Verner Panton was born in Funen, Denmark, in 1926. Before finishing his qualifications as an architect, he had already started working with the world-famous architect Arne Jacobsen. Here he helped to develop designs for the famous Ant chair, to mention just one design. He only stayed a few years, as he longed to spread his wings. In 1953, he started travelling through Europe in his VW camper, which he used as his studio and home. In 1962, he settled down in Basel, but maintained contact with his homeland until his death in 1998. His break-through arrived in 1958, when he designed the interior of his parents’ inn and with this, his first design icon was born: Cone Chair. From then on, Verner Panton never ceased to surprise and provoke. His designs were stunning and simple, hitting you right in the eye. Though his designs were influenced by the thinking of the sixties, there are clear links to designers from other periods, such as Gerrit Rietfeld and Marcel Breuer, who with similar clarity worked their ideas through
to the final product. Everything pared down to the essential. Much of Verner Panton’s furniture design reveal a grander vision, for a complete scheme, where furniture, lamps and all parts of the interior melt together – an opportunity to play with ideas, which always carry his personal stamp. Things took off in earnest with the restoration of Hotel Astoria in Norway, where both Topan and the pattern Geometry I was born. In the same way as Mies van der Rohe created The Barcelona Pavillion, Verner Panton now designed one of the most famous interiors of the 20th century in 1970: Visiona II for the Bayer company at the Cologne Furniture Fair. Through an explosion of shape and colour, he was able to test a host of design ideas. The best known interior ’Phantasy Landscape’ was a gentle, womb-like structure, which invited you to stand, lie or float in the folds of Dralon, starting with cooler colours in the perimeter and finishing in an orgie of red in the center. After moon landings and the hippie culture of the previous decade, Verner Panton here showed his vision of year 2000.
Verner Panton
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FlowerPot At the end of the sixties, Verner Panton created a series of lamps for his exhibitions and restaurants. Each was based on simple spherical lines. The most famous lamp turned out to be the FlowerPOT pendant, named after the era of ‘Flowerpower’. 6
FlowerPot VP1
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An object cannot become a design icon until it has stood the test of time and appears quite naturally in different settings, giving it a symbolic aura of its own. FlowerPot is just that. The famous lamp, designed in 1968.
FlowerPot Table VP3
FlowerPot TABLE VP4
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“How the impressive craftmanship moulds the Aluminium of the FlowerPot in to the right shape.”
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Topan VP6
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Verner Panton’s lamps are a celebration of colour. For restaurants and hotels, when hung in clusters, they spread a festive mood. Topan is quite simply a smooth sphere with light emerging from one part. A disco ball before discos were invented.
FlowerPot Garden VP5 The name says it all. FlowerPot is meant for garden living. Between grass, bushes and trees it will create a beautiful and warm ambience. flowerpot garden will illuminate your surroundings and become a poetic part of nature.
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Arne Jacobsen was born in Copenhagen in 1902. He opened his own practice in 1930 and ran it until his death in 1971. It was a relatively small practice, with Arne Jacobsen designing, directing and controlling everything, from the smallest aspects of an interior to the detailed designs of buildings and gardens. There were two periods when Arne Jacobsen’s ideas flourished – two styles of architecture and two different design concepts. In his youth, he was influenced by the Bauhaus and functionalist movements, to which he added his unique Scandinavian interpretation. The products to emerge from that period mainly comprise small series of furniture, produced by skilled craftsmen. During the war, he was forced to flee to Sweden, being of Jewish extraction. On his return, he worked with enthusiasm and vigour in a new style – Modernism. It is from this period, that we recog-nise his well-known mass-produced pieces of furniture. Buildings designed by him, although beautifully simple and sculptural,
were elegant backdrops for his chairs and lamps. The hotel ROYAL in Copenhagen was one of Arne Jacobsens greatest masterpieces. The hotel was the first hotel to be built by Scandinavian Airlines Systems, SAS. The building commenced in 1956 and the hotel was completed in 1960. Arne Jacobsen was very ambitious in this project – he designed everything for it. Many of the objects were created specially for this hotel and are still in production today. However, the interior of the hotel has undergone several major refurnishments and a piece of design history has been lost. Only a few rooms remain in their original condition. Originally, the hotel had a very long lobby, with low ceilings, and the famous chairs The Swan and The Egg were created for that area. The Garden of Orchids with the high atrium was filled with flowers and brought natural daylight into the centre of the hotel. There were suites with complete interiors furnished in elegant laminated wood and matching pieces of furniture specially designed for the area.
