MOBELDESIGNMUSEUM - Key Persons
Achille Castiglioni worked together with his brother Pier Giacomo during the 1950s and 60's where they made designs for among others Zanotta and Flos. In 1956 Achille played an important part of the founding of ADI (Associazione per il designio industriale) and during the 80's he was appointed professor at the Politechnico di Milano.
Achille Castiglioni graduated in architecture from the Politechnico di Milano in 1944 and joined the design studio founded by his brothers Pier Giacomo and Livio and the designer Luigi Caccia Dominioni.
Aino Aalto was a Finnish architect and designer who founded the Artek company in 1935 with her husband Alvar Aalto, Maire Gullichsen and Nils-Gustav Hahl. Most known for the glassware Böljeblick (Karhula-Iittala, 1932) and for the development of laminated furniture and the use of plywood.
Aino Aalto was born 1894 in Helsinki, Finland. At the age of 19 she began her studies in architecture at Helsinki technical university (Helsinki Polytechnic), from which she graduated in 1920 as one of only three women in her year. After graduation, Aalto started working with the architect Oiva Kallio, but in 1924 she left to join the architect studio of Alvar Aalto. In only six months, Aino and Alvar had become a couple and swiftly married. Even though she now was a wife, and soon also a mother, Aino Aalto didn't stop working as a designer in her own name, which was very uncommon at the time. She also continued to lead the day-to-day work at Aalto´s office, as well as giving creative and logistic input on his projects.
Alvar Aalto is one of the best known Nordic architects and designers from the modernist era. Aalto's buildings, furniture and interiors are world renowned and the company Artek founded in 1935, is still manufacturing his furniture.
Alvar Aalto was born in 1898 in Kourtane, Finland but moved at a young age to Jyväskylä. At the age of 18, Aalto began architectural studies at Helsinki technical university (Helsinki Polytechnic) but was called up for military service during the Finnish winter war. When the war ended in 1918, Aalto came back to the university and graduated in 1921. Two years later, in 1923, Aalto set up his own architect studio in his hometown of Jyväskylä.
Björn Alge was the building engineer turned industrial designer perhaps most known for the chair Yran in 1985 as well as his work for better work ethics in the design industry.
Björn Alge worked as a buildings engineer and logger, when in 1978 he got accepted to study industrial design at Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts and Design in Stockholm from where he graduated in 1982.
Alge's debut furniture was the chair Frame from 1982, in which his background as an engineer is clear to see in the steady, but light, wooden construction. One of Alge first commissions was to create furniture for a café. Together with the producer Lindelöfs Interiör he made a collection called Fest-Yra (in English party-fever) that was launched on the furniture fair in Stockholm 1986. The collection consisted of a table; Fest and a chair Yran. (The name of Yran Alge got from two chairs that inspired him the most: Hans J Wegner's Y-chair (eng. Wishbone chair) and Arne Jacobssen's Myran (eng. The ant)).
During the 80's and 90's Alge became one of Sweden's most influential industrial designers. He was a partner in the firm of Landqvist & Sjöholm and later started his own business under the name Myra Industrial Design.
As chairman of the Swedish Industrial Designers between 1987-89, Alge worked for better work ethics in the design industry. In 1998 he played a part in the foundation of the Swedish Design Academy that worked towards: "to give attention, encouragement and support the evolution of industrial design in Sweden in the fields of education and research within the theoretical as well as the practical side of the profession." His interest in education, also brought him to Konstfack, and the board of education at the institution for industrial design.
Commercially it's for the many office chairs made together with Kinnarps, that Alge is best known. His chairs from the series 6-8 000 were produced by the thousands per day in the late 1990's.
Job Titles:
- Professor in Furniture Design at Konstfack University of Arts
Bror Boije worked in the design department at Volvo in Gothenburg during the early 60's but later moved to Stockholm and studied interior architecture and furniture design at Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts and Design from where he graduated in 1970.
