Designed by Arne Jacobsen in 1958 for the Radisson SAS hotel in Copenhagen, Denmark, the Egg Chair is a milestone in the evolution of Scandinavian Design. It is manufactured by Fritz Hansen.
Image source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arne_Jacobsen#/media/File:Arne_Jacobsen_photo.jpg
Much of what the modern movement stands for, would have been lost and simply forgotten if Scandinavian designers and architects like Arne Jacobsen would not have added that humane element to it. Arne Jacobsen is noted for his sense of proportion. Indeed, he himself saw this as one of the main features of his work. In an interview he said:
“The proportion is exactly what makes the beautiful ancient Egyptian temples […] and if we look at some of the most admired buildings of the Renaissance and Baroque, we notice that they were all well-proportioned. Here is the basic thing”.
Image source: https://search.creativecommons.org/photos/2ebc087c-1bfd-485b-a179-370673ec800a by corno.fulgur75
Image source: https://search.creativecommons.org/photos/3ae93b31-883d-451f-ac82-9f1638268eb3 by TheTurducken
Commission
Arne Jacobsen designed both the Egg Chair and the Swan armchair in 1958 for the lobby and lounge area of the SAS Royal Hotel in Copenhagen. Together with the commission to build the hotel building, Jacobsen was also charged with creating the complete interior design including the furnishings and fittings. In addition to the Swan and Egg lounge chairs the project produced numerous other iconic designs – ranging, for example, from textiles and the AJ Floor Lamp onto the futuristic cutlery series. With the SAS Hotel Jacobsen realised in an exemplary fashion his idea of integrate architecture and design – and with the curved Egg chair created the perfect formal contrast to the rigid quadratic lines of the building itself.
Image source:https://search.creativecommons.org/photos/d3bc7697-e9ab-4201-82eb-6ebde7d5bd88 by Steve Bellamy
Technology
. A moulded shell of synthetic material on an aluminium star swivel base, with a layer of cold foam covering the shell upholstered in fabric or leather. These two original designer chairs originated in Jacobsen’s own garage in his home in Klampenborg, north of Copenhagen and have been in production at Fritz Hansen ever since.
The shell is polyurethane foam with glass fibre reinforcement. The seat carrier consists of a spindle of diameter 28 mm automate steel and an assembly plate of 5 mm steel sheet.
The individual parts are welded and surface treated with matt zinc. The base consists of a satin chromed, swivel centre part of welded steel tubing (diameter 38×2 mm) and a 4-star base in injection moulded aluminium. The leg ferrules are in blackgrey synthetic material.
“Timeless yet relevant in time”
If any sentence was to describe Arne Jacobsen’s masterpiece from 1958 this would be the one. Because what other piece of furniture can maintain the same high quality and evoke the same emotions as it did 60 years ago?
This year we celebrate 60 years of the Egg. With it, Arne Jacobsen became a pioneer in design history. The Egg represented craftsmanship, originality and exclusivity and it still does so.
Image source: https://search.creativecommons.org/photos/2b9cb2ce-5494-4e91-93b8-793901cc4b25 by Karibouski
Data sheet
Designer: Arne Jacobsen
Year: 1958
Manufacturer: Fritz Hansen
Materials:
- Shell: plastic padded with cold foam
- Star Base-base: satin polished aluminium
- Cover: leather or fabric (Hallingdal: 70% pure wool, 30% viscose, Tonus: 90% worsted wool, 10% Helanca, Divina: 100% wool)
Dimensions: 108 x 95.3 x 86.4 cm
Info source:
https://www.moma.org/collection/works/167006
http://www.themethodcase.com/egg-swan-chair-arne-jacobsen-fritz-hansen/
