
which were inspired by the ascetic furniture of the American Shakers.
He designed a cheap chair for the people based on Kaare Klint’s ‘church
chair’, which was a development of rustic furniture as it is known from
the Mediterranean countries. Mogensen made the chair simple and
cheap to produce and gave it a back rest with good support for the
small of the back.
7

Hans J. Wegner (1914-2007)
The Round Chair, 1949
Johannes Hansen
Oak, bamboo weave
Hans J. Wegner was trained as a cabinet-maker and had only attended
the School of Arts, Crafts and Design for two years when he was
employed by the architects Arne Jacobsen and Erik Møller. Wegner’s
work, encompassing more than 500 chairs, is a life long endeavour
to understand the nature of wood and exploit its possibilities. His
design is characterised by an expressive and sculptural functionalism.
The chairs are often based on different historic types of chair, which
he re-expounded again and again. The shapes of the furniture are
inspired by old work tools like axe handles, scythe handles or oar
blades and their joints constitute practically justified ornaments. The
Round Chair, which became a major work in the international break
through of Danish Design in 1949, was based on Wegner’s work with
historic Chinese chairs and the Danish tradition for classicistic chairs
with a round back rest. This chair was named ‘The Chair’ in American
magazines and became an important representative for the organic
modernism executed in fine craftsmanship, which made Danish Design
internationally known in the 1950’s and -60’s.
8
Finn Juhl (1912-1989)
Double Chieftain Chair, 1949
Cabinet-maker Niels Vodder
Teak, bent plywood, leather
Finn Juhl was a central exponent for the organic modernism during the
decades after WW2 and furnished several buildings abroad, amongst
others in the UN in New York. Finn Jul was an important figure in the
break through of ‘Danish Modern’ in USA and organised a number
of exhibitions of Danish Design. His strongly sculptural hand crafted
furniture was inspired by contemporary art, the tools of indigenous
peoples and antique Egyptian furniture. The thin upholstery of the
visually light sofa, the apparently hovering horizontal planes and the
use of teak for indoor furniture became a part of the Danish Modern
furniture style, which in fact was initiated by the Chieftain Chair and
sofa in 1949.
Kay Bojesen (1886-1958)
Monkey, 1951
Kay Bojesens Office
Teak, limba
Kay Bojesen was a silversmith and designer. He worked at first in
a personal ‘skønvirke’ ~ Art Nouveau style, which in some ways
is characterised by his learning years at the workshop of Georg
Jensen (1906-10). In the 1930’s he began developing a more simple,
functionalistic style. His silver cutlery set from 1938 won in a stainless
version first prize at the Milano Triennial in 1951 and was named ‘Grand
Prix’. Bojesen is especially known for his design of toys in wood, for
instance his guardsman from 1942 and he created a line of craftily
devised animals of which several had movable arms and legs. The
best known is the Monkey from 1951, but also the elephant and the
parrot from the 1950’s are known by several generations and are still in
production. Kay Bojesen also designed furniture for children, jewellery
and objects for the home.
9

Arne Jacobsen (1902-1971)
The Ant, 3100, 1952
Fritz Hansen
Plywood, cotton, steel tube, rubber hose and rubber glides
Arne Jacobsen graduated as an architect and began to design
houses in the Danish neoclassicistic style, but soon turned towards
the international modernism. His keen sense of detail made him
internationally known as a designer. As much as possible he insisted
on designing all furnishing for the houses he built and through this
most of his designs were created. The stacking chair The Ant, which
was designed for the canteen of the newly built factory for the drug
company Novo, became the first successful mass-produced chair in
Denmark and it was the first chair with seat and back in one piece.
The design was inspired by the experiments made internationally by
designers such as Alvar Aalto and Charles and Ray Eames. The organic
idiom characteristic of its time made The Ant remind one of a sculpture
by Alexander Calder and made it stand out in contrast to Jacobsen’s
architecture. During the next two decades The Ant had six “siblings”
with different shapes for the back rests. The most popular was
‘series 7’. More than seven millions of the series have been produced
till Today.
