chairmen
hans we gner
arne jacobsen
nanna ditzel
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“The chair does not exist. The good chair is a task one is never completely done with.� //
hans wegner
“People buy a chair, and they don’t really care who designed it.” //
arne jacobsen
“When I begin work on a new chair, everything is possible, everything is allowed.� //
nanna ditzel
chairmen
hans we gner
arne jacobsen
nanna ditzel
Minimal Chair, Ox-chair, Hoop Chair, Round Chair, Chinese Chair, Wishbone Chair, PP201 Armchair, Peacock Chair, Valet Chair, Folding Chair, Flag Halyard Chair, Shell Chair, Papa Bear Chair
Ant Chair, Grand Prix Chair, Series 7 Chair, Ox Chair, Easy Chair A J 237, Oxford Series, Pot Chair, Swan Chair, Egg Chair, Drop Chair, Black Slug Chair, Giraffe Chair, Series 3300
Stacking Chair, Wicker Chair, Work Chair, Ring Chair, Dennie Chair, Trinidad Chair, Butterfly Chair, Foam Cushions, Dining Chair, Chaise Lounge, Hanging Egg Chair, Bench for Two, Conch Chair
take a seat...
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1914–2007 Hans J Wegner is one of the designers who made Danish Design world famous. The son of a master cobbler, Wegner was exposed to how things were made and how tools were used since a young age. Wegner began as a carpenter's apprentice, and soon discovered that he had a sense and a feel for wood and a love of this material. He became acquainted with the annual Copenhagen Cabinetmaker's Guild Exhibitions, where he experienced what a combination of good craftsmanship and design could achieve, thus beginning his career as a designer. In 1950, the American magazine 'Interiors' put on its cover The Round Chair that Wegner had launched in 1949, calling it the world's most beautiful chair. This was not only the start of international fame for Wegner, but also for Danish Design as a whole.
1902–1971 Arne Jacobsen is one of the few creators who inscribed his name in both the history of architecture and design. Jacobsen studied architecture in Copenhagen in the early 1920s. His projects from his student days reflect the Danish interest in and care taken over details and furnishings. A major source of inspiration for Jacobsen's furniture work stemmed from the bent plywood designs of Charles and Ray Eames. This is evident in the series of stackable chairs he designed, most famously The Ant Chair. This iconic chair marked a turning point in Jacobsen's career as a designer. With this chair he distanced himself from the Danish furniture tradition and furniture craft, as well as from excessive modernism. He had discovered his own style which was modern and international, but also clarified, organic, and personal.
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1923–2005 Nanna Ditzel is one of the most successful female designers of the 20th Century. She began training as a cabinetmaker and went on to study furniture design at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen. There, she met her future husband, Jørgen Ditzel, whom she collaborated closely with for many of her furniture and jewellery designs. What set Ditzel apart from other designers was her bold and expeirmental work. She was constantly exploring with new materials and production methods. Her use of bright pastel colours have been a hallmark of her work. This won her numerous furniture and design awards. One of Ditzel's most iconic chairs is the Trinidad Chair, designed in 1993. The chair's fan-shaped design manipulates light and shadow in interesting ways, achieving its status as a modern classic.
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1952 // a rn e jaco bs en
Stackable chairs have come to be a huge design challenge, requiring thoughtful design to meet such criteria of convenience, storage, lightweight, durability, and comfort. Jacobesen's Ant Chair has become a classic. It is one of the most commercially successful chairs in design history.
/// Ant Chair
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1965 //
Ant Chair | steel, bent plywood Minimal Chair | steel, solid maple Stacking Chair | metal, lacquered wood
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hans wegner
/// Minimal Chair
1958 // nanna ditzel
/// Stacking Chair
The Ant not only represents a decisive leap in the development of the modern industrially produced chair, but also in its orientation to the massmarket. It was conceived as an everyday chair and Arne Jacobsen had set a maximum retail price on it. The Ant marks a turning point in Arne Jacobsen's career as a designer. With this chair he distances himself from the Danish furniture tradition and furniture craft, as well as from excessive modernism. He had discovered his own style which was modern and international, but also clarified and personal.