Arne Jacobsen
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Hotel ROYAL pendant Liza Minelli’s eyes have reflected in the sides of this pendant and the smoke from Frank Sinatra’s cigarette has swirled through the light. This pendant was designed for the intimate night bar in the exclusive Hotel Royal. Everything for this hotel, right down to the smallest detail, was produced to Arne Jacobsen’s design and The Swan and The Egg have now gained woldwide fame.
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“That is the artistic task: To choose the best from these solutions.” Arne Jacobsen
Hotel ROYAL bowl / Hotel ROYAL candlestick Referring back to the chair ’The Drop’, Arne Jacobsen designed a tabletop collection for the hotel’s restaurants. From the formal first floor restaurant to the more casual bars on the ground floor, he designed drop-shaped ashtrays, candlesticks and many other original tableware items, all for the elegantly laid tables.
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Jørn Utzon was born in 1918 into an artistic family, a line which continues through his children today. Utzon has a unique, truly global style. He looks for inspiration in local building traditions or nature, from around the world. From that point onwards, he impresses his stamp of originality on all of his projects. This applies whether it is a building in an Arab desert, a group of houses in a danish field, or his best know landmark, an opera house on a windswept promontory in Australia. There are many images in Sydney Opera House. First the direct image - the billowing sails of a ship making out for the open sea and the journey ahead. It is not surprising that it became an icon for a vibrant young Australian nation. For Utzon, it is not only the image
of ships, but also of white clouds, floating over the stepped plateau - a ritual place of worship, dating back to great past cultures. With awe, you approach the stage stage of opera. Take a closer look at the building and you will see how the large sails are fastened to the ground in one pivotal conjunction. From this the curved shapes emerge forcefully, almost as if they were predetermined. Utzon designed several opera houses over the next 10 years, from 1955 - Sydney, Madrid, Wolfsburg and Zurich. The one in Sydney was built, but not in accordance with his drawings. He left the project disappointed in 1966 and only now, in the beginning of the 21 st century, is it being restored, following the Utzon’s original design.
Jørn Utzon
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Utzon Pendant A long time before the Sydney Opera House was conceived, JØrn Utzon designed lamps. The best known design is this Utzon pendant, which sends the warm reflected light downwards only. Not surprisingly, the shape reminds you of JØrn Utzon’s later imaginative buildings, reminiscent of sails and shells, which were indeed his inspiration. In this lamp, you see these ideas united for the first time.
“It’s not about daring. It’s about having the urge.” Jørn Utzon
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Sofie Refer is born in Denmark, 1974. In 2003 she graduated from The Danish Design School, department of Product Design. Sofie Refer is partner and Creative Director of Refer + Staer Aps, a Danish design lighting company offering exclusive design lighting. The design is based on Scandinavian simplicity combined with an extravagant look. Beside her work at Refer + Staer she works for other design companies such as Unique Copenhagen and Holmegaard. Throughout her professional life she has focused on working with lighting design. Sofie Refer is fascinated by light in all aspect, convinced that lighting is the most important and powerful aspect in all environments. She creates lighting design with the deepest respect and passion for light. In that process she constantly seeks for new ways to play with and express light, also by using new technology components and light sources.
Sofie Refer’s designs are based on Scandinavian simplicity combined with elements of sensuous extravagance. It is important for Sofie Refer to remain true to Scandinavian simplicity just as much as it is a necessity for her to revolt against it. It is an interesting challenge for her to work and play with the contrasts. Sofie Refer is specialising in customised lighting design, and work with international architects such as Conran Contracts, Aukett, CBA and Bates Smart. Her customised statement lighting design, are created to fulfil and realize the ultimate dream. She takes great pleasure in working closely with architects, so that each project becomes unique and is carried out in respect for the architecture and interior. The easily recognisible Bulb is a simple and classic design yet the same time modern and up to date.
Sofie Refer
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Mega Bulb Bulb is a transparent lamp designed in 2000 by Sofie Refer. The lampshade, the bulb and even the wire is transparent, but the form of ’Bulb’ is classic. The reflection and the thickness of the mouthblown glass gives it a rich and vibrant life. Here we see the the real strength of good glass art. Bulb won the GOOD DESIGN award 2001 by the Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design.