Henning Koppel (1918-1982)
Fish dish, 1954
Georg Jensen
Sterling silver
10
Henning Koppel was a designer, sculptor and graphics artist and he
was a central exponent for the organic modernism, the style which
developed in the time after WW2. Koppel was educated as a sculptor,
but in 1945 he began to draw silver ware for Georg Jensen, where
he was employed until his death. He shaped great hollowware works
and renewed the tradition in Danish silver. These characteristics also
emerge in the large Fish dish from 1954. With its smooth domed lid
and the powerful fish jaws at either end the dish is an expression of a
unique abstract, organic form.
Sigvard Bernadotte (1907-2002), Acton Bjørn (1910-1992)
The Margrethe Bowl 1954
Rosti
Melamine
In 1949 Bernadotte and Bjørn established the first office for industrial
design in Denmark. Bernadotte, who was the son of the king of Sweden,
had drawn silver hollowware for Georg Jensen in a classic idiom and
he had studied industrial design with Raymond Loewy in USA. Acton
Bjørn was an architect, but had experience with design from his work
with the inside finish of SAS Douglas aircraft. The company designed
everything from plastic utensils for the kitchen to lorries/trucks to
kitchen machines. The design of office machines, like calculators and
typewriters, was a major field for the company. The Margrethe Bowl is
their most successful product. It was named after Bernadotte’s niece,
the present queen of Denmark. The simple shape in the new material
melamine quickly showed its practical and aesthetic advantages. The
flat handle level with the edge of the bowl provides a good grip and the
thin edge of the lip makes it easy to pour from. The shape of the bowl
itself fits the stirring spoon or the curve of the beater. A rubber ring was
later added to the bottom of the bowl making it stand securely during
stirring.
Poul Kjærholm (1929-1980)
ECK22, 1955
E. Kold Christensen
Mat chromium plated flat steel, round pith
Professor Poul Kjærholm had a background as cabinet-maker, but
already during his education as a furniture designer he was fascinated
by the steel furniture of the international modernism. Kjærholm strived
towards simple, palpable constructions and focused on the details,
the joints. He considered steel as a natural product of the same value
as wood, which patinates with age. Kjærholm designed the furniture
for large austerely fitted rooms, where it was placed in strict easily
understandable compositions. Kjærholm’s graduation project at the
School of Arts, Crafts and Design was a low chair in flat steel. Like his
teacher Hans J. Wegner he was greatly impressed by Mies van der
Rohe’s Barcelona chair from 1929. In 1955 Kjærholm launched a new
low chair in mat steel on which the steel was put together with visible
Unbrako (Allen) screws and the few parts were laid on top of each
other. The first version of ECK22 was upholstered with Pomeranian
linen or leather. I 1957 the second version with round pith was
launched.
11

Gertrud Vasegaard (1913-2007)
Tea service, 1956
Bing & Grøndahl
Porcelain
Gertrud Vasegaard is out of one of Denmark’s most well known pottery
families - Hjorth from the island of Bornholm. She was educated at
the School of Arts, Crafts and Design in 1930 and worked Bing &
Grøndahl as well as for Royal Copenhagen, where she designed several
services until she in 1975 created her own workshop and during a
long and rich ceramic life created unica works of singular beauty and
bearing the stamp of uncompromising perfection. The Tea service is
an example of the combination of an impressive craftsmanship and
aesthetic, artistic confidence with its Chinese inspired elegance and
perfection in choice of material, glaze and expression. The eight parts
of the service have each its own shape; the round handle less cup, the
rectangular tea caddy and the hexagonal teapot, but they still interact
like a homogenous unity. The service was already shortly after first
production considered a classic.
