Bodil Kj\u00e6r is as precise as the architectural lines of her furniture. Ahead of an interview, she sends talking points that read like a manifesto. \u2018I am not a furniture designer; I am a designer of environments. I am concerned about solving problems of the kind that can be defined...
We celebrate the work of Danish architect and designer Bodil Kjær, on her 90th birthday . In this exclusive interview, she shares her views on spaces, furniture and her life in designImage courtesy of Carl Hansen & Søn.Portrait: Thomas Loof
, storage systems, lights and vases were never created as objects per se, they were designed in the broader context of space, as what she calls ‘elements of architecture’, to address specific problems relating to use and aesthetics.‘My furniture designs come from architecture – spatial and also based on construction principles. I think in structures – will it hold up, can you pull it apart, how do the guys in the factory put it together.
Although Kjær is resolutely Danish in many respects – happily ‘grounded’ in Aarhus, not far from where she grew up in the east Jutland countryside on land her family has owned since the 1400s – her perspective and aspirations have always been international. She prefers to be bracketed with the post-war American and European designers than Danish midcentury modern’s big names. ‘I’m the only Dane who has ever been invited into Cassina,’ she says with some pride.
The best aspect of her recent fame is the new cohort of design professionals, writers and, most importantly, potential users she has encountered on a circuit encompassing Kjær, who was a tenured professor at the University of Maryland near Washington, DC in the 1980s before returning permanently to Aarhus, has never officially retired. Over the past decade, she has assiduously dealt with her archive, gifting personal and professional items to many institutions.
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