Hans Wegner - Carpenter Turned Master Designer
The furniture designer Hans J Wegner passed away in 2007. Hans was born in 1914 in Tonger, Denmark and became a well known figure and successful graduate of the Danish Modern School of Design. His style was using simple and clean lines that worked together to create beautiful and unobtrusive furniture .
Hans J Wegner began as a carpenter, but had his career interrupted by a time in military service. He trained in a technical school and later was enrolled at the Copenhagen Architectural Academy as well as the School of Arts and Crafts for professional training. Later, he worked under the masters Erik Moller and Arne Jacobsen.
His specialty was the construction of chairs, which he liked to think of as a work of art as well as something useful to sit upon. One of his well known philosophies was that a chair should look great from every side and that there should be no "back" but rather a flow around the chair. He wanted very simple and refined designs, but employed many different shapes and materials within his preferences.
He did not stop at basic chairs, though, going in to more complex designs like the 'peacock' style for competitions as well as some designs for tables, beds, and cabinets. He also created a valet chair, he used himself to design the chair to make certain that it both looked good and did the job it was intended for. He is also considered, along with his daughter, to be the inventor of the pole light, which came around in the 1970's.
Much of the furniture Hans J. Wegner is renowned for are chairs. One of his better-known designs was the wegner ch25 from 1950. He crafted four chairs with woven seats for Carl Hansen and Son, but this design was unique in having rope weaving in both the seat and the back of the chair, along with engineering that had the front legs being straight and bearing most of the load. The rear legs were angled, allowing greater stability than most other lounge chairs of its type.
Many types of wood were used in making Chair 25 which had its back and seat made of paper rope. The seat's side of chair 25 is a continuous curved piece that works as back legs. This chair is sometimes mistaken for wicker furniture , But the fact remains that Wegner's chair is totally different in its make from the conventional wicker furniture .
Wegner did not name his designs, preferring only to assign them catalogue numbers. One Wegner model, the PP203, gained international exposure when a television network purchase a dozen of them, and they were subsequently seen in the Kennedy-Nixon 1960 election debates. They chose the design because of its clean lines, and simple design, but the chairs are also quite comfortable.
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Hans J. Wegner was a famous Danish furniture (mobler) designer who grew to be the most famous and successful member of the Danish Modern school of design. He is most famous for his wegner ch25, or Chair 25, a simple, elegant and stable chair in which the back legs are angled and the load bearing front legs are straight. Interestingly enough, Hans J Wegner did not give his designs names, only numbers. His designs were so popular that a number of his chairs were even used in the Kennedy-Nixon election debates in 1960.
Published December 10th, 2007
