One of Denmark's best-known and most respected architects, Arne Jacobsen, has become synonymous with modernism throughout the world.
Designer bio
His precise yet expressive aesthetic continues to serve as a
source of inspiration for contemporary designers, and his furniture
designs, most created in connection with specific architectural
projects, continue to excite both in Denmark and abroad.
Above all else, Jacobsen viewed himself as an architect. Today,
the National Bank of Denmark, the Bellavista housing estate north
of Copenhagen, the Bellevue Theater north of Copenhagen and the
Aarhus City Hall attest to his mastery of this realm. His extensive
portfolio of functionalist buildings includes everything from small
holiday homes to large projects, with everything, down to the
cutlery and the door handles, bearing his personal touch. One of
the best-known examples of Jacobsen's work is the SAS Royal Hotel
in Copenhagen (now the Radisson Blu Royal Hotel), where he was
responsible not only for the architecture, but also for all
interior design elements.
While architecture was Jacobsen's primary focus, he also worked
with lighting, textiles, furniture and industrial design,
approaching all projects with the same uncompromising perfectionism
that defined his entire prolific career. Striving for an ideal
balance of organic simplicity and functionalism, he considered
every element down to the smallest details, and constantly drew
inspiration from nature, whose organic shapes informed several of
his furniture pieces. Jacobsen's great love of flowers and
landscape gardening also manifested itself in a number of
watercolours, wallpapers and fabrics.
Jacobsen initially trained as a mason and, after graduating from
a technical college in Copenhagen in 1924, began his studies at the
Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. Here, lecturers and leading
designers such as Kaare Klint and Kay Fisker, known for their
rigorous design approach, came to deeply influence Jacobsen's work.
Jacobsen graduated with an architecture degree in 1927, having
already begun to establish himself as a talented architect. In the
mid-1920s, he made his mark with designs and ideas that later
contributed to the end of romantic neoclassicism - a period of
which Jacobsen was a child.
Jacobsen truly made a name for himself when, together with his
friend and fellow student Flemming Lassen, he won a competition to
design the House of the Future in Copenhagen in 1929. He went on to
design a number of villas before creating the functionalist
Bellavista housing estate, which was built in 1932-1934 and
strongly inspired by the French-Swiss architect Le Corbusier. From
then on, Jacobsen's career gathered momentum with large buildings
and, later, with furniture and interior design.
Towards the end of World War II, Jacobsen's Jewish background
forced him and his second wife, textile printer Jonna Møller, to
flee to Sweden, where Jacobsen's design work included upholstery
fabrics with naturalistic patterns. On his return to Denmark, he
designed a number of iconic buildings in both Denmark and abroad
from his own studio, while also adding legendary chairs to his
extensive portfolio. During this time, Jacobsen also created lamps,
cutlery, the Cylinda Line tableware, and the Vola kitchen and
bathroom fixtures.
An extremely productive architect and designer, Jacobsen
nevertheless made time to teach. For nearly a decade, from 1956 to
1965, he was a professor at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in
Copenhagen, and was subsequently awarded honorary doctorates from
both the University of Oxford and the University of Strathclyde in
Glasgow. Jacobsen was also a member of a number of European academy
councils. The now world-famous architect received multiple Danish
and international awards, including the RIBA Bronze Medal in 1963
and the Medaille d'Or from the Académie d'Architecture de France in
1971.