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Fritz Hansen Puts Rare Jørn Utzon Stool Into Production

The Utzon Stool was designed over 60 years ago and shelved

By Rain Noe - April 11

in Furniture Design

Jørn Utzon is the Danish architect best known for designing the Sydney Opera House. That was a 16-year ordeal, beginning with winning a design competition in 1957, then being unpleasantly confronted with engineering challenges, ballooning costs and politically-motivated personal attacks. So vicious were the latter that Utzon left Australia in 1966, vowing never to return. He kept his promise, refused to attend the structure's eventual opening in 1973, and never got to see the completed Opera House in person.

Image: Bjarte Sorensen - CC BY-SA 3.0

While that's all been documented, less well known is that prior to Utzon's introduction to the complexities of international architecture, he actually designed a whimsical piece of furniture. He had been prototyping a sort of pre-metabolist stool in the 1950s, prior to getting swept up in the Opera House maelstrom.

The stool was never realized, but Fritz Hansen has announced they've now put the Utzon Stool into production, after six-plus decades.

"Utzon approached furniture design by applying the same principles that defined his architecture, a synthesis of diverse references and what he called additive architecture, multiple configurations using a limited number of prefabricated components," says Marie-Louise Høstbo, Fritz Hansen's Creative Design Director.

"In the stool, the modular principle is evident in the repetitive shapes of the steam-bent legs. Utzon often used maritime references and the spheres of the seat recall marine fenders along with his love of nature and its recurring forms."

"The wooden spheres echo wooden models that Utzon made for some of his projects, the most famous of which is the spherical solution for the sails of the Sydney Opera House roof. The protruding mushroomlike forms also evoke the playful side of Utzon."

Made of beech with brass accents, the stool runs $1,500.

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Anders H

7 months ago

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Too complicated for it's own good and probably very expensive to produce.

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Dan Lewis

7 months ago

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Reminds me of Nelson's Marshmello Sofa. More fun to look at than sit on.

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- Chuck Mack
  
  Dan Lewis
  
  7 months ago
  
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  That was also my first impression - similar concept as the Marshmellow Sofa. That was Irving Harper working at Nelson Studio. George Nelson put his name on everything that came out of his studio.
  
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