Exhibitions: Folding Furniture
A number of Danish architects have worked with the notion of folding, collapsible or adjustable furniture.
Initially it was Kaare Klint who, after seeing a photograph taken in East Africa, became fascinated by the simple, unsophisticated knock-down pieces used for safaris there. His version, designed in 1933 and naturally named “the Safari Chair”, is a low easy chair, stripped of all unnecessary decoration and surprisingly comfortable.
Another classic piece is the propeller stool, which Kaare Klint, Poul Kjærholm and Jørgen Gammelgaard all have tried their skills on. Klint’s stool, designed as early as 1927, is remarkable because of the special shape of the legs, which, when the stool is folded, together make up the shape of a round stick. Kjærholm’s and Gammelgaard’s are based on the same principle, with slender, elegant steel legs, twisting 180 degrees.
Other architects have sought inspiration for their folding pieces in ancient Egyptian furniture. Ole Wanscher’s delicate “Egyptian Stool” and Mogens Lassen’s imposing “Egyptian Table” in solid rosewood are fine examples of this.