LEGO
Lego block, 1958
Plastic
12
LEGO, with a building block of plastic as its basic element, is an
educational toy system for children. The name LEGO is made up of the
words ‘leg (play) and godt (good)’. The special feature of the system
is that the LEGO block is based on a strict modular system in which all
parts fit together and can be combined in countless ways. The LEGO
system offers unique opportunities for children to play, construct and
experiment. Apart from the toy LEGO A/S has developed the blocks
for other purposes. For instance a series of smaller blocks has been
developed especially for architects. LEGO was founded in 1932 by Ole
Kirk Kristiansen (1891 – 1958), who started up by producing wooden
toys from 1934 under the name LEGO. In 1947 a die casting machine
for plastic was acquired and by 1953 export was gradually established.
With the founder’s son, Godtfred Kirk Kristiansen, the company had its
real breakthrough in 1958 with the patenting of the LEGO block and its
coupling system. The company is continuously expanding its product
programme with new elements and themes.
Verner Panton (1926-1998)
Panton Chair, 1960 (1967)
Vitra
Plastic
Verner Panton was abroad one of the most acknowledged Danish
designers. Contrary to his Danish colleagues he was not inspired by
historic types of furniture, elegant hand craft and the shapes of nature,
but by the newest technology, consumer culture and the 1960’s
international pop wave. His strong colours and provocative shapes
were perceived as a reckoning with the good taste and social and moral
responsibility in Denmark. A great part of his work were total designs.
He arranged complete interiors, where colours, shapes, materials, light
and ornaments dissolved the geometric room into an organic unity.
The Panton Chair fulfils a dream that had been prevailing since the
beginning of the 20’th century when the production of chairs in bent
steel tube without the rear legs began. In the industrial age the goal had
become a mass produced chair in one mould and one material. Panton
became the first to realise the dream of a shell chair cast in plastic in a
mould.
13

Grete Jalk (1920-2006)
Sløjfestolen, the Bow Chair, easy chair, 1963
PP Jeppesens Møbelfabrik
Laminated, folded wood
Before her education at the School of Arts, Crafts and Design Grete Jalk
had a background as a cabinet maker and designed hand made chairs
as well as industrial furniture and products. She arranged numerous
exhibitions about design as well as publishing a large work on the
furniture exhibitions of the Cabinet-Makers’ Guild 1927-1966. Grete
Jalk was a pupil of professor Kaare Klint and was oriented towards the
function and production method of furniture. Amongst other thing she
was preoccupied with exploring the possibilities of laminated wood.
The bow-shaped chair represents culmination of the development of
the bent laminated plywood chairs. The Bow is bent in only one plane,
but the two connected parts make the chair appear to be stressed to
the point, which one could fear might be the limit. The chair does not
ascribe to an organic form like the earlier bent plywood chairs, but is on
the contrary very true to its construction and looks exactly as what it is
– a chair for resting – nothing else. Grete Jalk deigned at the same time
a set of three nesting tables, which repeat the curves of the chair.
Gunnar Aagaard Andersen (1919-1982)
Polyether chair, 1964-65
Dansk Polyether Industri
Polyurethane foam
14
Gunnar Aagaard Andersen was an architect, sculptor, painter and
designer of furniture, textiles, wallpaper etc. He was one of the post
war most experimenting multi-artists in Denmark. As a visual artist he
worked with a concrete/constructivistic idiom. Gunnar Aagaard began
to experiment with furniture from the 1950’s and developed a series of
remarkable furniture that challenged the ability of the cabinet-makers
and the shape ability of the wood. Inspired by pop art and the abstract
expressionism he created the foam chair – Portrait of My Mother’s
Chesterfield – from polyurethane foam. The whipped cream-like
material could be poured out in layers and in this way he managed to
create a chair in one continuous process and in one unbroken shape
without the use of moulds. The chair is a piece of furniture as well as
an object of art. The humour of the chair, its savageness and radicalism
have provoked many in the Danish design environment, but they have
also inspired younger designers to launch themselves into border
breaking projects.
