Cirkelstolen / The Circle Chair by Hans Wegner 1986

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This chair is a testament to the imagination of Hans Wegner and to the technical skills of the cabinetmakers PP Møbler. 

Wegner first considered making a chair based on a large circle in 1965 but it took 20 years to put the design into production. Wegner thought that such a large circle could only be made in metal and it was Ejnar Pedersen, a founder of PP Møbler, who persuaded Wegner that it could be made in wood.

The circle is laminated with 11 layers of wood each 3.5 metres long, cut to shape and bent round and joined to form a circle. A specific machine to bend and link the circle was designed by Søren Holst Pedersen - the son of Ejnar Pedersen.

The circle is supported and held at an angle by an amazing combination of shaped struts and curved stretchers with the seat and back woven in halyard - the rope with a nylon core covered with jute that Wegner used for other chairs.

Despite its size, the chair is relatively light and, with wheels on the back struts, it can be moved into the right place quite easily.

Among the drawings for this design is an extraordinary sketch of a variation in metal like a giant loop that has been twisted back on itself. It takes some mental effort to work out which loop goes which way and how the rope mesh would work but you can track everything through quite rationally and it is at that point that you understand just what an amazing mental command Wegner had of such incredibly complex 3D shapes … he imagined this and then sketched what he imagined and it would have worked and that really is an outstanding skill.

 

designed by Hans Wegner (1914-2007)
cabinetmakers PP Møbler

ash or oak
halyard - core of nylon with sleeve of woven jute
clips steel or brass

height: 97 cm
width: 112 cm
depth: 94 cm
height to front edge of seat: 42 cm

 

 

Trinidadstol / Trinidad Chair by Nanna Ditzel 1993

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The Trinidad Chair is one of the most distinct and most unusual of modern Danish chairs made in plywood. It was designed by Nanna Ditzel and was given that name because the fretwork of facades in Trinidad, seen by her on trips to the island, had been the initial inspiration for the design.

It has a low, simple but elegant frame in metal tube and the seat and the back rest of the chair are cut from separate pieces of laminated wood that are both in a fan shape that is almost reminiscent of the shape of a segment of a citrus fruit. Both backrest and seat are cut through with precisely cut slits that are fanned out gently across the shape.

Both the seat and the back rest are fixed to the frame with large flat rivets but what is striking is that the metal frame of the back is not taken across the top of the back rest but is set low and holds the bottom edge of the back rest to give the chair a form of construction and a silhouette that has a lightness and elegance that is unique in Danish chairs.

There are versions of the Trinidad with arm rests and options for an upholstered pad for the seat.

Made by the Danish furniture company Fredericia, the chair came originally in a number of wood finishes including maple, cherry, beech, birch and walnut but there are now options for colours for both the wood and the metal frame and the chair has just been released in new colours - a palette of soft warm greys selected by the Swedish design blogger Pella Hedeby - to mark the 25th anniversary of its launch.

Fredericia

 

 

Trinidad Chair in the permanent collection of Designmuseum Danmark in Copenhagen

 

height: 85 cm
width: 48.5 cm
depth: 57 cm
height of seat: 45.5 cm
weight: 4kg

note:

a bar stool version - with smaller seat and back - has a seat height of 76.5 cm