As you might have noticed from articles I have written before, I am quite fond of the designs by the Danish brand by Lassen. Nadia Lassen started it together with her uncle Søren Lassen in 2008 to pay an homage to the designs of her great grandfather Mogens Lassen (1901-1987) and his brother Flemming Lassen (1902-1984).

Both the Lassen brothers knew at a very young age that they wanted to become architects and they successfully did so. During a job in Paris, Mogens was for example asked to work for the famous Le Corbusier (which he declined because of the language barrier) and after he opened his own studio in Denmark he became one of the founding fathers of Den Permanente, an exhibition of Danish arts and crafts. Both the brothers were friends with Arne Jacobsen and Flemming started working together with him on for example ‘the House of the Future’ and Søllerød Town Hall and its interior.

Last Saturday I had the opportunity to visit the by Lassen apartment in Antwerp and me and my friend took some photos of the amazing space that you can find right in the city center. On the two pictures above you see Flemming Lassen’s amazing The Tired Man chair which holds the record of the most expensive chair ever sold in Denmark: the original was bought for 200.000 euro. As you can see I sat in this amazing chair and one thing I can tell you is that it is super comfortable. Next to The Tired Man chair you see the Twin table in brass, an item that is definitely on my wish list for my new house, and the Kubus 1 in black.

Another wonderful design of by Lassen is the Frame storage series which Mogens Lassen first sketched in 1943. He envisioned that everyone could create their ideal storage solution by combining different sizes, colors and versions (open or with doors and with or without shelves) of the square boxes with cubic frames. However, the design never evolved past the sketch until the original drawing was discovered and, after a period of development, officially introduced in 2013.

Mogens Lassen created the final form of Kubus candleholder in 1962: the design is based on a precise ratio between each side. Kubus was only used by family, friends and close architect colleagues. After Mogens death Søren Lassen took it into production, which is still entirely done is Denmark, and since then the Kubus achieved the status of a modern international design icon. On the pictures above you can see different variations of the Kubus candleholder, the Kubus bowl, the small Frame boxes and Matchbox covers.

The Tired Man chair was made by Flemming Lassen for the Copenhagen Cabinetmakers’ Guild exhibition in 1935. Mogens Lassen presented the Saxe folding chair, which you can see on the picture above, in 1955 on the same exhibition. The chair is a stunning combination of a light wooden structure which supports the stretched leather and it has details of brass. By Lassen chose to relaunch the chairs again in 2015 at the respective 80th and 60th anniversary of the designs. On the picture above you can also see Stropp, a leather holder for magazines, tea towels, clothes and whatever else you can think of and the stunning ML42 stool.

A special thanks to Christiane van Gool for welcoming us into the by Lassen apartment last Saturday.