Arne Jacobsen

A natural candidate for Poligrafa’s Design by Architects series, Arne Jacobsen (1902-1971) was concerned with every detail of the environments he designed, from the basic structure right down to the door handles. When he designed St Catherine’s College for Oxford University in 1960, even the height of the cedar trees he planted and the varieties of fish he installed in the ponds were of urgent concern; there was no place, in Jacobsen’s thinking, where architecture left off and design took over, and today he is equally famed for his achievements in both domains. In the realm of furniture design, such creations as the Egg, Series 7, Ant and Swan chairs have become icons of Danish design. A sinuous organic line and strong sculptural presence are the foremost qualities of the Jacobsen look. Not one straight line disturbs the soft curves of these creations. This heretical departure from the prevailing hard geometrical paradigm of the time is one of the cornerstones of Arne Jacobsen’s furniture and the source of his importance today.