Danmarks næste klassiker / Denmark's next classic

View fullsize

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

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

Danmarks næste klassiker / Denmark's next classic 2022

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