The Rise of Danish Design

The Rise of Danish Design

What do the Swan, the Egg, and the Ant have in common? All are chairs designed by the legendary Danish designer Arne Jacobsen. His furniture designs, along with those of numerous other Danes from Hans J. Wegner to Finn Juhl, have made their way into living rooms, offices, and museums around the world.

The timeless allure of Danish design, which had its heyday in the 1950s, has ensured its enduring success. Lego is as popular now—even amid the modern computer mania—as when it was first designed back in the '50s. Bang & Olufsen radios from the late 1940s look positively futuristic alongside their blocky counterparts from the same era. And Danish furniture, from Jacobsen's stylishly simple chairs to Wegner's rounded, organic furniture are still displayed in design showrooms across the globe as the picture of modernity.

Whereas plenty of '50s designs have made a comeback for their kitsch value, Danish furniture never went out of style. The reason lies in its roots. Danish furniture designs are grounded in early-19th-century classicism, characterized by simple lines and a deliberate lack of decoration. This led many Danish designers to later embrace functionalism, which became the cornerstone of Danish design. Faced with this rapidly growing design movement, socialist Denmark did what it does best, and initiated various government aid programs to support new designers. In 1924 the Royal Academy of Fine Arts founded its furniture design school, appointing renowned designer and architect Kaare Klimt as one of its first lecturers.

The rallying cry behind Danish designs in the 1940s and '50s continued to be "form follows function." Danish designers elevated the concept of functionalism to a new level, basing their designs wholly on the human body, and all its infinite needs and variations. "A chair is only finished when someone sits in it," said Wegner, summing up the era's design ethic with his signature simplicity. A cabinet maker by trade, Wegner is credited with creating the chair (called, appropriately enough, "The Chair") that first introduced Danish design to an international audience. In 1950 the American magazine Interiors featured on its cover Wegner's Round Chair (as it was originally titled), naming it the world's most beautiful chair. Kennedy and Nixon each sat in one of these Wegner chairs during their televised presidential debates, resulting in more American commissions than Wegner and his round-the-clock factory workers could handle. Denmark became the darling of the international design world, a position that it's held onto ever since.

The use of organic materials is a natural offshoot of functionalism, and Danish designers were early masters in employing wood—from rich mahogany to pale beech—in their designs. "The feeling for materials is universal," says Wegner. "Love of wood is something that all of mankind has in common."

For all the international success of Danish furniture, it's the Danes themselves who are its greatest fans. Settle into the well-appointed living room of many a Dane, and chances are that you're sitting on a Wegner chair at a table designed by Finn Juhl; a Poul Henningsen lamp might be lighting up the room, and you will likely be slicing your Danish meatballs with Jacobsen-designed cutlery.