Carl Bergsten is most known for being the architect behind the art gallery Liljevalchs in Stockholm, but was also one of the most prominent Swedish furniture designers and interior architects of the early 1900's.
Emma Marga Blanche is born in France but moved to Stockholm where she in 2010 founded the design studio Färg & Blanche with partner Fredrik Färg. Blanche has made designs for manufactures such as Gärsnäs, Johanson Design, BD Barcelona and Asplund.
Emma Marga Blanche studied a bachelor's in furniture and interior design at L.I.S.A.A. Renne in France from where she graduated in 2006. In 2011 she founded the design studio Färg & Blanche together with interior architect and designer Fredrik Färg. The duo designs furniture and objects on both exclusively handmade and industrially produced as well as exhibitions.
Job Titles:
- Company 's Artistic Director
Erik Chambert was an interior architect, artist and furniture designer who worked in the Chambert family furniture company since 1925. He was a prolific participant in several art exhibitions and he also designed fabrics.
Erik Chambert had gotten his apprentice diploma in carpenting when he began studying to become an interior architect. In 1925 he was one of the first to graduate in that field from Högre Konstindustriella Skolan (from 1993 Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts and Design) in Stockholm. From the year of his graduation, Chambert and his brother Otto ran the family furniture company Chamberts Möbelfabrik in Norrköping, which had been founded by their father in 1883.
Erik Chambert became the company's artistic director, and he designed several furniture series during a long period of time. The Poem chair with its tall back made of white lacquered birch and a rattan seat, from 1953 is one of the most prolific designs.
Erik Chambert was represented at several national, as well as international, exhibitions both as a designer and an artist, including the world exhibitions in Paris 1937 and New York 1939. Two years after his death in 1988, a retrospective exhibition of Chambert's work opened at Millesgården Art Gallery in Stockholm and later at Norrköping´s Art Museum 2015-2016.
Folke Bensow is best known for designing the textile factory building in Norrköping, commonly known as the Iron Building from 1917. Bensow also made furniture designs, mostly in cast iron, for among others the World exhibition in Paris 1925.
Folke Bensow studied architecture at Chalmers University of Technology, in Gothenburg from where he graduated in 1909 and then continued at the Royal Academy of Art in Stockholm until 1912. From 1910 to 1911 he also studied at the Danish Kunstakademien in Copenhagen.
Gunnar Asplund studied at KTH Royal Institute of Technology and the Royal Academy of Fine Arts from 1905-1910, after which he went on to study under the architects Ragnar Östberg and Carl Westman at the Klara Skola (Klara School) in Stockholm.
As architect Gunnar Eklöf specialized in interors and furnishings for hospitals. As designer he is best known for the Åkerblom chair concept he developed together with the physician Bengt Åkerblom in 1949.
Gunnar Eklöf graduated from Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts and Design in Stockholm 1931. He soon became focused on interiors and furniture for retirements homes and hospitals such as the Eastman Institute (1934-35), the Karolinska University Hospital (1936-39) and Södersjukhuset (1939-46) all in Stockholm. During the 1930´s Eklöf also designed several chairs in the Scandinavian modernist style.
Hans Coray is the designer who started out as a doctor in Romanic languages. He is best known for the Landi Chair, designed to the Swiss National Exhibition in 1938.
Hans Coray completed a doctorate in Romanic languages from the University of Zurich in 1929, and the following year he began designing objecs for everyday use such as lunch bags and metal ski tips. In 1938 he designed his first and most well-known piece of furniture the Landi Chair, as the official chair for the Swiss National Exhibition- Landi Schweizerische Landesausstellung in 1939.
Harry Bertoia was born in San Lorenzo, Italy 1915 but emigrated to USA in 1930. Seven years later her received a scholarship to study at Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.
