Articles

Hans Wegner - Brilliant Scandinavian Designer

by Richard Guilfoyle

2007 marked the death of a great Danish furniture (möbler) designer, Hans J. Wegner. He was born in 1914 in Tonger, Denmark, and grew to be the most famous and successful member of the Danish Modern school of design. His style consists of clean, simple lines that meld together to be beautiful and dynamic.

Hans Wegner started his career as a woodworker. Unfortunately, he was called to serve his country. He continued his training at a school that specialized in technical skills. Then he became a student at the Copenhagen Architectural Academy as well as the School of Arts and Crafts for additional training. Later, he studied with the masters Erik Moller and Arne Jacobsen.

The thing he was most proficient at was building chairs. He viewed these items not only in terms of their functionality, but as sculpture. This philosophy extended to design, such that there should be no "back" to the structure. No matter which way one gazed at the chair, it would be engaging to look at. Not only should the finished product be fluid, it should never be boring. The construction would involve a variety of shapes and parts.

He extended his thoughts beyond the fundamental style. Among the chairs to arise were the "peacock" style as well as complementary tables and furniture (möbler). He experimented with the comfort of his own body to style a valet piece. After his children were of age, he and his daughter worked together and are credited with creating the pole light in the last quarter of the twentieth century.

Much of the furniture Hans J. Wegner is renowned for are chairs. One of his better-known designs was the ch 25 from 1950. He crafted four chairs with woven seats for Carl Hansen and Son, but this design was unique in having rope weaving in both the seat and the back of the chair, along with engineering that had the front legs being straight and bearing most of the load. The rear legs were angled, allowing greater stability than most other lounge chairs of its type.

Chair 25 was made in several different woods and had a paper rope used for the back and seat. Another interesting part of the design is that the side of the seat is one continuous curved piece that becomes the back legs. Many people think Chair 25 looks a lot like wicker furnishings, and it is often used with it. However, Wegner's chair is in a whole other league from flimsy wicker.

Wegner did not name his designs, preferring only to assign them catalogue numbers. One Wegner model, the PP203, gained international exposure when a television network purchase a dozen of them, and they were subsequently seen in the Kennedy-Nixon 1960 election debates. They chose the design because of its clean lines, and simple design, but the chairs are also quite comfortable.

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Chairs are what Hans J Wegner is best known for rather than any other different furniture (annorlunda mobler) he had designed, especially ch 25 (or Chair 25) which was created in 1950. He designed four chairs with woven style seats for Carl Hansen and Son; however this was the only one with rope weaving in the seat and the back. It is also uniquely engineered with the back legs are angled and the load bearing front legs are straight. This lounge chair is much more stable than other chairs of that type that have been constructed.

Published December 10th, 2007

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