Paul Warchol, Room 606, SAS Hotel, 2001, Film photograph.          

Paul Warchol, Room 606, SAS Hotel, 2001, Film photograph

Verner Panton, Panton Chair (Orange), designed 1967. Photograph courtesy of Michael Whiteway.

Louis Schnakenburg, Marianne Panton on the Panton chair, Photograph, Brahl Fotografi. 

Poul Henningsen, PH Contrast lamp, designed 1958. Photograph courtesy of Michael Whiteway.

Viggo Vagnby, Poster “Wonderful Copenhagen”, designed 1953.

Arne Jacobsen (1902–1971)
Manufactured by Fritz Hansen (est 1872)

Egg Chair

1958 (designed), aluminium, leather
on loan from a private collection

Sculptural, ergonomic, and technically innovative, the Egg Chair is an archetypal piece of furniture, both in Arne Jacobsen’s career and in wider design history. The chair maximised the possibilities of new foam moulding processes invented in the mid-1950s that enabled forms to transcend the structural limits of laminated wood. The three sets of sweeping curves unifying the chair’s seat, back and arms enfold the human body and create a space within a space. Resembling abstract sculptures as well as expressing elements of the space-age fantasies popular in the ‘Space Race’ period, the Egg Chair was an immediate pop-culture sensation and has since appeared in films such as in Zoolander, Men in Black and in the television series Big Brother.

Komplot Design (born 1953)
Poul Christiansen (born 1947)
Manufactured by HAY (est 2002)

Little NOBODY

2007 (designed)
PET felt, polymer fibre, recycled material from plastic bottles

Deceptively simple in its appearance, the Little NOBODY is an innovative re-vision of a chair’s construction. The first industrially produced chair ever to be made out of solely textile construction, the Little NOBODY chair is also radical in that it is entirely made out of recycled plastic water bottles that have been converted into PET felt. Moulded in a single piece in a thermos-pressing process, the Little NOBODY has no frame and its construction requires neither glues, resins, screws nor reinforcements.

Kaj Bojesen (1886–1958)
Manufactured by Kaj Bojesen (1886–1958)

The Monkey

1951 (designed), teak and limba
on loan from a private collection

Playful, flexible and highly crafted, Bojesen’s The Monkey invites imagination, physical interaction, and sensory engagement. After the war, Kaj Bojesen started designing stylised wooden exotic animals that enabled people to fantasise about imaginary lands faraway from post-war Europe. Bojesen’s Monkey emerged in the same context as Curious George, which was published in Danish in 1957. Comprising 32 wooden components made out of teak and white limba wood, The Monkey appeals to motor and sensory development: all parts except the head move and rotate; it can sit, stand, or it can hang or be used as a hook.

Ole Jensen (born 1958)
Manufactured by Normann Copenhagen (est 1999)

Washing-up Bowl and Brush

1996 (designed), rubber, beech, natural bristles
on loan from the Designmuseum Danmark

With the Washing-up Bowl and Brush Ole Jensen takes a mundane, unglamorous household task and transforms it into a playful, vibrant and sensuous design experience. Jensen’s washing-up bowl is a bold, sculptural embrace of functionality. Made from synthetic rubber, the material is pleasant to touch, water-resistant and reduces the clanging sound of rattling dishes. Although the scrubbing brush signals its intended use, the washing bowl has multiple potential uses: toy basket, a footbath, a pot for flowers, or, in the case of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, a champagne cooler.

Jens Quistgaard (1919–2008)
Manufactured by Dansk International Designs (est 1954)
New York, United States of America

Casserole from ‘Kobenstyle’-Line

1954 (designed), enamelled steel
on loan from a private collection

Kobenstyle is the result of a collaboration with an American businessman named Ted Nierenberg, who strove to build a business that was ‘creative, customer-oriented and fun’. Mass-produced in Denmark for a specifically American post-war market, Kobenstyle was marketed for its quintessentially ‘Scandinavian’ use of materials, efficiency, ease of use and functionality for the burgeoning middle-class home. Although production halted in 1984, the line has enjoyed a recent resurgence, appearing in television shows such as Mad Men to illustrate the stylistic trends in American homes in the post-war period.   

Ursula Munch-Petersen (born 1937)
Manufactured by Kähler Design (est 1839)

Ursula Porcelain Set

1991 (designed), stoneware
on loan from the Designmuseum Danmark

The Ursula Porcelain Set is a radical revision of the traditional 12-piece dinner set. Munch-Petersen envisaged the 23-part service as a modest family of individual pieces, which people could buy as they needed them. The set’s multiple shapes and colours make it impossible to buy a complete service in a single colour; rather, the focus is on individualisation and variation. Exuberantly colourful, playfully sculptural and functionally flexible, Ursula reflects the increasingly autonomous, diverse and nomadic aspects of everyday contemporary life.

Ursula Munch-Petersen (born 1937)
Manufactured by Kähler Design (est 1839)

Ursula Porcelain Set

1991 (designed), stoneware
on loan from the Designmuseum Danmark

Ursula Munch-Petersen (born 1937)
Manufactured by Kähler Design (est 1839)

Ursula Porcelain Set

1991 (designed), stoneware
on loan from the Designmuseum Danmark

Ursula Munch-Petersen (born 1937)
Manufactured by Kähler Design (est 1839)

Ursula Porcelain Set

1991 (designed), stoneware
on loan from the Designmuseum Danmark

Ursula Munch-Petersen (born 1937)
Manufactured by Kähler Design (est 1839)

Ursula Porcelain Set

1991 (designed), stoneware
on loan from the Designmuseum Danmark