Fritz Hansen – Expressions of Character – 3 Days of Design, Copenhagen

For this year’s 3 Days of Design festival, Danish design brand Fritz Hansen took over Charlottenborg, the home of the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in the heart of central Copenhagen. The exhibition, titled Expressions of Character, presented the brand’s most iconic furniture designs alongside contemporary classics from their new collections. The focus was on form, shape and materials, exploding designs into their basic elements to showcase their craft and minimalist expression.

The central courtyard of Charlottenborg provided a welcome urban oasis to relax and take in everything from the festival, whether that involved listening to a talk or reclining back with a glass of wine. Sunshine yellow striped umbrellas and comfy wooden designs from the new Skagerak by Fritz Hansen outdoor collection animated the space, bringing a slice of feel-good Danish summer to the urban setting.

[Ad – press invite – Fritz Hansen covered one of my flights to Copenhagen and a night’s stay in a hotel, the rest of the trip was paid by myself in full. All images courtesy of Fritz Hansen]

The new Skagerak by Fritz Hansen outdoor collection
Skagerak has merged with Fritz Hansen to create one big brand with the best that Danish design has to offer, both for inside and outside the home. The newly named Skagerak by Fritz Hansen outdoor collection is Nordic-inspired yet classic and familiar enough to stand the test of time. I can see the design working as well in a contemporary urban garden as a countryside cottage.

Designed in collaboration with Hugo Passos and Aurelién Barby, each design comes flat pack and is made from sustainably sourced teak. You can either choose to let the teak naturally patinate over time or treat it every year to keep its warm honey tone. I particularly liked the slatted Riviera sunbeds, designed in 1990 by Povl B. Eskildsen. They’re designed to be adjustable in length and the back can go right down to form a day bed or long table.

 

Expressions of Character
Inside Charlottenborg itself, a series of adjoining exhibition spaces showed classic Fritz Hansen pieces in a new light. The showstopper was the stately banquet hall, where a group of cubed structures framed some of Poul Kjærholm’s most famous designs. The display in effect brought Kjærholm’s furniture back to where it all began, where Kjærholm himself studied.

The dynamic display highlighted the clear, sculptural nature of his work. Frozen in the air with rope, the designs looked like they were full of movement, even though the only thing moving was the light dancing through the windows. It also showed the beautiful simplicity of reducing a design down to just a couple of materials and shapes.

Fritz Hansen’s new Spring collections
Also on display at Charlottenborg were a couple of pieces from Fritz Hansen’s new Spring collection. My favourite was the PK4 lounge chair (seen below), that has been reissued for the first time since it was designed by Poul Kjærholm in 1952. Conceived just after he had graduated from the Danish School of Arts and Crafts in Copenhagen, it was originally only produced for friends and family in a limited edition of 20 pieces. It nods to an experimental phase in his career when he was curious about design and wanted to create a new wave of Danish modernism.

The PK4 is made up of seven seemingly dedicate tubular steel pieces that are welded into a lightweight frame, with a seat and back formed of halyard rope. Today it comes in satin-brushed stainless steel or black powder coated stainless steel. A new round seat cushion can be added to the design to improve the comfort.

It’s exciting to see the worlds of Skagerak and Fritz Hansen collide, they’re the perfect pairing of craftsmanship and Danish design. I can’t wait to see what they do next.