Hans Wegner (1914-2007) is a Danish furniture designer who designed the majority of Trent’s large collection furniture. The typical “Great Hall Chairs” that students immediately recognize are designed by Wegner. Wegner attended the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Design, but back in 1934 it was simply called “the Artisan College”. Upon graduation he connected with carpenter Johannes Hansen who helped him to build and mass-produce his furniture designs. In 1940 Wegner received his first big break, working with Arne Jacobsen to outfit the Aarhus, Denmark town hall with their fresh modernist furniture designs. Since then, he has built a furniture empire through Hansen’s distribution pathways, and The Design Museum Denmark purchased their first Wegner chair in 1942.
Three-legged chair
Year First Created: 1949
Round 501 “Kennedy” chair
This chair was nicknamed the “Kennedy” chair as Wegner’s design was used to seat John. F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon in the first televised United States Presidential debate in 1960.
Year First Produced: 1949:
CH36/37 Side chair (paper cord seat)
[Wegner CH36 Chair] The CH36 chair is seen as the “typical great hall chair” at Trent, although they were actually purchased for the Traill College Dining Hall. Its partner, the CH37, is identical to the CH36 with the addition of bentwood armrests. The repaired chairs have a square-woven cord seat as opposed to a triangle cord seat, as the original weaving method is very difficult to replicate.
Year First Produced:1962
Upsilon “wishbone” chair
This was a very complicated and brilliant chair to produce in 1950, and has been described by the Conran Directory of Design as “completely faultless… form is spare and harmonious. It does not have any faults or mendacious pretences”.
Year First Produced: 1950