Arne Jacobsen

Arne Jacobsen (1902-1971) 

Arne Jacobsen was a Danish designer, famed for the Egg and Swan chairs as shown below. These were designed in conjunction with Fritzhansen, a Danish furniture design company, for the Royal Hotel in Copenhagen. The look of these designs was very modern for 1958 and this was a major contribution to the Scandinavian design movement. 

Despite the fact Jacobsen was first and foremost an architect, he is most famous for the products he created for these buildings. A firm believer in architectural functionalism, Jacobsen's buildings are unobtrusive and many are still in use today. 

Jacobsen is famed for his sense of proportion and this stems from his architecture background. His products include cutlery ranges, lighting and furniture. He even created a cocktail kit for his son-in-laws company Stelton. Jacobsen envisioned the entire experience of the buildings he created as he believed the design of every element was equally important. 

I would classify Jacobsen's work as a good design method due to how well rounded the final designs are and how everything has been considered down to the smallest details.

Jacobsen's work can be found in some interesting places, for example his cutlery designs are used in Kubrick's 2001 A Space Odyssey. The provocative image of Christine Keeler on a copy of his No.7 chair became famous in exposing a political scandal.

An interesting (and difficult to pronounce) word I discovered during my research was : Gesamtkunstwerk  

It translates as ‘universal art,’  total work of art’ and in architecture, is the idea of the architecture encompassing more than just the building. It tends to include the shell, accessories, furniture and even the landscape.