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Arne Jacobsen
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Arne Jacobsen 1902 - 1971 With a diploma in masonry from the Technical School in Copenhagen where he was born, Arne Jacobsen moved on to study Architecture at the Royal Danish Academy of Arts. In 1930 he won a competition to design 'The House of the Future', and immediately opened his own architectural practice. Here he began showing all the energy and imagination with which he was to continue pursuing and pushing past the accepted design norms of the period. Together with his colleague Flemming Lassen he became totally engrossed in projects, taking on the whole building design including the complete interior, sometimes even down to the teaspoons, knives and forks. After spending 5 years of designing textiles and wallpaper in Sweden during the 2nd world War, he returned to Denmark to take on the Munkegard School Project, where in true Jacobsen tradition, he designed the furniture as well, receiving international recognition for his design perspective of the 'Tongue' chair, essentially a view of furniture through the eyes of children. Later pieces followed the same theme, including his 3 legged stackable 'Ant' chair which continued to evolve onwards into the most successful 'Series 7' with four legged and swivel versions. Jacobsen's philosophy was that a design should initially capture the awareness of the audience, then seek to combine beauty, practicality and function, qualities rarely achieved in unison. In his 'Swan' family of chairs, it was recognised that here indeed he had achieved all of these design criteria. The 'Egg'; 'Pot' and 'Drop' armchairs of the series, ushered in a new kind of free form classical model, uniquely allowing a variety of sitting positions. |
Modern Furniture Designers
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