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1952 // a rn e jaco bs en
/// Ant Chair
Series 7 was designed in response to the criticisms made of The Ant. The seat itself was slightly larger and the curve of the back around the body allowed greater freedom of movement. The Grand Prix Chair is the only chair in the series designed to be made entirely out of wood, a deviation from The Ant family.
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15 1957 // a rn e jaco bs en
/// Grand Prix Chair
Grand Prix Chair | plywood, bent plywood Series 7 Chair 3107 | steel, bent plywood
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/// S eries 7 Chair
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1960 // hans wegner
Wegner’s Ox-chair is designed to make it possible to sit comfortably in many different ways so that one can change positions continuously. It is a chair that has become an image and an archetype – strong and distinctive as a bull, but raised off the floor by light but strong legs in chromium-plated steel.
Jacobsen’s Ox Chair makes a similar visual impact – its deep cuts into the back at the sides, the clefts between the arms and the back, and the rounding of the corners all help to ‘lighten’ it visually. The silhoutte of Jacobsen’s Ox Chair, though more orthogonal, resembles the silhoutte of the Ant Chair.
/// Ox- chair
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17 1966 // a rn e jaco bs en
/// Ox Chair
Ox-chair | metal, leather Ox Chair | steel, leather
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ideas become objects
How do you work? I spend a lot of time looking at the world around me. I observe things that I accidentally come across, but I also make a point of looking at particular places and buildings. One of my continuous concerns is to find connections. Although my time is now mostly spent designing furniture, I also design all sorts of other things. I have never been able to understand how people can simply devote themselves to a single field – furniture, for example – and overlook all the other things that surround us. What is your direct inspiration? I can give you an example. During a visit to Tuscany, I saw the wonderful pillars in Siena and the memory of them stayed with me – their shape, the play of light on them, their texture, the ambience, the material. The result was the new Kvadrat textiles. But I suppose it is not just a matter of having a good idea? No, but that is the starting point. Then I prepare what I call a concept. I think about the idea and I write something down. And while my thoughts begin to take shape on the way to becoming tangible objects, I concentrate on two elements in the process, the intention and analysis. I explore all the possibilities: technical aspects, material, shape, function and – something which is very important to me – the human content. After all, the products of my work are going to be used by people. What is the first, purely practical step? That is to synthesise the analysis. When I have
that sysnthesis, my sole objective is to challenge its validity. To try to reach even further. That is my dream. That is the point at which I set pencil to paper. I spend many days drawing and making notes. I date my drawings and when everything looks as though it is coming together, I start making models. The motivation is inside you? Not always. The task is either commissioned or I decide to undertake it on my own initiative. Both ways work well. The task could for example be a new textile design. If so, I am prepared for it. My senses and curiosity are activated. I explore surfaces and material effects, light and shade. And, in this way, the Siena pillars become new textiles. It is not simply a copying process. The theme has a content which I admire – and wish to develop further. It has meaning for me because I have seen something in it. Something I can use. You have been fascinated by butterflies for many years...I have studied them – observed their grace and lightness, their colours and structure, their wonderful floating shapes. They have qualities that I wish to reflect in my furniture. The lightness, the feeling of floating. When I first saw your light, floating chairs – the shells – which grace the space they occupy like butterflies on a beautiful summer day, I immediately thought of Liselund, the mansion on the island of Møn, where there is floating furniture which blends effortlessly with the marvellous wall decorations, giving
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by h e n r i k s t e n m ø l l e r
