06/12/2011

Hans J. Wegner, Danish Furniture Designer

Well this is what I like to find, a website full of inspiring imagery by one of my favourite furniture designers Hans J. Wegner. Hans was born in 1914 in Tønder, Denmark and was the son of a shoemaker originally starting out as an apprentice cabinetmaker before working as an architect in 1938. At a young age Wegner collaborated with Danish architect and designer Arne Jacbosen, an individual who we will save for another day, on some furniture design for the Århus city hall in 1940 which really helped him mix in with master craftsmen and to learn the trade.

Other Danish furniture designers, such as Arne Jacobsen who we mentioned above, were known to dabble in a lot of other creative arts such as architecture and product design, but Hans had quite a fascination with furniture design and natural materials in-particular. Some refer to him as the “master of the chair”, designing more than 500 different variants, a lot of them are considered masterpieces of chair design and are collected still to this day the world over. His work didn’t go unnoticed either, he received practically every major recognition given to a designer and almost every design museum in the world includes his furniture in their collections.

What I really like about Hans is the ideals that he stood by and the profound quality that he expected in every piece of work that he produced, particularly in the early days with his bespoke furniture. Straight away he took the classic and original techniques that he learnt from his apprenticeship and from other master cabinetmakers, such as joinery techniques and a deep respect for wood and it’s characteristics, and applied them to his own work crafting out a natural minimalistic style that is truly functional and stripped down to it’s bare necessities.

Now these images are all from the Carl Hansen website who make Hans J. Wegner furniture in their factory. Take for example the CH24, otherwise know as The Wishbone Chair, with it’s lovely curved top rail, to this day this piece still goes through more than 100 manual operations. The collaboration between both the company and the designer is really an incredible story that deserves to be highlighted, I would recommend heading towards the link below to find out more. They’ve got so much information available to read and the photography is top notch.

www.carlhansen.com