Arne Jacobsen

Background

Arne Jacobsen (1902–1971) was a Danish architect and furniture designer born in Copenhagen. He studied architecture at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts (1924–1927), won a silver medal for a chair at the 1925 Paris exhibition, and opened his own office in 1930 after winning the "House of the Future" competition with Flemming Lassen.

Signature Style

A pioneer of Danish functionalism, Jacobsen designed buildings and everything inside them — furniture, lighting, textiles, cutlery. Fritz Hansen describes a process centred on strict consideration of detail, hand-painted watercolour sketches and constant refinement: "as thin as possible and never in the middle."

Notable Works

• Buildings: Bellevue Sea Bath and Bellavista (Klampenborg), Aarhus City Hall, SAS Royal Hotel, St Catherine's College Oxford, Danmarks Nationalbank
• Furniture (Fritz Hansen, from 1934): Ant™, Series 7™, Egg™ (1958), Swan™, Drop™
• Lighting: developed with Louis Poulsen

Legacy

His simple, well-designed chairs enjoyed worldwide success and remain in production; his work shaped Danish design for more than half of the 20th century and influenced architects and designers around the world.