Introducing the St. Catherine Bench

In spring 2023, Sika Design launched the garden bench St. Catherine. Arne Jacobsen designed this simple, functionalist garden bench in 1935 for merchant Helge Wandel in connection with his design of the family’s home north of Copenhagen. Today, it is made in certified teak, which gives the bench its beautiful expression and makes it resistant to wind and weather.

Arne Jacobsen often designed the landscape around his architecture projects, whether they were private single-family houses or large, public buildings. In the early 1960s, he designed his first major project outside Denmark, St. Catherine’s College in Oxford, which included a beautiful garden around the prestigious university college. After Arne Jacobsen’s death, his classic bench was set up in several places around the garden, each carrying a plaque commemorating a late professor. This gesture inspired Sika Design’s decision to launch the bench under the name St. Catherine.