in the woods and saw the leaves falling from the trees. A little later, they had disappeared. An ideal arrangement. Much of your work not only encapsulates lightness – it has volume too...Things have to say what they are. They can certainly provoke surprise, but they must be trustworthy as well. That is an important element in the selection process. The purpose of a chair, after all, is to be sat in. In your criticisms, you have often accused us of devoting too much time to designing chairs. But the chair is the most interesting item of furniture. We use cupboards to maintain order. We put things in them. They look after the things we need. But chairs look after people and that is a quite different purpose. So it is very important to take into account the way a chair's appearance combines with the person who sits in it. Some chairs look like crutches. And I don't like them at all. Are you inspired by chairs? No. Established designs are not transformed into new furniture in my studio, because they are already firmly linked to a particular structural conecpt and specific elements. When I begin work on a new chair, everything is possible, everything is allowed. It's a challenge. Being tied to a concept which has already been partly developed is not so exciting. There is a poetic strength which means a lot to me. Just imagine – you can sit down with paper and pencil and create something which has never been seen before. The same holds true for writing. But
A Conversation with N anna Ditzel //
the rooms a poetry all their own. Was Liselund your inspiration? It is a very inspirational place, but I haven't thought about it in connection with my work in designing furniture. I think my present designs are en expression of my need to change course. As you may remember, I received my education and grew up in a period in which the only standard applied was function. If the functional requirement was satisfied, everything was fine. Of course the design must function well, but over the years I have developed a strong feeling that there is more in every object. To be sure, a chair is for sitting in, but it also expresses an age, eroticism, essence, human feelings, dreams. While functionality must naturally be preserved, for me chairs have increasingly become attemps to meet the challenge thrown down by all these other elements. And is your dream to give furniture this floating quality? One day, my grandson said to me: "You always buy toys that can fly." And he was right. I love everything that flies – gliders, kites, butterflies, birds. They express freedom. I cultivate the floating shape in the hope of achieving the effect that I want. But that is previsely what I cannot achieve, because of gravity. And the world would probably be a remarkably disordered place if things did not fall back to it as they should! When I was young and newly married, I thought a lot about the need to keep things clean and tidy. One day, I went for a walk
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High Chair | 1955 | teak
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A Conversation with N anna Ditzel // henrik sten møller
we didn't learn about poetry when we were students with Kaare Klint. While we were all gripped by the exciting action in Charles Dickens' novels, Christian Elling described how Nicholas Nickleby, David Copperfield, Oliver Twist and all the rest of them lived – their physical surroundings. He was able to work it all out from the text. Have you found direct inspiration in literature? No. I am very much a visual observer. I experience shape and colours directly. I find it more difficult to use the things I read. But it's strange that you mention Dickens, because he has inspired me. I went to the theatre as a child and saw "Oliver Twist", with its strange thieves' loft, where they lived in a space which had many different levels. It was the first fantastic room I saw in my life and I became obsessed with the idea of creating a space in which people could sit on many different levels. It was an idea which I developed further as an adult designer – first with a stepped room, in 1952. But, when I was a girl, I also saw Hans Christian Andersen's story "The Tinder Box", with its treasure chest full of jewels. I went home and made jewels of every material that I could get my hands on – and I have been designing jewellery every since. What is it that keeps you working? The same things that prompted me to start in the first place. Curiosity. The opportunity to put things together in new ways. The wish to see what will happen. An appetite for change.
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1950 //
Wicker Chair | oak, wicker
nanna ditzel
/// Wicker Chair
This unusual, bowl-shaped seat, hangs from a light oak frame. Nanna Ditzel designed this chair with her husband, Jørgen Ditzel. The use of craft materials and painstaking skill in making the rounded form, along with the chair’s pure lines, give a sensation of comfort and luxury in a seat that allows a variety of positions. This chair won awards in 1950 at the Cabinetmakers Guild Exhibition as well as in the 1951 Milan Triennale.
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1986 // hans wegner
/// Hoop Chair The Hoop Chair has created a completely new image of how a chair can appear. It consists of a large laminated hoop that is an important part of the bearing construction.
