ARNE JACOBSON
Arne Jacobsen is the Danish architect who mastered the most personal and successful interpretation of international functionalism. His architecture includes a considerable number of ground breaking buildings in both Denmark, Germany and Great Britain. Arne Jacobsen initially trained as a mason before studying architecture at the Royal Danish Academy of Arts, Copenhagen, graduating in 1927. During this time Jacobsen designed a chair and exhibited at “Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes” in 1925 that got him a silver medal. His fame as chair designer started off at that time and he is still regarded as the best and most innovative chair designer in the world.
From 1927 until 1930, he worked in the architectural office of Paul Holsoe. In 1930, he established his own design office, which he headed until his death in 1971, and worked independently as an architect, interior, furniture, textile and ceramics designer.
He was professor of Architecture at the Royal Academy of Arts, Copenhagen, from 1956 onwards. His best known projects are St. Catherine's College, Oxford, and the SAS Hotel, Copenhagen. The design of the SAS Royal Hotel in Copenhagen, built from 1956 to 1960, is considered one of Arne Jacobsen´s masterpieces. He was given the opportunity to design what has been called "the world's first designer hotel". He designed everything from the building and its furniture, including the iconic Egg and Swan chairs, to the ashtrays sold in the souvenir shop and the airport buses, lamps, fabrics, and also cutlery, glasses, and door handles. As significant counterpoints to the stiffly upright, monumental building his easy chair, the "Swan" and the "Egg", stand out as organic sculptures.
The Egg was originally designed in 1958 for the lobby of the SAS Royal Hotel in Copenhagen. The Egg's curved shape was quite unusual for its time and it came about because of an equally unusual reason: Jacobsen wanted the interior of the hotel to be a direct contrast to the modernist exterior. The Egg Chair was the most outstanding part of his entire hotel design and has become a design classic with global success. It broke all design conventions with its curving shape, which Jacobsen was able to achieve by moulding the inner structure out of foam and covering it with upholstery. Comfort is the primary benefit and the main selling point of an egg chair. It has high sides and a cradling, cushioned seat for prolonged sitting.
His practice of architecture and design show how well Jacobsen combined the use of different materials - sandstone, types of glass, painted metalwork and stainless steel. His work is known to have instilled a humane character to the international modern movement that is being followed today. The Egg chair by Arne Jacobsen is a masterpiece.
Arne Jacobsen´s designs came into existence as brief sketches and were then modelled in plaster or cardboard in full size.
He kept on working until his revolutionary ideas for new furniture had been realized at the utmost perfection. The "Ant" from 1952 became the starting point of his world fame as a furniture designer and became the first of a number of lightweight chairs with seat and back in one piece of moulded wood.
Model "3107" from 1955 is often merely called " The Number Seven Chair". It was launched in beech, black and white. The colour scale has through the years been further developed by a.o. the Danish architect Verner Panton and the Danish painter Poul Gernes 1925-96 and today includes a variety of colours in lacquer or lazure as well as beech, maple, ash, and cherry. "3107" has become the most important success in Danish furniture history - manufactured in more than 5 million copies.
During the 1960's Arne Jacobsen turned to forms as the circle, cylinder, triangle, and cubus. On the whole, his mind as an architect began to influence his design. Both the stainless steel tableware set "Cylinda-Line" and the lamp series "AJ" reflect this. Common to all Arne Jacobsen´s designs is that they have become international design classics. Arne Jacobsen also served as a professor of architecture at the Skolen for Brugskunst in Copenhagen until his death in 1971.
Arne Jacobsen added a humane element to his work. He had always been quite sensitive about proportions,
“The proportion is exactly what makes the beautiful ancient Egyptian temples […] and if we look at some of the most admired buildings of the Renaissance and Baroque, we notice that they were all well-proportioned. Here is the basic thing”
THE EGG
1958
Arne Jacobsen designed the Egg chair for the lobby and reception areas at Copenhagen’s SAS Royal Hotel.
