Danmarks næste Klassiker at Trends & Traditions

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There was a lot of interest in the stand at Trends & Traditions that showed some of the designs from Danmarks næste klassiker - the Danish television series that was broadcast in the Spring. At least four of the designers were around to answer questions.

What was not obvious, from watching the programme, was the high quality of finish of the prototypes.

The format of the show means that the designers are set a project task and then have just three weeks to complete the design, source materials, resolve problems and produce a prototype either themselves, in their own workshops, or, where special technology is needed, work with small workshops or small industrial independents.

Several of the designers worked with 3D printers and again the quality of the finish, seen up close, is impressive and clearly that technology is improving rapidly.

Danmarks næste klassiker / Denmark’s next classic 2023

Danmarks næste klassiker

 
 

Danmarks næste klassiker / Denmark's next classic

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The fourth television series of the design programme Danmarks næste klassiker has opened on DR - Danske Radio.

It follows the same format, with five designers and in each of the six episodes they are set the task of designing a specific type or piece of furniture for that episode. There are usually some particular functions or features that have to be incorporated into the work.

Again the presenter is Mette Bluhme Rieck with two well-known and well-established designers - Louise Campbell and Kasper Salto - who provide guidance and then judge the designs at a presentation at the end of each programme. Again this year, immediately before the final decision, the works are shown to a selection of the public to comment on and test the designs …. often with quite some humour.

Although the programmes are broadcast just a week apart, in reality the designers are given three full weeks to design and then produce their prototype. During those three weeks they record comments and short films on their progress, with sessions on line to discuss their design process with the judges and, during those three weeks, Mette Bluhme Rieck also visits the designers in their studios. This reveals much about how various ideas are developed and shows how the materials chosen and the practical and technical background of the designers themselves produce five designs of very very different character.

Yet again, what comes through clearly through the programmes, is that these designers rely on small independent workshops with specific skills in working with specific materials. This close relationship, between the designer and the craftsman or manufacturer, has always been crucial to the success of modern Danish design.

The task set for the first episode in this series was to design a table. Each episode produces a single winner from the five designs and, in the next episode, the designers will move on to another project …. in the second episode in this series they will have to design a lamp.

Obviously, the designers can anticipate and, to some extent, prepare for what they might be asked to design so an “overraskelse” or surprise is thrown in to give the programmes a slight twist. This can be site specific and can actually be a commission for a design …. in season three, the designers had to design a chair for the lobby of the youth theatre in Copenhagen that was then undergoing extensive work to remodel and extend the space.

In the sixth and final episode of this series, not only will one more winning design - this year a chair - be added to the podium but the judges will then chose an overall winner from the six works that could well become Denmark’s next classic.

Danmarks næste klassiker

 
 

bord / table
lampe / lamp
overraskelse / surprise
børnemøbel / children’s furniture
opbevaringsmøbel / storage
stol / chair

Danmarks næste klassiker / Denmark's next classic - update

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Last night - 8 February - was the last programme in the current series of Danmarks næste klassiker - Denmark’s next classic - from DR television.

The project for this week was to design a lænestol or armchair and it was won by Eva Fly with a striking design that had four scooped out and linked panels to form a sort of box for the seat and with large, softly-padded cushions for the seat, back and side that seemed to encourage people to sit at any angle and even across the chair with their legs draped over what would, otherwise, have been the arm rest.

Danmarks næste klassiker

 

both photographs from the Montana press release

Of course, the highlight of the programme, and the conclusion of this series, was when one design of the six weekly winners was chosen as the overall winner and, therefore, as potentially Denmark’s next classic.

When it was announced, it somehow seemed obvious because the chair designed by Anders Engholm Dohn ticks so many boxes.

It was the winner of what was called the surprise week - a new introduction for this series - when the five designers tackled what was  a real commission to design a chair for a new extension to the Aveny-T theatre on Frederiksberg Allé in Copenhagen.

The chair designed by Anders has a thin metal frame and seat and back in recycled plastic and it is the type of chair normally described as a sledge because the front and back legs on each side are linked by a cross bar at the bottom, along the floor, like the runners on a sledge, to give the frame lateral strength.

Too many moulded plastic chairs seem to be thin and too often, particularly in public spaces, are a dull grey or a single bold and usually unsubtle colour. Here, the plastic of the seat and back are relatively thick and primarily white with a bold pattern, rather like a conglomerate in geology.

Both the front edge of the seat, curved down to protect the back of the sitters legs, and the bold folding back of the back rest, that forms what looks almost like a shelf, are well thought through and the design, as a whole, achieves the right balance between looking light in weight but also looking strong or robust ... crucial in a public space.

