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Our Top 5 Beautiful Projects from Carl Hansen

Wishbone ChairsThe Carl Hansen firm is a master furniture maker. The man opened his first workshop in Odense, Denmark, on October 28, 1908. But the company’s designs are as relevant today as they were in 1908.

This goes for the work of Hans Wegner. He collaborated with Carl Hansen & Søn and the Wishbone chair was the first product of the liaison. Indeed Carl Hansen has produced this iconic piece since 1950.

Wegner began his series of chairs in 1944. What inspired him was a portrait. It showed Danish merchants sitting in traditional Ming chairs.

The Wishbone Chair was the last and most distinct of this series. The inspiration is visible, but the chair’s form is original.

The back legs are still steam-bent. And the curve tapers to link up with the circular back rail that is also steam-bent. But this style of joinery is far from simple, although the result is a strong, lightweight piece of furniture.

It is a perfect representation of Carl Hansen’s passion, open-mindedness and autonomy. And these are principles that drive so much of the company’s products.

Here are five beautiful Carl Hansen furniture projects. We hope you will find they give you lots of inspiration for your own home or place of work.

Podernuovo Srl Società Agricola vineyard

Podernuovo Srl Società Agricola vineyard is a beautiful place. It lies about 100 km to the southeast of the spectacular city of Siena. Old olive groves and grapevines stretching to the horizon dominate the landscape.

Built in 2012 by Giovanni and Paulo Bulgari. Indeed Giovanni still runs the operation. And the vineyard he has developed is famous for producing three high-quality red wines. The main building is 4,500 square metres in size. The winemakers run all aspects of the business from here. This includes production and wine tasting.

The style is modern minimalist. With natural materials and the way they interplay with the landscape the results are as exquisite as they are key. With a rectangular footprint, the building is in a slope that faces south. This means views from the top floor stretch in all directions. Those from the two lower floors only offer the southern aspect.

Podernuovo Srl Società Agricola has concrete elements. The colouring is light and sandy. This harmonizes with the gold and green hues of the surrounding vegetation. Designed with longitudinal bearing walls the interior has large rectangular rooms.

Wishbone ChairOrganic Shapes

Visitors use the 86-square-metre winetasting room. They can enjoy views through the glass wall that reveals the floor underneath. This floor houses a large hall that contains oak wine barrels. The winetasting room furnishings are simple and stringent. The complete focus is on the wine that is, of course, the essence of the place.

The floor’s rustic tiles are handmade using light-brown clay that has been hard fired. These are also used on the terrace that is on the other side of the glass wall. There is a 160 x 700 cm table, designed by the building’s architects. It is wax-treated oak and stands on a bronze-iron frame.

The downlights illuminate this table from the ceiling when it is dark. This gives the room increased focus and enhanced attention. There are no less than 30 of the iconic Wishbone Chairs around the table. To boost the effect these are the only seats in the room.

They have beautiful organic shapes, showing off genuine materials and providing legendary comfort. This gives the room a decorative and functional but natural feel. The CH24, as the Wishbone Chair is also known, is an iconic piece.

Palau de Casavells

carl hansen coffee tablesPalau de Casavells is set inside a group of historic buildings. It is near Girona in Spain.  Put together by Luis Sendino and Jacobo Valentí the result is is eclectic. It combines unique art with vernacular architecture, and adds some spectacular Scandinavian touches.

Luis Sendino was a Madrid lawyer who specialised in intellectual property and copyright. He and his Barcelona-based architect friend Jacobo Valentí came up with the idea of Palau de Casavells in 2014.

Their vision was to create a natural extension of Barcelona’s Side Gallery. What they have produced is now reputed for supporting international and local artists by presenting distinctive programming.

carl hansen lounge chairThe bonus for the two men is that also use Casavells as their country house.  What excites them about their place are the boundaries and borders. As Valenti says they are “the richest kinds of places”. He correlates them with riversides, which “are where we find the most life”.

To embody this intersection between functionality and aesthetics they have deployed much beautiful Carl Hansen furniture. Valentí believes this emphasizes things that are at once visually pleasing, useful and strong. The living space is offset by Wegner’s CH25 lounge chair, which Valentí  describes as “both raw and elegant”.

The CH25 is among the first four chairs that Wegner created exclusively for Carl Hansen & Søn. The chair was considered revolutionary when it was launched in 1950. It is worth noting that if you buy one of these and need any repairs Olson + Bake also offer a bespoke upholstery service.

Baron House

carl hansen dining tablesBritish architect John Pawson designed this vacation house in rural southern Sweden. He added white interiors and stipulated the use of light and organic furniture.

What Pawson achieved with Baron House trimmed away any non-essentials. It allows his design to breathe. This, in turn, enables people to engage with the volume, light, and material of any given space in the property.

The intention was to emphasise the look and feel of the materials used. Pawson also wanted to create a sense of calm. The Baron House building is in Skåne, Sweden. Local materials combine with traditional architecture. There are full-height windows and the interior is almost all white. It is a Swedish farmhouse reinterpreted to be both inviting and minimalist.

