Mogens Lassen

Background

Mogens Lassen (20 February 1901 in Copenhagen - 14 December 1987) was a Danish architect who also designed furniture and household objects. Danish Wikipedia calls him a central figure of Danish functionalism. He served a mason's apprenticeship from 1919 to 1923 and learned his profession in Copenhagen drawing offices, longest with Tyge Hvass from 1925 to 1934. A stay in Paris in 1927-28 introduced him to Le Corbusier's ideas, and he set up his own office in 1935. His brother Flemming Lassen was also an architect.

Signature Style

Carl Hansen & Søn describes his architecture as rooted in cubist ideals inspired by Le Corbusier, and his furniture as expressing ideas through both natural and man-made materials. Its Egyptian Table page adds that Lassen and his contemporaries put function first, with an approach strongly influenced by Kaare Klint.

Notable Works

• Houses on Sølystvej in Klampenborg (1936-39) and the Systemhuset apartment building in Ordrup (1937), both in the Danish Wikipedia list
• Steel furniture from the early 1930s
• Egyptian Table, a folding round table first shown in 1940
• Kubus candleholder, designed in 1962

Legacy

The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts awarded him the C.F. Hansen Medal in 1971. Carl Hansen & Søn still produces the Egyptian Table as ML10097, and Audo Copenhagen sells the Kubus candleholder.