Denmark Report - He may be best known for his chairs the Ant, the Swan, the Model 3107 But he also created myriad other things, frorn cutlery to gardens. Most notably in his homeland, he designed buildings, including offices, homes and schools. applying the same rigorous standards of beauty and practicality to his big projects as he did to to small ones.Jacobsen’s work—in all shapes and sizes—is in the spotlight this year, the centenary of his birth. Stores still stock many of the household goods he designed. Two major museums are putting on retro-spectives to celebrate the prolific artist, who died in1971. And you can still visit the buildings he created in towns across the country.

ARNE JACOBSEN’S fingerprints are all over Denmark.

He may be best known for his chairs the Ant, the Swan, the Model 3107 But he also created myriad other things, frorn cutlery to gardens. Most notably in his homeland, he designed buildings, including offices, homes and schools. applying the same rigorous standards of beauty and practicality to his big projects as he did to to small ones.

Jacobsen’s work—in all shapes and sizes—is in the spotlight this year, the centenary of his birth. Stores still stock many of the household goods he designed. Two major museums are putting on retro-spectives to celebrate the prolific artist, who died in1971. And you can still visit the buildings he created in towns across the country.

There has never been a better time to visit the designer’s Denmark. The best place to start is by the sea. In 191O. Jacobsen won the commission to design the Belevue complex in Kampenborg, north of Copenhagen. One of his first major projects, this seaside getaway remains one of the few places where visitors can be immersed in a world of clean-lined, minimalist Jacobsen. “It is characteristic of him that he managed it all, landscaping, architecture, furniture and applied arts,” says Kjeld Vindum, co-author of a new monograph called Avne Jacobsen: Architect ond Designer.

The apartments overlooking the waters of the Oresund, the open-air theater with retractable roof, the refreshment kiosks on the beach, a restaurant (now called Jacobsen), even the restaurant’s plates and cutlery are “exhibits” in a living gallery. That’s the way Jacobsen would have wanted it, because the function of a work was as important to him as its aesthetic appeal. He saw each project as a Gesamtkunstwerk, a total work of art. That sounds affected he admitted a much himself— but the big word just expresses a simple concept: obsession.

“I am a bit obsessive about my work,” he said. “Architecture tends to consume everything else.” If his buildings were total works of art, then UTILITARIAN: Jacobsen’s aim was to meld form with function in his works, such as the Ant chair and the Danish National Bank building.

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