Grand Prix

Furniture

1957

Grand Prix

In 1957, Arne Jacobsen created the Grand Prix chair as a light, modern chair made entirely in laminated wood.

YEAR:

1957

DESIGN:

Arne Jacobsen

Photo: Stjernegaard Fotografi.

The Grand Prix chair from 1957 is the only shell chair by Arne Jacobsen that was not designed with steel legs. The chair, which is made entirely in wood, represents Arne Jacobsen’s attempt at creating a lightweight, modern chair that appealed to an audience who did not find steel to match their home interior.

The Grand Prix chair, which was not designed for a specific building project, was presented in a series of exhibitions in Denmark and other European countries in 1957. In the Danish press, it was celebrated as a technical sensation, and at the Milan Triennial it was awarded the finest distinction of the exhibition, the ‘Grand Prix’, which has been the chair’s name ever since.

Drawing of the Grand Prix shell. Photo: Royal Danish Library - Danish National Art Library.

The Grand Prix chair is the first shell chair Arne Jacobsen designed entirely in laminated wood. It was created after the famous shell chair the Ant – the first chair with a seat and back made out of a single sheet of moulded plywood – and its successors, the Series 7 and the Munkegaard chair. While these predecessors were all mounted on steel frames, the legs of the Grand Prix chair were constructed using the same lamination technique as the shell and glued individually to the underside of the seat. When this initial solution proved not to be strong enough, the legs were instead gathered in a an X underneath the seat. Arne Jacobsen also designed the Grand Prix table, also with legs in laminated wood. The legs of both the chair and the table have a cruciform section that lend the Grand Prix designs the same light expression as the other shell chairs. Later, an additional model with steel legs was launched.

Grand Prix
Manufactured by

Fritz Hansen

Photo: Stjernegaard Fotografi.

In the Danish press, it was celebrated as a technical sensation, and at the Milan Triennial it was awarded the finest distinction of the exhibition, the ‘Grand Prix’, which has been the chair’s name ever since.

In his time, Arne Jacobsen was regarded as Denmark’s leading international modernist, but some Danes remained sceptical of the new style he represented. They did not think that the functionalist minimalism and materials such as steel, glass and veneer were compatible with their other furniture. To address this, Arne Jacobsen sought to develop a chair made entirely in wood that still had the light character and practical properties of the shell chairs. Arne Jacobsen explained his motivation for making the chair with the words: ‘Some people feel that steel does not match the rest of their furniture. So I tried to make a chair entirely out of wood but with legs that used the same springy veneer technique as the seat and back.’

The result was the Grand Prix chair, which was launched in 1957 in beech and teak without being heavier, whether in appearance or physical weight, than the veneer chairs he and Fritz Hansen had launched over the previous years.

Photo: Stjernegaard Fotografi.

Photo: Aage Strüwing / Fritz Hansen.

Arne Jacobsen explained his motivation for making the chair with the words: ‘Some people feel that steel does not match the rest of their furniture. So I tried to make a chair entirely out of wood but with legs that used the same springy veneer technique as the seat and back.’

Grand Prix was created during a time when Arne Jacobsen was gaining prominence as a furniture designer both in Denmark and in the international scene. Unlike many of his famous designs, the chair was not designed for a specific architecture project. During the 1950s he worked with a number of Danish manufacturers, with Fritz Hansen as one of the most central collaborators, but also designed lamps, cutlery, door knobs and textiles. In 1957, the year he designed the Grand Prix chair, he also created the AJ lamp, the AJ pendant lamp and his avant-garde steel cutlery, all designs that have since become modern design classics.

Arne Jacobsen presented many of the new products in design exhibitions all over Europe. At the Milan Triennial in 1957, he presented several designs, including the AJ cutlery and the Grand Prix chair, which was awarded the Grand Prix prize that it was subsequently named after. That same year, he presented four terraced houses in the important Interbau exhibition in Berlin, in which he and international architects, such as Finnish Alvaar Alto (1898-1976), Swiss Le Corbusier (1887-1965), and German Walter Gropius (1883-1969) and Egon Eiermann (1904-1970), presented their visions of future residential architecture. In one of his terraced houses Arne Jacobsen also presented his own furniture designs, including the new Grand Prix chair, as part of his view of modern Danish interior design.

Sources: Arne Jacobsen Design Archives. / Arne Jacobsen’s drawings. The collection of architectural drawings, The Royal Library – Danish Art Library. / Arne Jacobsen’s scrapbooks. The Royal Library – Danish Art Library. / Stenum Poulsen, K., Skaarup Larsen, A., & Staunsager, S. (2020). Arne Jacobsen – Designing Denmark. Kolding: Trapholt. / Thau, C., & Vindum, K. (1998). Arne Jacobsen. Copenhagen: Danish Architectural Press.

View from the home of Leo Henriksen, which Arne Jacobsen designed and decorated in 1956. Photo: Arne Jacobsen. Original is found at the Royal Danish Library - Danish National Art Library.

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