Nanna Ditzel (1923-2005)
Hallingdal, 1965
Kvadrat Ltd
Wool, viscose in linen binding
357a-h/2003
The furniture designer Nana Ditzel designed several textiles amongst
these the upholstery material Hallingdal, which has been produced by
Kvadrat Ltd. since 1965. It is still in use for furnishing public areas that
demand strength for wear and tear. DSB, the Danish railways, used
the material for the seats in the IC3 trains. Hallingdal is produced in a
mixture of wool and viscose. The wool retains the dirt repelling qualities
and adds elasticity while the viscose gives brilliance to the colour.
During all the years Hallingdal has been woven in 200 different plain or
shimmering colour variations that portray the prevalent changing colour
tendencies.
Nanna Ditzel (1923-2005)
Hallingdal, 1965
Kvadrat
Wool, viscose in linen binding
The furniture designer Nanna Ditzel designed several textiles amongst
these the upholstery material Hallingdal, which has been produced by
Kvadrat since 1965. It is still in use for furnishing public areas that
demand strength for wear and tear. DSB, the Danish railways, used
the material for the seats in the IC3 trains. Hallingdal is produced in a
mixture of wool and viscose. The wool retains the dirt repelling qualities
and adds elasticity while the viscose gives brilliance to the colour.
During all the years Hallingdal has been woven in 200 different plain or
shimmering colour variations that portray the prevalent changing colour
tendencies.
15

Jacob Jensen (f.1926)
Beomaster 1900, 1976
Bang & Olufsen (B&O)
Teak, extruded aluminium, plastic, steel
Jacob Jensen was an interior decorator educated at the furniture
department of the School of Arts, Crafts and Design. He was employed
by Bernadotte and Bjørn, the first office in Scandinavia for industrial
design, from 1951 to 1958, when he opened his own office. The
stereo radio Beomaster 1900 presents itself as an extract of the design
profile Jacob Jensen created for B&O during the 1970’s. The long,
flat and top operated instrument with sunken operating buttons is a
simple and rationally well worked out operating surface. Secondary
adjustments are hidden under a lid. The choice of colours black and
white (aluminium) signal sense and asceticism, but also a seductive
magic that comes forth when the invisible black displays light up or
when the lid is opened to reveal the secret ‘cockpit’ of the instrument.
Jacob Jensen transformed the international modernism known from
architecture into instrument design.
Erik Magnussen (f.1940)
Thermos, 1976
Stelton
Plastic, glass
16
Erik Magnussen was educated as a potter at the School of Arts,
Crafts and Design and worked for a number of years for the porcelain
factory Bing & Grøndahl. His industrial designs are far-reaching,
from furniture to the public space to articles for everyday use. The
shape of Magnussen’s design is always determined by the function
of the product and its production, with emphasis on quality and
inexpensiveness. The simple basic shapes and solutions consisting
of a few parts joined in the most appropriate way are refined with
consideration for the properties of the materials. His Thermos Jug
consists of seven parts, which are clicked together. This makes the jug
cheap and easy to clean. The jug is assembled at the top and contrary
to other thermos jugs it has no opening at the bottom. If the gasket
in the top leaks the coffee does not seep out onto the table, but stays
in the outer shell. It can be handled by one hand as the lid tilts when
pouring.
Grethe Meyer (1918-2008)
Ildpot (Firepot), 1976
Den kgl. Porcelainsfabrik
Stoneware
Grethe Meyer was educated as an architect and already during her study
years she showed distinct skills for a scientific approach to architecture.
She published the book “Byggebogen” for which she had collected
much relevant information about building and she collaborated
with the furniture architect Børge Mogensen on the development of
‘Building-cupboards for the home’. I her large production of objects
she emphasized utility value and production suitability. With the dinner
set Firepot Grete Meyer combined the knowledge of the counteraction
between angles and shapes with the foremost pottery insight and all
parts were drawn with the knowledge she had of standardisation of
the components for the home. The dinner set is produced with the
technique ‘jiggering’ in unglazed stoneware that is patinated by use
and by which the visual impression is naturally enhanced. All parts
can be stacked and be used for several functions. The set fulfilled the
contemporary wish for cooking utensils that could go directly from the
stove to the table and finally into the freezer.
