“Furniture has to create experiences – and keep on doing so. A piece of furniture should be able to take many years of people getting into it.”

Strand + Hvass – alias Christina Strand and Niels Hvass, who both graduated Danmarks Designskole – are certainly experts in brilliant furniture design Working together and on their own, they’ve won countless design awards in Denmark and abroad.

“It’s important that a piece of furniture has something to give. It has to tell a story,” says Niels Hvass.

Strand and Hvass make it clear that they make furniture for people.

“For me, the ultimate praise is when a customer sits down in a chair I’ve designed and says ‘They’ve been thinking about me’”, Christina Strand explains.

This user-oriented approach can be seen in numerous Strand + Hvass works, including the exquisite TAZ series of stackable chairs and dining tables. The series is distinguished by its combination of uncompromising functionality and clean lines.

The TAZ chair was created to accommodate people’s natural seating needs and to harmonise with the curves of the body – without compromising its elegant styling. The TAZ table was designed for integration with everyday life – and features a discreet look, perfect leg placement, and materials that can withstand real-world use.

The designers always build models of their designs – often 1:1 scale – before presenting them to the manufacturer. The home they share is furnished with their prototypes.

“It’s our laboratory. When one of our tables goes into production, we can personally vouch for its ability to withstand children’s felt-tipped markers and their parents’ spilt wine,” the couple says. Strand + Hvass work with all kinds of materials.

“We let the idea suggest the materials we use. If we’re focusing on durability, we might use wood. If we’re more concerned with dynamics, then moulded veneer might be more appropriate,” says Hvass.

CHRISTINA STRAND
Click here and read more about Christina Strand

NIELS HVASS

Niels Hvass helped lead the movement to renew Danish furniture design that started in the early 1990s. He is one of Denmark’s most talked-about and successful young furniture designers, recognised as one of the few designers who has managed to create a new artistic idiom in the tradition of Danish furniture design.

“I make furniture because I just can’t help myself. Especially chairs – I’ll never be finished with them. When I design furniture, I’m keenly aware of the fact that furniture is made for people to use. It has to be comfortable and functional – but it should also have a function when it’s not being used. Furniture also has to create rooms, environments, an image and an identity. It has to reflect the period it was produced in, and sometimes even the person who buys or uses it,” Hvass explains.

For Niels Hvass, good design involves combining practical function and artistic styling to form a whole that moves us mentally. If a design doesn’t move us, it’s meaningless and irrelevant. It’s not enough for a piece of furniture to be funny, smart, or fashionable. It also has to convey an original idea and perform its physical function flawlessly. “Furniture has to have character and personality,” Hvass insists. He believes these qualities arise when an original idea is united with perfect function –and then worked into a confident, sublime simplicity. Only then is a piece of furniture something people grow fonder of as the years go by.

1987
Completed studies at Danmarks Designskole, Department of Furniture and Tools
1990
Started his own design company
1996
Awarded the Danish Academy Council’s Non Nobis donation
1996
Awarded the Danish Design Foundation’s Design Prize
1997
Awarded 3-year stipend from the Danish Art Foundation
1998
Awarded the Georg Jensen Prize
1999
Started the Strand + Hvass design company
2004
Visiting designer at Danmarks Designskole
2004
Awarded le prix de l´esthétique
2006
Awarded the Red Dot Design Award
2006
Awarded the Furniture Prize