Jan Bočan studied architecture at the Czech Technical University in Prague after which he started working at the Union of Planning Studios. He later worked at the Beta Atelier established by Jan Šrámek, and after at the Planning Institute of Prague.
Janne Ahlin studied at Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts and Design in Stockholm during the 1960s, where he together with Jan Dranger, Martin Eiserman and Johan Huldt, got an internship at the furniture manufacturer DUX in Trelleborg. The students' assignment from the company was to create furniture for the young generation. The four students founded the group Dux4yra in 1967, with the aim to make modern furniture at a low price. The collaboration with DUX resulted in the sofa Multomanen, the collection Well, with pieces made of corrugated cardboard, and The Envelope, a coach made of fabric covered wooden panels that was delivered in a flat package.
Joe Colombo opened his own design studio in 1963 from where he designed pieces like the portable storage system Boby for Bieffeplast in 1969. Colombo developed the idea of prismatic lamps and was the first to design a domestic light made for halogen light bulb.
Joe Colombo studied architecture at the Politechnico di Milano and painting at the Brera Academy in Milan from 1949 to 1955. As an artist Colombo joined the Nuclear Art Movement and MAC (Movemento Arte Concreta). As a designer Colombo made his breakthrough when he designed a television set and a setting for ceramics shown at the X Triennale di Milano in 1954.
Job Titles:
- Designer
- Construction Engineer
Jonas Bohlin graduated as a construction engineer before he began his studies in interior architecture and furniture design at Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts and Design in Stockholm. For his graduation project in 1981 Bohlin designed the chair Concrete made of concrete and corrugated steel tubes later presented at the Stockholm furniture fair and spotted by by the company Källemo.
Bohlin became a lecturer at Beckmans College of Design in 1988 and was one of the founders of the schools Design BA-course in 1992 and from 2004 to 2009 he was appointed professor in furniture design at Konstfack. Bohlin has been president of the Association of Sweden's Interior Architects (SIR) and a chairman of the Academy of Interior Architects. In 1997 he became a member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. Since the 1980's Bohlin has created several interiors for restaurants in Stockholm, such as Rolfs Kök, Sturehof and Riche.
Bohlin has received several awards, such as the George Jensen prize in 1988 and the Prize Eugen Medal in 2014. In 2021 Bohlin created the interior design for the restaurant Aira in Djurgården for which he received the Guldstolen Award by Architects Sweden.
Job Titles:
- Swedish Architects and Designers
Spanish designer Manel Molina founded the well known Barcelona based studio Lievore Altherr Molina together with German designer Jeanette Altherr and Argentinian Alberto Lievore in 1991. Since 2016 Molina works from his own studio Estudi Manel Molina.
Manel Molina stuided interior and industrial design at the EINA School in his hometown of Barcelona. From 1985 until 1989 he worked together with designer Miquel Mila on interiors and product design. Together with German designer Jeanette Altherr and Argentinian Alberto Lievore, Molina founded the design studio Lievore Altherr Molina in Barcelona 1991.
Otto Korhonen founded the furniture manufacturing company Hounekalutehdas Korhonen Oy together with three other carpenters in Turku 1910. At the end on the 1920's, Korhonen partnered with Alvar Aalto and their first design was a stackable chair in 1927.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts
Åke Axelsson has been active as an interior architect and furniture designer for nearly 70 years. Among his works, the interior of the Swedish Parliament (1971) and the many furniture designed for the manufacturer Gärsnäs are some of his most notable achievements.
Åke Axelsson studied at the Visby School of Woodwork from 1947 to -51 after which he took an internship at a workshop in Munich where he stayed until 1952. In 1952-57 Axelsson studied interior architecture and furniture design at Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts and Design under the architect Carl Axel Acking.
Åke Axelsson has been a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts since 1989. In 1996 he was awarded the Prince Eugene Medal and the following year he received the Bruno Mathsson Award and was honored with professor's title. In 2022, Axelsson was named an honorary doctor by the Linköping University.