Pawson selected furniture to add a welcoming and warm feel. This includes the Wishbone Chair. Pawson has always admitted he admires Wegner’s work. For him the Wishbone Chair epitomizes modernism. It emphasises clean lines, craftsmanship and quality materials. Pawson says it’s impossible to surpass Wegner’s proportions, details, textures, and quality finishes.

Villa in Cape Town, South Africa

easy chair carl hansenRamón Casadó is a man of style. He was the top kitchen designer for bulthaup in London for many years.

Then eight years ago he founded Living Kitchens in Cape Town. Six years after that he launched his Domum brand.

He has designed kitchens for television stars, film directors, and music industry magnates. These people had unique visions for their homes. What they wanted was the very best quality and craftsmanship. What Spanish-born Casadó offers is practical functionality coupled with high eco-standards. This was the basis on which he built Domum. The brand does not offer compromises and these are unacceptable for Casadó too.

carl hansen chairs ukThere are sumptuous rays of light in his South African home. To enhance these the designer has chosen high-quality furniture from Carl Hansen’s. With it, Casadó has transformed his 1929 cottage into a coherent home with many units.

He has balanced the whole between black, white, and grey. But, he has also retained the property’s original character. To avoid a hulk, he has transformed the large property into several smaller units. Each has its own thatched roof. The garden is what attracted him to the property. To protect this the complex now has a horseshoe formation.

A guest house that used to be a garage forms half the horseshoe. The façades are all finished in white plaster with dark grey window frames and bars. The garden has a large variety of flora. This includes Syringa, Strelizia, Ficus, Australian Paper Tree, Cabbage Tree, and Stinkwood.

High-quality Carl Hansen Furniture

The elements that make the biggest impression are the high-quality pieces of furniture. These include:

The last of these comes in solid wood, leather and stainless steel. Wegner designed them all in collaboration with Carl Hansen & Søn.

Both the original and the new parts of Casadó’s complex blend into each other in a natural way. The design is stringent, but the place exudes calm relaxation.

Without any surprise the centre of the home is the kitchen. It is partly positioned in a link building made from glass. This allows natural light to come flooding in.

The bulthaup kitchen’s finish is in white laminate. The room features a high counter and a Wegner bar stool. This CH56 barstool is in solid oak with a leather seat. The design also includes stainless steel. Wegner designed the stool in 1985. The result is simple and practical. As with all Hansen furniture, it is superbly-crafted and offers great comfort. It is also available in a lower version, the CH58 barstool.

This glass building connects to the living room. Both have silver-grey granite floors. The furniture sits on a large, patterned, black and white rug. It includes Wegner’s CH445 Wing Chair, upholstered in light grey wool. There is also a black coffee table and another Wegner armchair. Oak Wishbone Chairs surround the dining room’s dark stained oak table.

Casadó explains that he first discovered Carl Hansen & Søn around 2001. He fell in love with the Wishbone chairs, and always planned to have Hansen pieces in his own home.

Hotel SP34, Copenhagen, Denmark

carl hansen and søn catalogueSP34 is a Copenhagen boutique hotel in the city’s Latin district. Since it opened in 2014 it has taken hospitality to new heights.

Part of this equation is an open façade that draws the street into the building. Once inside, the furniture is so alluring it invites visitors to touch and feel it.

Owned and run by Mette and Søren Brøchner , the hotel’s name refers to its address on Sankt Peders Stræde.

Its rating is 4+ stars and the hotel offers 118 rooms that range in size from 18 to 50m2. There are three penthouse suites along with two restaurants. Conference facilities are available on two floors and can accommodate 100 people. There is also a cinema that seats 25.

The Brøchners’ aim was for the hotel to be as attractive as possible. They removed the majority of the ground level solid walls. This has opened the restaurants and the lobby to the public at large. When guests check-in at the bar they can see hams and cheeses hanging from the ceiling.

The idea is always to arouse people’s curiosity. The owners want people to discover where all the various elements come from. These include the lights, the chairs, and the tables.

Unique Carl Hansen Conference Chairs

Bar stoolThey chose CH88P chairs. Designed for a Swedish exhibition in 1955, they existed only as drawings in Wegner’s archive for many years. But the hotel’s architects felt the chair and its story were ideal for the hotel.

They wanted the conference chairs to be attractive. They were after a high-quality finish that people would look at and touch. Like Wegner’s other chairs, the CH88 enables movement. This is a huge advantage for people who may have to sit still for many hours. Their curved back- and armrests offer perfect resting places. The CH88 chairs are also found in the hotel’s lobby too.

Other pieces of Carl Hansen furniture used in the hotel include:

·         The CH56 barstool (above)

·         Frits Henningsen’s FH419 Heritage Chair.

The latter harks back to bygone eras and styles. But, it still manages to maintain its timeless beauty.

Also, there is the MG501 Cuba Lounge Chair. Morten Gøttler designed this in 1997. It captures the contemporary design of those days. And it offers an ideal balance of form and function.

Ole Wanscher designed Carl Hansen’s OW149 Colonial Lounge Chair, which is also used. It combines contrasting materials and forms in its bid to create a refined whole.Carl Hansen CH88P Seat Upholstered Chair

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