Egg (armchair)
The egg (Ægget), also known as the Egg Chair , is an armchair developed in 1958 by the Danish architect and designer Arne Jacobsen . Together with the Schwan armchair , Jacobsen designed the egg for the lobby of his total work of art , the SAS Royal Hotel in Copenhagen . For the production, the designer turned to the furniture manufacturer Fritz Hansen S / A , which has been producing all of its seating furniture since 1935.
Design and construction
The design of the armchair does not contain any straight lines, consists exclusively of curves and is described as organic. The backrest goes up and becomes wider than classic wing chairs . A similar design language can also be found in other seating furniture designs by Jacobsen from this period, such as the chairs in Series 7 . In the same year Jacobsen designed a footstool to match the armchair, which bears the internal number 3316. An egg sofa was also developed and produced for the SAS Royal Hotel. Unlike the Schwan, there was no series production. A small number of the egg sofa came on the market later, at prices of over € 50,000. Jacobsen made the prototypes by hand from plaster in his garage.
The construction of the armchair is based on a steel frame that carries the seat shell made of glass fiber reinforced polyurethane and is padded with cold foam. A cross-like base made of die-cast aluminum - the serial number is stamped on it - closes the swivel armchair at the bottom. A spring pressure adjustable inclination adjustment was later built into the swivel joint, which is changed in counter pressure via an aluminum lever on the underside of the seat shell. Leather and fabrics in various colors are used as covers for the surfaces and sewn by hand in the manufacturer's saddlery. The outer skin consists of a single piece. Unlike the original models, the seat consists of an inlaid cushion. Overall, the armchair is 107 cm high, 86 cm wide, 79 cm deep and weighs 18 kg.
reception
The armchair is considered a design classic and has been included in the collections of design museums around the world, including those of the Danmark Design Museum in Copenhagen and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Early originals are traded at art and antiques auctions. At documenta III in 1964, the armchair was part of the Industrial Design department along with other works by Arne Jacobsen .
In the SAS Royal Hotel in Copenhagen, the armchair is still used in the lobby and in one of the rooms. After renovation work, only room 606 in its original design with a green egg has been preserved. The room was featured in an exhibition titled Arne Jacobsen, put together by Zdenek Felix for the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art . Copied absolutely modern for the 100th birthday and exhibited in several places in Europe, including the Deichtorhallen in Hamburg.
The American fast food chain McDonald’s commissioned a designer to develop new concepts for their branches in England and Denmark. Among other things, he used the egg. After McDonald's used replicas as well as the originals - in England the protection period for the design has expired - Fritz Hansen terminated the collaboration.
The armchair was a model for work by other designers as well as for fakes , which are offered at significantly lower prices than the originals by Fritz Hansen.
literature
- Christopher Mount et al. Arne Jacobsen: Compact Design Portfolio. Chronicle Books et al., San Francisco 2004, ISBN 0-8118-4209-6 .
Web links
- The birth of the egg - The production process in a video by the manufacturer
- Video with detailed description of the egg and Swan (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ Design Museum - Arne Jacobsen
- ↑ Data sheet from the manufacturer ( Memento from February 19, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Michaela Wailzer: Design icon Arne Jacobsen: Suffocating on aesthetics . In: Spiegel Online . May 23, 2003