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25 1936 // a rn e jaco bs en
/// Easy Chair A J 237
Hoop Chair | solid ash, woven flag halyard, fabric upholstery Easy Chair A J 237 | bamboo, wicker, fabric upholstery
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1963 //
nanna ditzel
a rn e jaco bs en
/// Ox ford S eries
/// 'In Charge' Work Chair
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1993 //
Work Chair | aluminum, foam, fabric upholstery Oxford Series | aluminum, leather
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"I would venture to say that Hans J Wegner is the most gifted carpenter the world has ever known." //
henrik sten møller
Round Chair detail | mahogany
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/// Round Chair
hans wegner
hans wegner
//
1949 //
"Many foreigners have asked me how we made the Danish style. And I've answered that it was really nothing of the sort. It was rather a continuous process of purification, and for me of simplification, to cut down to the simplest possible elements of four legs, a seat and combined top rail and arm rest."
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1949 //
hans wegner
/// Round Chair
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The Round Chair is timeless. It has become world famous as The Chair. Wegner's chairs that came before 1948, were products of a given time, a definite, isolated situation. This 1949 chair however, is of quite a different spirit. It is not a chair that gives off a scent of three-room everyday life. It can afford to be a chair; it stands free and untroubles and lives at peace in oak and rattan. The world is open and this chair will conquer it, a chair at once luxurious and spartan. Luxurious in its refined play of lines and the interplay of materials between oak and rattan, and spartan in its stringent, lean form and absolute lack of excess.
Round Chair PP 503 | solid oak, woven cane
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194 4 // hans wegner
/// Chinese Chair
Wegner saw a reproduction of the old Chinese chair and was inspired by the idea of taking known types of foreign furniture as subjects for renewal. The Chinese Chair has been an important step on the way to something else: 'A chair with its top rail and arms in a single piece but without the back forming a board, so that the sitter can move more freely on the seat.' It was this renewal, and not changes to the proportions or details of the Chinese chair, that was the real quantum leap.
Chinese Chair FH 4283 | solid cherry, leather upholstery Wishbone Chair CH 24 | solid oak, woven cord
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1950 //
The Wishbone Chair has its roots in The Chinese Chair, yet is also unmistakably itself. It is the most sold Wegner chair.
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hans wegner
/// Wishb one Chair
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1969 //
hans wegner
/// PP 201 Armchair
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Armchair PP 201 | solid oak, woven cord
The PP 201 Armchair combines the aesthetics of the PP 701 Minimal Chair with the construction of the Chinese Chair, creating a new expression, where the strict geometrical defined frame construction is supporting only the most minimal use of the organic language of shape that was a trademark of Wegner through the 1950s.
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1957 //
The Ring Chair was an example of a difficult specialization, upholstery. It was a great export success.
nanna ditzel
/// Ring Chair Ring Chair | solid oak, fabric upholstery
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1959 //
Pot Chair | steel, leather upholstery
a rn e jaco bs en
/// Pot Chair
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nanna ditzel
/// Dennie Chair
This 1956 chair was designed for the company Fritz Hansen but it had never been produced on a large scale. It was overshadowed by Arne Jacobsen's great success with the Swan and Egg Chairs. After Ditzel's death in 2006, the chair was relaunched through the efforts of her daughter, Dennie. It was named the Dennie Chair as it is Dennie's childhood cosy chair, where she sat safely and had stories read aloud.
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Dennie Chair | steel, plywood shell, fabric upholstery
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arne jacobsen and fritz hansen
We are in the Fritz Hansen showroom. In the basement we have seen all the variations of The Ant, along with a great many photographs of all the Arne Jacobsen models which have been produced at Fritz Hansen's – the oldest in 1936, the last in 1971...Bård Henrikson, you observed Arne Jacobsen from a distance since 1954 until his death in 1971. You have also exhibited his things, how was your relationship with him? There was no direct cooperation. I only heard from Arne Jacobsen when he disliked something that I had done – and he often did. He had very strong views on how an exhibition should be presented – and that was one of my responsibilities. I remember when The Swan and The Egg were to be exhibited, I believe it was in 1958 – I had upholstered the chairs with red fabric, and he blew his top – he found it so ugly and vulgar. In any case he could not stand red and certianly not along with aluminum, as he made clear. But to go as far as to prohibit The Swan in red was nonethelss remarkable. He was extremely conscious of colour – grey and green – here we still talk of typical Arne Jacobsen colours. Those were the sort of communications I used to have with him. To me, he never seemed affable and kind, rather I found him a bit abrupt. But also rather shy. He knew what he wanted, or at least that was the impression he gave. I don't remember him ever making a positive comment on anything I have made.
