The Pot

Furniture
1959
The Pot
The Pot

Originally designed forSAS Royal Hotel

The Pot
Arne Jacobsen designed the Pot as part of his total design of the SAS Royal Hotel in 1960.
YEAR:
1959
WORK OF ARCHITECTURE:
SAS Royal Hotel
DESIGN:
Arne Jacobsen
SAS Royal Hotel, 1960. Photo: Aage Strüwing © Jørgen Strüwing.

The Pot chair is an example of Arne Jacobsen’s constant effort to create simpler designs with a clear-cut form. It was designed for the SAS Royal Hotel (now Radisson Collection Royal Hotel) in Copenhagen, where it was part of his famous all-encompassing vision for the hotel.

At the SAS Royal Hotel, Arne Jacobsen created a comprehensive gesamtkunstwerk in which he designed everything, from furniture and lighting to the pattern of the rugs and the cutlery used at the snack bar. The Pot was in use in several places around the hotel, including in the spectacular conservatory with its plush carpets and two-storey wall-mounted glass showcases with hanging orchids.

The Pot
Manufactured by
The winter garden at the SAS Royal Hotel, approximately 1960. Photo: Arne Jacobsen. Original is found at the Royal Danish Library - Danish National Art Library.

The Pot was in use in several places around the hotel, including in the spectacular conservatory with its plush carpets and two-storey wall-mounted glass showcases with hanging orchids.

Like the famous classics from the hotel the Swan and the Egg, the Pot’s design was based on a novel technological method, in which the furniture was shaped in a hard foam material and subsequently padded and upholstered. The groundbreaking method liberated Arne Jacobsen from the limitations of more traditional materials and gave him free hands to shape the form. Compared to the more distinctive Egg and Swan chairs, the Pot’s expression is simpler yet completely modern. The clear articulation of the two parts of the construction – the embracing seat shell and the supporting steel frame – exemplifies the rationalization of form and expression that Arne Jacobsen consistently sought in his design.

In 1959, the year before the official opening of the hotel, the Pot was launched by furniture manufacturer Fritz Hansen but was taken out of production shortly after. It was relaunched in 2018.

 

Photo: Stjernegaard Fotografi.
Photo: Stjernegaard Fotografi.

The clear articulation of the two parts of the construction – the embracing seat shell and the supporting steel frame – exemplifies the rationalization of form and expression that Arne Jacobsen consistently sought in his design.

The Pot was used in several places around the SAS Royal Hotel, including in some of the most spectacular rooms. In the lobby, Arne Jacobsen designed a conservatory with tall double walls in glass slicing through the deck between the ground floor and the first floor to create a large, glazed-in courtyard illuminated by skylights. The gap in between the double glass walls was used as a showcase featuring more than 100 different varieties of orchids. Accordingly, the room was known as the Orchid Garden. The exclusive and intimate environment was furnished with Arne Jacobsen’s column tables, the Royal floor lamp and the Pot upholstered in green fabric.

Arne Jacobsen also used the Pot in his design of one of the hotel bars. He placed this bar in extension of the airport terminal where travellers could simply check in and wait for the SAS shuttle bus to take them directly to the plane. In addition to the traditional Pot chair, the bar also featured an extended, wall-mounted sofa model. For this exclusive bar environment, Arne Jacobsen created a number of designs in addition to the Pot sofa, including the smoke-coloured bar pendant lamp and egg-shaped vases in sterling silver.

 

Sources: Arne Jacobsen Design Archives. / Room 606: The SAS House and the Work of Arne Jacobsen. London: Phaidon Press / 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.

The orchid bar at the SAS Royal Hotel, 1960. Photo: Aage Strüwing © Jørgen Strüwing.
The orchid bar at the SAS Royal Hotel, 1960. Photo: Aage Strüwing © Jørgen Strüwing.
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