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BULB
FlowerPot TABLE VP4 32
Carsten Jörgensen, born 1948 in Denmark, holds an education as painter and graphic designer from the school of arts and craft in Copenhagen. After years as an art teacher in Copenhagen he started collaborating with the Danish coffee maker manufacturer Bodum in the early 70ies. Until 2003 Jörgensen formed the entire product design of Bodum by designing the majority of the company’s products and was its creative director for more than 25 years. Jörgesen’s design has won international recognition since the 80ies and is represented in major Art and Design Museums around the world. Jörgensen has received numerous honours and commercial design prices such as the Red Dot and IF awards in Germany. But also Switzerland, USA, England, France, Italy, Sweden, Denmark and China have recognised Jörgensen’s design with prestigious awards. After leaving the daily design work at Bodum in 2001, Jörgensen retrieved to painting and a self study in art theory and philosophy, until he in 2004 founded Jörgensen Associated in Shanghai. A self initiated experiment proposed to bridge western design culture with the Chinese and to realize his dream of an interdisciplinary and intercultural design development philosophy. The Cocoon lamps designed for Unique was one of many projects comprising cultures and was a close collaboration between Jörgensen
and the young Chinese designer Yueyu Ren who is now involved in forming one of Chinas first true luxury brands. Today Jörgensen shares his interest and activities between product design, design consultancy, lecturing and writing on art, design and architecture. He lives in Lucerne Switzerland from where his activities as a branding and design advisor for a selected number of high end Chinese and European brands keep him busy travelling between east and west. Jörgensen continues to create experimental design objects as well as more sophisticated commercial designs in collaborations with design partners in Milan, Shanghai and Zurich and with young upcoming consumer product companies from around the world. By following his principal that each design, architecture and branding project demands an entire different approach in function, content and expression Jörgensen is not engaged in short term trends, but in basic human values as a source for design. His design therefore proposes a reduced mode of expression comprising the idea of function with a human sensibility to beauty.
Carsten Jörgensen
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Cocoon Handmade 36
A lamp as Cocoon™: the silkworm breaks the rigid weaving of the endless thread wrapped around its armored body, until in a mysterious metamorphosis, it finally unfolds its wings and flies, as a beam of light, into eternity. The Cocoon™
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A new duo in Danish furniture design. Pernille Vea and Martin Olsen, who both have 10 years professional experience in the field and more than 20 international awards to show for it, have now started their new joint venture.
Pernille has exhibited worldwide and has received many awards for her designs. In 2003, she was listed by Wallpaper as one the most wanted new-coming designers worldwide.
Although they have not worked together before, in fact their paths already merged 14 years ago when they both lived in London and studied at the prestigeous Royal Academy of Art. ’We already found then that we had an easy rapport and design chemistry’, says Pernille. As a result, they undertook a major project together on their return to The Institute of Industrial Design at Danish Designschool, where they were both studying furniture design, but in different years.
Pernille has been working with the Danish design company menu since 2000 as Design Director and has therefore not been involved in furniture design for the last 5 years – she has only been involved in product design. However, she has now returned to her first love – furniture art – after deciding to work with Martin again.
After graduation Pernille Vea was immediately employed at the The Design School of Denmark as an Assistant Teacher to Erik Krogh and also as a teacher in her own right. Concurrently, she also started her own design studio VEA, which is now listed in Who’s Who Design volume No 2 as one out of only four Danish studios. At the same time, Pernille Vea was also a Member of Kropsholder - an association set up to exhibit Scandinavian female furniture designers – and here she became one of the first furniture designers together with Louise Campbell and Malene Reitzel to exhibit in 1999 at KE in Charlottenborg.
Martin had been working in several design studios after leaving college, as Project leader at Fischerplusdesign and as Design Director at Design Success, to just mention two. The last four years, he has been associated with Soro Furniture as Design Director. His widely acclaimed design at Soro Furniture is the innovative ID-chair from 2004. Apart from this work, Martin has also found time for his other great passion - painting. Through the years he has exhibited extensively and sold more than 70 major works. The first product designed by the Duo to go into production is the powerful Corium pendant for Unique Interieur.
V & O: Pernille Vea & Martin Olsen
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Handbag Mirror This handbag shaped mirror is a freestanding piece. Placed on a table the mirror will perform as a personal facial mirror providing space for cosmetics. Placed on the floor the mirror functions as a shoE mirror, that even offers space for your favourite shoEs. Or just place it any were and let it reflect your home.
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Corium
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By mixing a classical shape and the boldness of the use of leather the designers created something extraordinary when designing Corium.
Royal Lamp pendant
utzon lamp
Bulb / Mega Bulb
big flower pot VP2
FlowerPot Table VP3
FlowerPot VP1
Handbag mirror
Royal Bowl & Candle holder
Corium
Cocoon
Topan VP6
Flower pot Garden VP5
FlowerPot TABLE VP4
stand & hangers
hooks / hangover
Dodecahedron & panton dish
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Unique Copenhagen Kongevejen 2 DK-3480 Fredensborg ph: +45 3920 0233 fax: +45 3920 0256 design@uniquecopenhagen.com www.uniquecopenhagen.com photos: Brian Burchard / Art Director: Aki Kollecker Thanks to the great team of unique copenhagen and to CPH Square for location.