He was much better at criticising. And he always prevailed. In later years I have been thinking that it was not wise of him, since I was a great admirer of his. He was indeed annoying, and the most annoying thing was that he was right. He had an opinion on everything...? You bet, and it was a good one! He was extremely knowledgeable about everything he did. The exhibitions he was in charge of, e.g. the presentation of The Ant at The Danish Museum of Decorative Art in 1952 – I saw it – it was absolutely marvellous, so it was only natural that he reacted against my rather amateurish endeavours. But at that time I could not see that he was right, as a young man one defends one's genius. He had a remarkable gift for staging, and he was very conscious about it. He was not concerned with all the business considerations in connection with a presentation, only with the visual impact, and here he did not compromise. I still remember the showing of the Series 7 at the exhibition H55 in Helsingborg where Arne Jacobsen was in charge of the Danish pavilion. It was magnificent. There is naturally always something to be learned from such an experience and I learned an incredible amount. Looking back, I can't even say that Arne Jacobsen taught me things for better or for worse – I have learned from him only for the better. It was only his attitude which could have been more positive. I have always
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Arne Jacobsen's death. Naturally that kind of product has been and still is a challenge for a factory like Fritz Hansen's, since the benefit of Arne Jacobsen's designs has a corresponding disadvantage – we are liable to consider all new designs in relation to his. // Bård Henrikson is an interior architect by training. since graduating in 1954, he has worked for Fritz Hanses with exhibitions and the graphic design of catalogues and brochures. Bård Henrikson is a driving force behind the Fritz Hansen collection of the company's design classics now being established.
A Conversation with B ård H enrikson // by p o u l e r i k t ø j n e r
regarded Arne Jacobsen as being closely related to his own era. It is a fact that some artefacts seem in a way timeless, whereas others are dated. While Arne Jacobsen's straight lines in architecture were erased when postmodernism began to prevail – they may well return now – his furniture has been in fashion all the time. When first produced, it seemed very sophisticated, but it is in a certain sense undated. It is exceptional that one chair – or one type of chair – has been in fashion for over forty years. I can only compare Arne Jacobsen's chairs with the Thonet chairs, which seem to have a similar quality. They fit in and may be used for almost any purpose, and one cannot date them, the Thonet chair has been produced for 150 years, and I believe that this will also be the case with The Ant. When it was first produced for Fritz Hansen's, no one had ever dreamed that it would become a bestseller. At the factory one could see that this was something special, one believed in it – and it was a success from the very start, even though it is rumoured otherwise. Instantly it was exhibited worldwide, and was given a separate room at the annual exhibition of Danish design. This chair was new, simple and expressive. It was small and modest and at the same time it expressed so much. From a functional point of view, the three legs were naturally a disadvantage, and for a long time it has been available in four legs, but only officially after
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1957 //
a rn e jaco bs en
/// Swan Chair
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In 1958, Arne Jacobsen designed the Swan chair for the lobby and lounge areas of the Royal Hotel in Copenhagen. An elegant and organic shape ideal for lounge and waiting areas as well as the home. Jacobsen managed to create a chair which not only included the seat and back, but also the arm rests in one piece, one form: a shell.
