Not many Danish designers were internationally known during the Mid Century: Finn Juhl was one of them. He was born in 1912 and after his graduation in 1934 at the Royal Academy in Copenhagen he worked for ten years for the Vilhelm Lauritzen’s architect studio.

At the beginning of his career Finn Juhl never considered to become an industrial designer In fact, he realized his first designs more for his own use than for a mass-production. In addition, he was always caring more about the form of his object than to the function: a characteristic that provoked not few criticisms from the Danish design environment.

The Pelikan Chair designed in 1939, one of his first furniture project, was exhibited during the Guild Exhibitions -a yearly Cabinetmaker’s Exhibition- and highly criticized because of its organic form far from the Danish furniture tradition of functional objects. However, despite the numerous criticisms Finn Juhl works started to be appreciated abroad throughout the 1940s for the virtuous, radical and organic design clearly inspired by contemporary artists like Alexander Calder and Hans Arp and by natural forms; like the early Pelikan Chair and the Chieftain Chair.

The mix of craft manufacture, care for the details, high quality materials and contemporary art influences made the Finn Juhl’s pieces easy to distinguish thanks to the organic and sculptural forms. The exclusive design caught the US company Baker Furniture attention that mass-produced Juhl’s furniture from the early 50s on; the Baker Sofa is one of the piece he designed for the company.

Finn Juhl also designed interiors for apartments and exhibitions including accessorizes like vases for Kay Bojesen, kitchen appliances for the General Electric, rugs for Unika-Vaev and glass accessories for Georg Jensen. On the interiors‘ side, his project to furnish the Trusteeship Council Chamber in New York helped his popularity to grow further and the ‚Danish Modern Design‘ to become known and appreciated internationally.

Scandinavian architects and designers often chose natural materials like the wood for their works; sometimes taking it to the most extreme use possible. Also Finn Juhl gave his significant contribution to the wood-manufacturing implementing new Teak processing techniques that allowed him -for example- to bend the wood giving to his pieces organic and virtuous forms; starting what was later called the ‚Teak style‘.

During the 60s ant 70s the Finn Juhl’s furniture were almost forgotten by the market. But, starting from the 80s they come back winning, in 2010, a prize in the ‚Best Reisue/Sofa design‘ category of the Wallpaper Design Award.

Finn Juhl has been one of the greatest designers of the mid century period. To discover everything about it , check Mid Century Home now!