Design story
Hans J Wegner Opala Floor Lamp in white. Manufactured by Louis Poulsen. Amazing floor lamp designed by Hans Wegner, this lamp is back in production but with a revised foot. This is the original model.
The lamp is made of a modern plexi glass cone shade and grey lacquered steel stem.
Hans J. Wegner was born in Tønder, Denmark in 1914. As a teenager, Wegner apprenticed with master cabinetmaker H.F. Stahlberg before enrolling at the Danish School of Arts and Crafts in 1936. In 1940, Wegner teamed with Arne Jacobson, Flemming Lassen and Erik Møller to design furniture for the newly built City Hall building in Aarhus, Denmark. In 1943, Wegner opened his own design studio. Wegner always insisted on the highest standard of craftsmanship for his furniture, and his chairs often feature traditional mortise and tenon joints and unique materials such as paper cord.
Throughout his career, Wegner had a fondness for integrating wood into his chairs, and he had a special talent for using the characteristics of the material to create surprising, sculptural lines.
Wegner designed over 500 chairs out of which 100 was put into production and many have become design icons. He gained great recognition for his furniture, and won a number of awards and prizes. Some of his chairs are on permanent display at MoMA in New York.
In 1961 his Round Chair was used during the first nationally televised presidential debate between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon.
As Wegner got older, his health started declining and he withdrew from work. Wegner retired in 1993 and his daughter Marianne took over his studio.
In 2014, the Design Museum of Denmark honoured Wegner with a retrospective of his work. Wegner’s furniture designs are held in the collections across the globe.
Read more about Hans J Wegner and other designers interesting life’s and design philosophies here.