Swan Chair | aluminum, polystyrene shell, fabric upholstery
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1958 //
Egg Chair | aluminum, polystyrene shell, leather upholstery
a rn e jaco bs en
/// Egg Chair The Egg is constructed like The Swan and must be regarded as its armchair parallel. One of the intentions with this chair was that the rather tall shell should constitute a shelter against the surroundings, just as a number of chairs would compose their own space in a big room as, for example, the lobby in The Royal Hotel. The chair rotates, so the person sitting in it could easily adjust it to any desired direction. Arne Jacobsen had originally conceived the chair as leather-covered, however, out of considerations for the price, he was forced to accept a cloth-covered version. Because the shell is so light, this large chair only weighs about seven kilos.
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"I remember the first time we drove to his summer house in Tissø, to work on The Egg, we had put the plaster model into the back of my car, and then the whole weekend we added and removed plaster. Back and forth, like classical sculptors." //
sandor per jesi
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1947 //
Peacock Chair PP 550 | solid ash, woven cord Trinidad Chair | cherrywood, chrome
hans wegner
The debut of the Peacock Chair at the Cabinetmakers Guild of Copenhagen was a turning point in Wegner's career. From then on his work was in high demand.
/// Peaco ck Chair
1993 // nanna ditzel
/// Trinidad Chair
The Trinidad Chair was an immediate success for both public venues and private homes, and soon it achieved status as a modern classic. Ditzel's source of inspiration for Trinidad came from the Caribbean's Victorian architecture. She was intrigued by the elaborate fretsaw wood carvings that would break up building facades into light and shadow. This was known as the Gingerbread technique. As such, the chair plays gently with the sunlight, casting dancing shadows on the floor and walls. As the sun crosses the sky, Trinidad changes both its own and the room’s appearance in a shadow play that, at one and the same time, makes the chair both transparent and striking.
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1958 // a rn e jaco bs en
/// Drop Chair
/// But ter fly Chair
Butterfly Chair | bowed fibre panel, metal frame Drop Chair| steel, polystyrene shell, fabric upholstery
nanna ditzel
Jacobsen's Drop Chair was designed for the restaurant at The Royal Hotel in Copenhagen. it is a small chair with a big personality. The design of the back combines a warm embrace with freedom of movement, resulting in a surprising level of comfort.
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1990 //
Ditzel's Butterfly Chair is a vibrant, dramatic, red and black piece that cleverly evokes inspiration from the natural world.
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1953 // hans wegner
/// Valet Chair Valet Chair | solid pine, solid teak
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by h a n s w e g n e r
'It's a lifelong endeavour to understand the nature of materials. Wood is a part of almost all my designs. But you have to have grown up with wood to understand it, and you need a feel for it to use it correctly. Two of the countries that have the deepest understanding ofwood are Japan and Denmark. The uses of wood here are in Japan have so much in common. Perhaps that is why my furniture sells so well in Japan. Different sorts of wood suit different purposes. Beech, for example, becomes a bit boring in large surfaces but it is an ideal constructional wood, for example in the Thonet chair. And the Thonet chair is ideal for production from steam-formed beech. Steam forming is no very precise technique, and the chair's curved forms are well suited to absorbing inaccuracies in production. But you must never forget that wood is a living material. And if it has to be accurate, then lamination and gluing is better than steam forming. But you must take care to arrange the veneers in the order in which they were cut. The combination of hard and soft is another principle for choice of material. One often combines, for example, hard and soft sorts of wood in drawers and runners. But choice of wood is also something of a fashion. I don't like to say so, but that's how it is. Look at the Valet Chair. I designed it in pine and teak, but Ejnar Pedersen loves maple, so he makes it in maple. It is so overly beautiful, too.'
A Conversation on Woo d //
use wood where it is best used
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1952 // nanna ditzel
/// Fo am Cushions
For Ditzel, experimentation was always on the agenda. One day Nanna and Jørgen Ditzel were in the mood for fun and began counting all the table and chair legs in their home, then they jumped up on the dining-room-table and thought that reality looked much better from up there. You got rid of all those legs and instead experienced the surfaces. The idea was that you would sit well and lie well at different levels. These sitting rings and supports for knee and neck were constructed using foam rubber.
