Share this article
Danish brand Fritz Hansen doesn't have the reputation of working with too many designers. One of their favourites, however, is Spanish designer Jaime Hayon. We met up with him to chat about his new Fri armchair and Sammen dining chair for the brand, which got him to ponder about how he managed to strike up such a good working relationship with Fritz Hansen.
Image: Fritz Hansen
Sammen chair
An upholstered dining chair is something quite different for Fritz Hansen. How did the Sammen come about?
Fritz Hansen uses foam all the time for the bigger pieces, but mostly wood for the small pieces. So creating a dining chair that has foam seating and is upholstered was something I felt that was important because they never really make pieces like that before, despite being masters at upholstery.
I think they had amazing sales with Jacobsen's chairs, but realised they had to get out of that. And you realise that sometimes, a wooden chair doesn't look too appealing in an apartment. Now people want to have a lot of glamour at home, so you need much more… With Sammen, it means that people have another option now. And if you have a really classy restaurant, you definitely want an upholstered chair so that people will be more comfortable and stay longer.
Sammen chairs also come with optional armrests and various upholstery in sensual colours.
The Fri chair seems to have a very sculptural treatment to it. Does that come from your artistic background?
When I did the other pieces for Fritz Hansen, like the Ro chair and Favn sofa, the idea is always to work sculpturally with the pieces to bring out the beauty of light and shadow. Because when I've achieved the function and comfort of a piece of furniture, I'd say, hey, let’s make it look beautiful using the stitching and upholstery.
The Ro (left) and Fri chair.
The Fri (free in Danish) chair is in the same family as the Ro chair. We use the same feet, but the seat's geometry is redesigned. We also used a new padding system for Fri to make it more comfortable. The Ro chair is about privacy, and the Fri chair is about movement. Fri doesn’t have a high back so you're more free to look around.
As an artist-designer, I do a combination of works. Some are a little bit more crazy, like my Green Chicken rocking chair, but some are more precise like this collaboration with Fritz Hansen. And I have no problem with differenciating that, because the furniture that I like is furniture that is comfortable and nice. So when I’m wearing my designer hat, I want to create something that is nice, but also be able to inject my sense of sculpting.
Fri chair
How do you strike the balance between your style and Fritz Hansen's DNA?
Working with heritaged companies is always about not imposing your style. It’s more like collaborating. I analyse their DNA, understand their strength, and we discuss together. There was never the approach, for both parties, to make the most perfect and lucrative piece. We work well together because I created an atelier with them, and we work in the studio together a lot.
It worked really nicely because I didn’t impose my style too much, but little by little, I put grains of who I am in the designs. So the development is more subtle. It’s more an evolution than a revolution of the company.