By Jessica Whittaker

The School of Arts and Crafts and the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen, Denmark, has given birth to some of the world’s most well-known furniture and architectural designers of the 20th century. Nanna Ditzel, who was born in the city in 1923, is one of the few women whose name is known in the furniture community and recognized as one of the best. Nanna Ditzel graduated in furniture design in 1946 at the age of 23 and establiNanna Ditzeld her own studio with first husband Jorgen Ditzel the same year. Nanna Ditzel is still working in the design sector today.

Nanna Ditzel’s career was launched in the years after World War II and Nanna Ditzel was faced with designing furniture that incorporated not only new materials but also new techniques. Some of the materials Nanna Ditzel has worked with over her long career include fiber glass, wicker, and foam rubber. Furniture is not the only thing Nanna Ditzel applied her knowledge to. Nanna Ditzel is a trained cabinetmaker and has also worked in designing jewelry, textiles, and tableware. Nanna Ditzel tried her hand at applied art and during the 1950s Nanna Ditzel even dabbled in split-level floor seating, as many homes of the time used design techniques such as sunken or raised platform rooms.

Some of Nanna Ditzel’s signature pieces include the ‘Two-Seat Sofa’ which was well accepted. It had very intriguing and eye drawing curves yet remained both decorative and functional. The ‘Basket’ or ‘Hanging’ chair was a wicker chair that was suspended from the ceiling by lengths of chain and one of Nanna Ditzel’s many forays into working with wicker. Collaborations with her husband Jorgen produced one of the most notable pieces of furniture Nanna Ditzel ever designed, the ‘Toadstool’, stacking pieces for children that served as both a table and a stool.

In 1954, Nanna Ditzel and her husband began to craft jewelry that won them both gold and silver awards at the Milan Trienalle. The jewelry Nanna Ditzel developed used inspiration from water to create little ripples of metal as if a stone had been thrown into a pond. Nanna Ditzel wanted her pieces to communicate a simple and elegant form that was both organic and unique. Nanna Ditzel continued her creative endeavors even after Jorgen passed away in 1961 and participated in numerous ‘one woman’ exhibits throughout Europe. Nanna Ditzel began working with textiles which are distributed by Kvadrat.

In 1968, Nanna Ditzel married fellow designer Kurt Heide and moved to England. Together they founded the company Interspace, an international design firm that includes Nanna Ditzel Productions that sells her jewelry, textiles, and furniture. Many of her designs are still being manufactured by Georg Jensen, Fredericia, Kvist, Getama, and other furniture manufacturers. Interspace is still going strong and is one of the leading international furniture houses today.

Nanna Ditzel has won many awards for her design work including the Gold Medal in the 1990 International Furniture Design Competition that was held in Japan. The piece that won her the award was the Fredericia produced ‘Bench for Two’. Nanna Ditzel was elected Honorable Royal Designer in London in 1996 and has received the lifelong Artists’ Grant by the Danish Ministry of Culture in 1998. The Danish Ministry of Education produced a film about Ditzel that covers her designs and working methods and Nanna Ditzel was the subject of Henrik Sten Moller’s book “Motion And Beauty”.

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Source: isnare.com

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