Foam Cushions | foam rubber, fabric upholstery
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"I am very much a visual observer. I experience shape and colours directly. I find it more difficult to use the things I read." //
nanna ditzel
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1949 // hans wegner
/// Folding Chair Folding Chair | solid oak, woven cane Prototype Dining Chair | oregon pine
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55 1962 // nanna ditzel
Only a total of four Protoype Dining Chairs were produced. It was exhibited at the Cabinetmakers Guild Exhibition at the Decorative Arts Museum of Copenhagen, Denmark.
/// Dining Chair
The Folding Chair is a lightweight chair with a woven cane seat. Wegner created a hook so the chair could be hung on the wall, a way to save space.
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1929 // a rn e jaco bs en
"You will soon find that I am a bit obsessive about my work. And that is a little sad, one often feels strangely restricted, not finding time to simmer, although one actually has many interests."
/// Black Slug Chair
//
arne jacobsen
Black Slug Chair | wicker Jacobsen submitted a design for an easy chair to the competition organized by the Association of Wicker Goods Makers in 1929 and was awarded third prize. The quality and this potential of this light, cheap material caught the attention of architects of the time, who began to explore the possibilities it offers. The chair consists of a wheel-like semicircular structure and a single continuous element to form the back and the seat.
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/// Chaise Lounge
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Chaise Lounge | maple, fabric upholstery
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1950 // hans wegner
The Flag Halyard Chair is made in chromium-plated and painted steel pipes, with all its surfaces in woven flag halyard and complete with a long-haired sheepskin; it, too, is a chair without ancestors. Woven surfaces, by the way, form a theme that Wegner has pursued in many of his chairs.
The Giraffe Chair was designed for the restaurant at The Royal Hotel in Copenhagen. It was never put into serial production and is therefore produced only in limited numbers.
/// Flag H alyard Chair
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61 1959 // a rn e jaco bs en
/// Giraf f e Chair
Flag Halyard Chair | steel, woven flag halyard, fabric upholstery Giraffe Chair | plywood, elm edging, fabric upholstery
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1957 // nanna ditzel
/// H anging Egg Chair The Hanging Egg Chair, to this day, is a familiar and current design. It has enjoyed praise worldwide since its creation. The wicker furniture has its own culture and its a fine thing to sit down beside the basket-weaver and make a chair.
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Hanging Egg Chair | wicker
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1963 // hans wegner
Wegner preferred to work in solid wood, but occasionally he explored the use of bent plywood. Sometimes called the "smiling chair," his Threelegged Shell Chair achieves a floating lightness due to its wing-like seat and the arching curves of its tapered legs. And while it stands on only three legs, this chair has an
absolute stability that could only be achieved by someone with Wegner's expertise in cabinetmaking and architecture. Wegner's belief that a chair "should be beautiful from all sides and angles" is especially evident with his Three-legged Shell Chair. This comfortable masterpiece is a marvel of grace and beauty.
/// Thre e - le gged Shell Chair
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"The laminated constructions and the shells contain so many possibilities that I had to make a choice. It was not possible to work with solid wood and with laminated constructions at the same time. I chose solid wood." //
hans wegner
Three-legged Shell Chair | bent plywood, fabric upholstery
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/// B ench for Two
Bench for Two | plywood, silkscreen printed
1989 //
Ditzel unites the sculptural with the functional in this Bench for Two. The innovative design won a Japanese design competition almost immediately. The elegant back with its striking geometric decoration is made of 1.5 mm aeroplane plywood veneer – an ultra-thin material that is strong, light and flexible. The bench is accompanied with a table in the shape of a quarter-circle, so that it fits compactly with the bench.
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1956 // a rn e jaco bs en
The 3300 Series is not only modular but also Jacobsen's most architectural group of pieces, since there are two distinct parts of the design: firstly, the support, with its straight lines that meet at oblique angles; and secondly, the back, seat and arms that form a single unit.