Ursula Munch-Petersen (f.1937)
Ursula, 1993
Den kgl. Porcelainsfabrik
Faience
Ursula Munch-Petersen is a descendant of the pottery dynasty Hjorth
of the island of Bornholm. She is educated at the School of Arts, Crafts
and Design and her work is often inspired by popular simple artefacts.
The Ursula service set exemplifies an example of her interest in
taxonomy, the classification of living and extinct organisms. The beaked
pitchers and bowls, that are part of the set, are a result of Ursula
Munch-Petersen’s work with formtypologies. Several of the parts of
the set have deliberately been made distinctively larger than necessary,
many shapes are asymmetric and the choice of colours distances itself
from the neutral earth colours that were often seen on other services of
that time. Ursula is not a complete set but rather a palette of choices for
combination. Ursula Munch-Petersen herself calls it a family of cups,
jugs and bowls. The service does not look like an industrially produced
set and exactly therein lies the strength of modern craft.
17

Nanna Ditzel (1923-2005)
Trinidad, 1993
Fredericia Stolefabrik
Cherry, chomium-plated steel tubes
Trinidad is a stackable chair designed by Nana Ditzel, who was
educated as a cabinet-maker and furniture designer. She was one of
the few women, who managed to penetrate the very male dominated
furniture business. She was inspired by new materials and had great
insight in production methods. Nana Ditzel used for example the first
CNC milling machine in Denmark to cut Trinidad’s characteristic thin
lines in the seat and back of the chair. The design is inspired by the
colonial jigsaw works in the Caribbean islands, where she went on
vacation several times. With Trinidad Ditzel managed to create a new
Danish breakthrough for the pressed wood. While Arne Jacobsen with
his simple and naked Ant chair wished to create lightness as not to
disturb the eye wandering through the room, Ditzel made the chair itself
transparent. In this way Trinidad became visually even lighter, and at
the same time more decorative and expressive.
Ole Jensen (f.1985)
Ole, 1997-98
Den kgl. Porcelainsfabrik
China (porcelain)
18
Ole Jensen was educated at the School of Arts, Crafts and Design
as well as at the Royal Academy of Arts. He has added humour, play
and artistic experience to the otherwise rational basic Danish design
tradition, but he emphasizes the primary functions of objects in his
designs. Ole does not in the traditional way consist of plates, cups,
saucers and dishes, but consists rather of those parts of a service and
utensils that have appealed to the designer like the lemonsqueezer,
mugs, colander, and bowls. The forms are close to Japanese and
traditional Nordic pottery. Ole is a functional series with humour added
to help turn everyday into a play.
Hans Sandgren Jacobsen (f.1963)
Gallery, 1998
Frederica Furniture
Ash plywood, steel tube
Hans Sandgren Jacobsen was trained as a cabinetmaker and designer.
He has worked in Japan and been attached to Nanna Ditzel’s office for
a number of years and continues to work within the tradition of the
transparent constructions of Danish Design. Gallery is the first design
from the time, when he started his own office. It is a very simple, bent
plywood stool developed at the request of Gl. Strand for their exhibition
rooms. The stool is made of 10 layers of rectangular plywood bent as
much as possible and held together by two steel tubes. The design
is based on a long Danish tradition for bent plywood furniture, which
encompasses Grete Jalk’s Sløjfestol (the Bow Chair) (1963), Nanna
Ditzel’s Trinidad (1998), and Arne Jacobsen’s series of chairs
(1951-68).