The Danish design company Montana have put the chair into production and it will be called Aveny-T Stolen.

Where the design ticks another box is its style which recalls chairs of the 1950s and 60s - a period that seems to be going through a bit of a revival at the moment - but without looking like a pastiche or some sort of tribute act.

It is a stacking chair - 20 together can be carried on a trolley or 10 together standing on the floor - which is crucial if it is used in a public space which may well have several functions so where chairs have to be set out or cleared away quickly.

However, being light to move around and being able to stack away is increasingly important in homes as houses and apartments are getting smaller. There was a trend in the 50s and 60s for light kitchen chairs around a kitchen table and that may well be revived. This chair would work well in a small home where it is not possible or realistic to have a substantial dining table and four or six dining chairs that occupy all the space all the time.

The most successful design classic of the 1950s, and certainly the most successful commercially for the company, is the Chair 7 from Fritz Hansen that was designed by Arne Jacobsen in 1955. That chair too has light steel legs and a moulded seat although in the Chair7 is in plywood. At the time, it must have seemed daringly novel so how many would have anticipated its success and its popularity nearly 80 years later? Could the Aveny-T have an equally long life in the catalogue of Montana?

update:
When I asked in the Montana show room in Copenhagen, I was told that there has been a lot of interest in the chair and that it should arrive in the store in week 22.

Montana Furniture - Aveny-T Stolen

what makes a design classic a design classic?

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Thinking about the television series that has been searching for Denmark's Next Classic I realised that the only conclusion that you can come to, having watched all the programmes, is that there is absolutely no limit to the imagination and the ingenuity of Danish designers.

Over six programmes the five designers were set a task where all of them had to design a chair or all of them design a light and, at the end of the programme, one was chosen as the winner for that week and that design project.

And week after week there were no two designs that were remotely similar but most, never-the-less, could be seen to be more or less Danish or Scandinavian in style and character.

So, is it even possible to define precisely what makes one design a classic and another not ... because that was the ultimate aim of the series .... to pick a design that could be Denmark's next classic.

It feels more and more like an elusive moniker that is difficult to pin down even though we all think we can spot a classic design when we see it.

Most people - both Danes in general and people working in design professions - would agree that the shell chair designed by Arne Jacobsen in 1955 and known as the Series 7 Chair is a design classic.

It is immediately recognisable and most Danes would be able to name the designer. It is so well known that it can be recognised immediately even if you only see a small part and even recognise it if the chair has been modified.

For Fritz Hansen, it is their most successful chair and has been in continuous production since 1955.

It is light and comfortable, practical and robust and it came along at just the right time as people were moving out of old apartments in the city and into new, larger and lighter apartments or into row houses and villas in the suburbs.

But, having said all that it was far from being either a conventional or a safe design. The use of moulded plywood and the type of chair, with a shell that could be used on different arrangements of metal legs or pedestals, was certainly new. You could and you can buy the chair in various configurations and that meant it could be used around a formal dining table or at a desk or in a classroom or in a lecture theatre or in a canteen.

Too often a design tries to do too many things and never does one well but this chair works well almost anywhere and Fritz Hansen understood that. Over the years they have produced it in a huge number of different colours and with different legs or bases so it has tried to fit in with any taste or style ... an almost impossible job for most designs.

But even with the Series 7, it does not give us the ultimate definition for what makes a design classic a design classic.

Is a design a classic because it is firmly of its period ... so that business of zeitgeist ... or is it better if a design is timeless ...  a difficult trick because tastes and needs and general lifestyles change and that change can be pretty relentless so does a classic design have to be from a distinct and obvious period but somehow not effected by the passing of time?

Nor is it enough to be just popular ... although clearly a lot of Chair 7s have been sold .... because more IKEA products would be ranked as classics.

In fact, you would think that being popular would be the kiss of death, because what is popular now can rapidly be devalued if it is seen as too popular - so it morphs from passé to hackneyed and then trite although, actually,  that then gives a design the chance for a come back as something you buy as ironic to show you have a sense of humour and only bought it because people won't seriously believe you like it. That happened to larva lamps when they got a second life and we could yet see a revival of avocado bathroom 'suites' and fake-fur toilet lid covers.

Some designs are classics for exactly the opposite reason to being popular because they were produced in small numbers and have a rarity value ... just look at the catalogues of the auction house Bruun Rasmussen or at catalogues for the furniture dealers Dansk Møbel Kunst to see good examples. The furniture of Finn Juhl was certainly in that category until House of Finn Juhl put the designs back into production and made them not only better known but, more important, available.