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/// S eries 330 0
Series 3300 | steel, fabric upholstery
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1996 //
The Conch Chair is a masterly folded chair, inspired by the close-layered folds in a conch shell, an experiment where Ditzel tried out something that was almost impossible.
nanna ditzel
/// Conch Chair Conch Chair | plywood Papa Bear Chair | solid teak, fabric upholstery
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71 1951 // hans wegner
/// Pap a B ear Chair
The Papa Bear Chair is an iconic, timeless design. It received its namesake after a critic commented that its armrests were like "great bear paws embracing you from behind." It is one of the most popular Wegner designs of all time.
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Hans Wegner sitting on his Ox-chair | 1955
chairmen
the user is part of the design
Writers often comment on a design as if it were a work of art, but this is to get things back to front. What distinguishes design from art is that the former is always to solve a problem by creating a tool that is a good tool for the user. Good interaction with the user is a theme running through all Wegner's designs, a point on which he has never compromised. 'A chair is only finished when someone sits in it', Wegner comments. 'That's why
state a theme and m aintain it
'The important thing is to state a theme', continues Wegner, 'and to take it all the way. If I see a small part of a leg I can see which chair it belongs it. I can recognize it among a hundred others. The task is to get something expressed in wood, that is logical in wood. It is often something deriving from a functional idea. The Peacock Chair did not get its back to resemble the tail of the peacock. The flat part of the back slats were simply placed where the shoulder blades touched the back. A theme lies first and foremost in the construction but can also lie in the detailing. I have designed several different Chinese Chairs with the same construction but with widely differing expressions. For example, The PP Chinese Chair is more straightforward than the more exclusive and refined Fritz Hansen Chinese Chair. But each is logical, and one cannot combine them and use the legs of one with the upper part of the other. We must also take care that everything doesn't get so dreadfully serious. We must play – but we must play seriously.'
by j e n s b e r n s e n
'A construction must be both neat and right. But making it requires that you know why it looks as it does, for otherwise you don't make it', says Wegner. 'Things have to make sense. You could cut a screw thread around the Round Tower in Copenhagen, but who on earth would?' says Wegner. On the other hand, a well-thoughtout construction can be its own decoration. More than anything else, a good construction can tell a story about the idea embodied in design. Telling a story through a construction includes making clear what one wants to emphasize, what the point of the construction is. It can, for example, be necessary joints that are emphasized through the use of wood in contrasting colours. Conversely it may be desirable to make joints as discreet as possible, for example a dowel wedge that tapers off and does not show, if joints are carefully glued together.
models are so important. Even a primitive model makes it possible to test a new chair straight away: Are the armrests or handles where they ought to be? Do they slope as they should? Does the back follow the backbone along the critical few centimetres? Does the chair allow the person to move in it, slide forwards and backwards a little, and turn?'
Goo d Conversations with H ans We gner //
show how it is m ade
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bibliogr aphy
Bensen, Jens. Hans J Wegner. Copenhagen, Denmark: Danish Design Centre, 1998. Print. Henrik Sten Møller, eds. Munkeruphus. Copenhagen, Denmark: Illemann Tryk, 1992. Print. Henrik Sten Møller, eds. Tanker Bliver Ting. Copenhagen, Denmark: Illemann Tryk, 1994. Print. Henrik Sten Møller, eds. Motion and Beauty: The Book of Nanna Ditzel. Copenhagen, Denmark: Rhodos, 1998. Print. Poul Erik Tøjner, and Kjeld Vindum. Arne Jacobsen: Architect and Designer. Copenhagen, Denmark: Danish Design Centre, 1994. Print. Sandra Dachs, Patricia de Muga, and Laura Garcia Hintze, eds. Objects and Furniture Design: Arne Jacobsen. Barcelona, Spain: Ediciones Poligrafa, 2010. Print.
Book design by Valerie Tang RISD Fall 2014
I had three chairs in my house; one for solitude, t wo for friendship, three for societ y.
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chairmen
h e n ry dav i d t h o r e a u