Vilhelm Koren

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Vilhelm Koren (* 1921 in Kvikne , Norway ; † November 10, 2016 in London , Great Britain ) was a Norwegian industrial designer . Koren worked for the British automobile manufacturer Rolls-Royce for several years ; after that he worked primarily as a furniture designer.

biography

Designed by Vilhelm Koren: Bentley S2 Continental Park Ward
Rolls-Royce version of the Koren design: Silver Cloud III Drophead Coupé Mulliner Park Ward (1966)

Koren was born in the municipality of Kvikne in the southern Norwegian province of Hedmark . He and his siblings were mostly raised by the mother because the father, a mining engineer , worked for long periods in mining projects in Tanzania . After his parents divorced, Koren lived with his grandfather in Kristiansand . According to another source, he grew up in Kenya .

In 1940 Koren began training at Statens Håndverks- og Kunstindustriskole (State Craft and Art Industry School) in Oslo , which he broke off in 1941 due to the war. After the occupation of Norway by the German Wehrmacht , Koren fled via Sweden , the Soviet Union , Persia , India and Kenya to Great Britain and finally to Iceland . After the end of the Second World War , Koren lived in Switzerland for a few years, where he made his way as an illustrator . Among other things, he drew automobiles. On the basis of his automobile sketches, he was admitted to the Academy of Industrial Design in London at the beginning of the 1950s , where he trained as an industrial designer. In 1957 he completed his training. He graduated in automotive design. His thesis was the design of a shooting brake based on a Jaguar XK 140 .

From 1957 to 1961, Koren worked as a designer at Rolls-Royce in Crewe . Here he designed a convertible body for the Park Ward version of the Bentley S2 Continental , which was produced in a small series of 125 copies until 1962. The S2 Continental was characterized by a simplicity that was extraordinary for its time. This model and its successor, the S3 Continental, with its inclined double headlights known as “Chinese Eyes”, of which there was also a Rolls-Royce version, are generally considered to be the most beautiful and sought-after Bentley and Rolls-Royce vehicles of the post-war period. The Bentley is also called "Koren-Continental" in specialist circles. This design was the only work by Koren in the automotive sector that went into series production. He also worked on some Rolls-Royce projects that were abandoned early on.

From 1963 Koren taught furniture design at the Royal College of Art in London. In addition, he worked as a freelance designer and, among other things, dealt with the conversion of old houses. When John Blatchley, the longtime Head of Design at Rolls-Royce, retired in 1969, he tried to win Koren as his successor. However, Koren declined because he did not want to trade his London lifestyle for a life in the English provinces.

Koren was a Sufi for over 30 years . He died at the age of 95 on November 10, 2016 in London.

literature

Web links

Obituary for Vilhelm Koren at www.aftenposten.no

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Markus Caspers: Designing Motion: Automobildesigner from 1890 to 1990, Birkhäuser, 2017, ISBN 9783035607772 , p. 125.
  2. ↑ Mathias Paulokat: Bentley S2 Continental Cabriolet, Park Ward by Vilhelm Koren. www.classicdriver.com, December 6, 2008, accessed April 17, 2017 .
  3. ↑ a b Martin Bennett: Bentley Continental, Corniche & Azure 1951-2002 , Veloce Publishing Ltd, 2016, ISBN 9781787110083 , p. 132.
personal data
SURNAME Koren, Vilhelm
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Norwegian automobile and furniture designer
DATE OF BIRTH 1921
PLACE OF BIRTH Kvikne , Norway
DATE OF DEATH November 10, 2016
Place of death London , UK