Nostalgia or a place in the national psyche can make a design widely admired although that is probably a better definition of an iconic design and that is subtly different to a classic design.

7’eren / Chair 7 designed by Arne Jacobsen.
Manufactured by Fritz Hansen the Series 7 Chair has been in continuous production since it was designed in 1955 and is probably the best known design in Denmark. It can be identified even if you see just a small part and it is immediately recognisable even when the shell is perched on a log or an upturned bucket as seen at the Fritz Hansen store in Copenhagen.

 

Even the word classic itself is more than a little ambiguous.

In this context it certainly has absolutely nothing to do with ancient Greece.

Classic can be used as an alternative to old as in classical music or antique and rare, so worth the price, as in classic cars.

At one time music was separated into genres so folk music, pop music - a sub genre of light music as in not heavy and serious - and Classical Music so vaguely serious and vaguely orchestral but surely no one would claim that the Chair 7 could be described as serious.

When I was a kid, a joke or prank was classic or, one better, "epic".

Back to design. When talking about Danish design, it's generally accepted that Classic Danish furniture is the furniture produced in the 1950s and early 1960s by "masters" like Hans Wegner or Arne Jacobsen but, just because a chair was made, say in 1960, does not make it, automatically, a classic. The Wire Cone Chair by Verner Panton from that year is hardly a classic. For many, the chair is perverse or even a bit of an acquired taste unless it is used in a full-blown 60's interior for a film set.

 

The Wire Cone Chair designed by Verner Panton in 1960

 

Being a classic design does not have to be a positive thing. Many young designers think classic furniture designs from the classic period of Danish design that are still in production actually block their careers and owning a design classic indicates that you prefer a safe purchase that friends and neighbours will recognise and appreciate because buying classic designs for your home can be a way to fit in

Maybe I'm just over thinking this. Maybe a Danish design classic is simply good design that is widely acknowledged as good design and a design that is distinct but not too extreme, and has an element of longevity so it continues to be popular and continues in production because it continues to be relevant and appreciated.

 

Fritz Hansen Chair 7 by Arne Jacobsen

Danmarks næste klassiker / Denmark's next classic 2022

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Tonight was the first programme in the new season of Danmarks næste klassiker / Denmark's next classic on the television channel DR.

As in the two previous seasons, the television presenter is Mette Bluhme Rieck and, as in the programmes last year, the judges are the Danish designers Louise Campbell and Kasper Salto.

For this new season, the designers taking part are Mathias Falkenstrøm, Martin Egede Colberg, Eva Fly, Mette Benzen and Anders Engholm.

The format is the same as before with six programmes and all the designers presented with the challenge to design and produce a specific piece of furniture for each programme.

So, for this programme, all five were designing and making a sofa. Next week the challenge will be to design a skammel or stool and then in the following programmes a lænestol (arm chair), a lampe (light) and a Hjemmekontor or home office.

Each week a winner is chosen and the piece fills a waiting place on a plinth at the end of the workshop. In the final programme, not only is the sixth piece of furniture chosen but then the judges select the one piece of the six that is the overall winner and, potentially, Denmark's next classic.

There are a fairly obvious and finite number of furniture types - chair, table, bed, desk and so on - and the designers, see the vacant plinths from the start and can begin to think about and, to some extent, prepare for the challenges ahead so, this year, there is a slight twist with one of the six vacant plinths simply labelled as "overraskelse" or surprise.

The home office, to be designed in an upcoming programme, is very much a new feature for homes in our age of Coronavirus, with so many people trying to work from home, and even the sofas, designed in this first programme, had to have "an extra twist" and had to be for "small living" to reflect the fact that whereas, in the past, a sofa could be a  statement piece in a large apartment, the reality now is that homes in Denmark are smaller. So, the programme is showing that it does have it's finger on the pulse of social changes because it is not just fashion but changes in the way we live that determines what furniture we need now.

Fortunately, the programme has retained the section, towards the end and just before the final judging, when members of the public are shown the finished pieces and explore and test the furniture and they are certainly not shy about expressing their opinions. The judges and the designers, in another room, can only watch on a TV monitor so the comments and the amusement or bemusement of the designers and their facial expressions, as they hear the views and the criticisms, can be priceless.

What makes the programme so important is that it shows the design process and shows how designs evolve and develop and how they reflect the specific materials chosen and are, to a considerable extent, controlled by the limitations of the technical problems of making the piece.

This first programme in the series has set a very high standard that I hope they can maintain because the five sofas could hardly have been more different and yet, for different reasons and for their distinct qualities, any one of the five would have been a worthy winner.

 

DR Danmarks næste klassiker