19

Cecilie Manz (f.1972)
‘Hochacht‘, ladder chair, 1999
Jacob Trolle Rasmussen
Ash wood
Cecilie Manz is educated at the Danish Design School and her works
cover a wide field from furniture and product design to jewellery
and sculpture. Her designs express simplicity and lightness and she
attempts to find the essence of the function of the product. Hochacht
is in the category of furniture that - apart from the possibility to rest
- invites to think about furniture – their presentation and function. With
this piece of furniture Cecilie Manz enrols into a humoristic, functional
tradition, which Kay Bojesen advocated with his mantra ‘Lines must
smile’. The duality of the ‘ladder’, in which the work function has been
changed to a place of rest without being too comfortable, is a good
example of Cecilie Manz’s approach to design, which never becomes
puristic functional but on the contrary possess humour, minimalistic
aesthetic, surprise elements – and above all high quality and utility.
20
Louise Campbell (f. 1970)
Casual Cupboard, 2000
Bahnsen Collection
Ash plywood, elastic band, Velcro
Louise Cambell was educated at the London College of Furniture and
at the Danish Design School. Although she is considered an heir to
the continuation of the Danish furniture tradition her furniture can be
perceived as a clash with the Danish design tradition based on the
function of objects. Her designs are very experimenting with materials
and shapes. Several of her works are on the border-line between design
and art and they have a femininely decorative and graphic expression.
Casual Cupboard draws on the classic Danish Design tradition for
bent plywood. The cupboard is a new and flexible way to envision
storage furniture. It can easily be moved around in the house and it
stands or hangs both vertically and horizontally or be used as a bench.
It contradicts the conception that clothes must be hidden and folded
perfectly when it is placed in the cupboard.
Kaspar Salto (f. 1967)
Ice, 2002
Fritz Hansen
Aluminium, plastic
Kaspar Salto was educated cabinet-maker and graduated from the
Danish Design School in 1994. He belongs to a group of younger
Danish designers, who continue the 20th century’s Danish furniture
school, which amongst other things emphasizes good craftsmanship,
high quality execution and thorough proportioning and detailing of the
shapes. Salto’s Ice is a modern mass produced chair in aluminium
and plastic, designed for both outdoor and indoor use for instance at
the dining table, for conferences or at cafés. It has a light and strong
construction, which easily can be taken apart in order to have the
materials melted for recycling. The pronounced graphic expression of
the chair resembles the back it is meant to support.
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Johannes Foersom (f.1936) og Peter Hiort-Lorenzen (f.1943)
Imprint, chair, 2006
Lammhults AB, Svweden
Pressede cellulose fibre mats, powder coated steel, plastic
glides
The Danish furniture designers Johannes Foersom and Peter Hiort-
Lorenzen are cabinet-makers and were educated at the Furniture
Department of the Danish Design School. Together they have run a
design office since 1977 and designed and developed furniture and
other products using advantageous production processes. They
have for a number of years experimented with new technologies and
materials and through these created new solutions for shapes. The
shell chair Imprint from 2005 is produced from cellulose fibre mats, a
new and environmentally friendly natural material. The flecked look of
the chairs is the result of various plant parts like bark and pine needles
being added to the fibre mass. The design enters into a long tradition
of fibre chairs pressed into shape, which dates back to Charles Eames’
fibre glass chair (1950)
Boris Berlin (f.1953), Poul Christiansen (f.1947)
Komplot Design
Nobody, chair, 2007
Hay (Nordifa, Halmstad, Sweden)
Synthetic felt (polyester/pet felt)
22
The design duo ‘Komplot,’ Boris Berlin and Poul Christiansen work
with graphics, product design and furniture design. Their idiom and
ideas are far-reaching, from the poetic conceptual and humoristic to
the profoundly objective, functional and minimalistic. They often take
in historic and foreign products for renewed consideration and their
modus operandi is highly analytical and experimenting and based
on new technologies. The chair Nobody is made of recycled PET felt
made from used soda water bottles. Heavy upholstery has never been
really acceptable in the modernism movement because it hides the
construction. With the chair Nobody everything has been turned upside
down as the upholstery itself has become the bearing construction.
The body of the chair has been removed – only the comfort providing
cover remains. The material challenges us: ‘Can that soft material really
support?’ The chair is hyper modernistic – created in one mould and
one material meant for mass production.