This independent furniture shop on Store Kongensgade actually shares a courtyard with Frederiksgade 1 - see below.

They sell a good and carefully-chosen range of modern furniture and rugs and lamps and so on. For 3daysofdesign they clear much of the ground-floor showroom for companies to show specific ranges or specific pieces.

This year there were two companies in particular that stood out for highlighting two very important ideas that have to be considered now if Danish design and Danish furniture production are to thrive actually in the country together … not about Danish design as a concept or as a style but Danish design and Danish manufacture thriving and moving forward together in Denmark.

Anton Assaad was there to represent the company Great Dane that he established in Melbourne in Australia in 2002. His store sells top of the range Danish furniture including cabinets by Kai Kristiansen and the large leather-covered armchair V11 by Illum Wikkelsø that are made in Denmark. The key to his business formulae seems to be identifying and appreciating major designs that are no longer in production and then, working with the families or the old companies, he gains licences to restart production to a very very high standard with quality being the paramount consideration.

At almost the opposite end of the commercial spectrum were two cabinetmakers who are together Risskov Møbelsnedkeri. They showed furniture designed and made by them but the main design for 3daysofdesign was their arm chair also designed by Kai Kristiansen in the 1960s so again a classic chair. This is a typical form of chair that was relatively common in the catalogues of several manufacturers through the 60s with a simple frame of wood with wooden arms and with simple square cushions for the seat and back. France & Son produced several variations by Ole Wanscher and Illum Wikkeslsø designed Lænestol Nr 4 in 1959 and Poul Volther designed Model 390 in 1961.

This particular design by Kai Kristiansen is very close to what we had at home when I was a kid and my parents called 'contemporary' design.

the original form for the seat with loops of wire and the new support for the seat cushion

The important thing here is the quality of the work and the appropriate technical changes that have been made by Risskov Møbelsnedkeri to bring the chair up to date … so the thin coated wire springs under tension that formed the support of the seat cushion in the original chairs have been replaced with taut material that does not stretch and where the original chair was shipped as a flatpack that, to some extent, compromised the strength of the frame, these chairs are completely assembled and finished in the workshop.

The materials for the upholstery is quite-rightly from Kvadrat.

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