STYLE ICON: EGG CHAIR from FRITZ HANSEN

DESIGNER: ARNE JACOBSEN

YEAR: 1956

Sculpture meets furniture in the form of design classic, the Egg Chair by Arne Jacobsen, manufactured by Fritz Hansen in Denmark.

The chair was originally part of one of Jacobsen’s architectural commissions, the Royal SAS Hotel in Copenhagen in the Fifties, where he designed not only the building, but also its interior, furniture, fixtures and fittings, right down to cutlery and ashtrays.  The finished project was an awe-inspiring example of how he strove to achieve grace and coherence in all he produced.

For the chairs, Jacobsen wanted to create lightweight, fluid seating forms which required the minimum of padding for comfort.  The result – a fabric-covered, foam-upholstered, moulded fibreglass seat shell on a swivelling cast aluminium base – makes a striking statement today, just as it did then.

Instantly recognisable, the Egg Chair reflects Jacobsen’s modernist ideals, combined with his Nordic love of naturalism. The man who spoke little English and rarely left his Copenhagen studio, had extraordinary vision, as is clear in this almost futuristic, yet timeless, design.

‘The fundamental factor is proportion.’  Arne Jacobsen