Paper Architecture #Kaare Klint

Kaare Klint is one of the most influential names of modern furniture in Denmark. Among his best-known works are the Faaborg Chair and the Safari Chair, in which the combination of industrial production and handicraft characteristic of Scandinavian design is accurately applied. As professor of the Department of Furniture Design of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Denmark, he had equally famous students such as Hans Wegner or Arne Jacobsen.

Kaare Klint and his school did not see furniture as an ideological manifesto. Tradition and functionality were the references from which his teaching started. He wanted to create an object of timeless use, an instrument for living.” Karl Mang, Storia del mobile moderno, Ed. Laterza, Roma, 1982

Not so well known is perhaps Klint’s relationship with architecture and lighting. Trained as an architect, Kaare Klint was the son of the architect P.V. Jensen-Klint. After his father’s death, Kaare Klint completed the construction of the Gruntvig’s Church and, also from his father’s sketches, he built the Bethlehem Church, both in Copenhagen and curious examples of expressionist architecture. Klint was also responsible for the conversion of Frederiks Hospital into the Danish Museum of Art and Design. Klint is also the author of the furniture design for both the museum and the churches.

Following also a tradition initiated by his father, Kaare Klint is the author of the Fruit paper lamp, produced and marketed by the company Le Klint. This company, founded and directed by his brother Tage Klint, specializes in the production of folded paper lamp shades. The Fruit lamp, simple, modern and relatively cheap, was formed by a structure of crossed folds and represents, like Klint furniture, the combination of crafts and serial production characteristic of Scandinavian design.