A glimpse behind the façade of one of Denmark's most famous designers
Børge Mogensen was one of the pioneers of Danish design. When the family sold the house, a piece of design history was lost.
Photo: Espen Grønli Text Marianne Lie Berg
‘I'd rather not sit there, that's where my father always sat when he was photographed,’ says Peter Mogensen (68). He is a designer like his father, Børge Mogensen, one of Denmark's greatest designers of all time – and still works in his old studio on the ground floor of the villa in Gentofte, north of Copenhagen.
The smoke hangs thick in the air, and almost nothing has changed since his father died in 1972. But there is one picture by the work desk that he does not want to be in.
‘This is where he tried out all his designs before they went into production. This was his laboratory,’ says Peter Mogensen.
The soul of a house
The wooden sofa, the Spanish chair, the J39 dining chair, the Shaker table and the Embassy sofas. A tour of the house is a tour through design history. There are custom-made solutions everywhere. Not a millimetre of space is wasted.
The house was completed in 1958. Børge Mogensen himself helped design it, together with architects Arne Karlsen and Erling Zeuthen Nielsen, and moved in with his wife and two sons. The 1.3-acre plot in the attractive villa area with large properties slopes down towards a forest. The house, with a living area of 126 m², including the 104 m² studio on the ground floor, extends out like an oblong box. It was Børge Mogensen's home before he developed a brain tumour and died at the age of 57.
When his widow, Alice Mogensen, died in 2011 and none of his sons were able to buy the childhood home, a heated debate erupted in the Danish press. Many believed that the house should be preserved and opened to the public, in the same way as the homes of architects and designers Finn Juhl and Arne Jacobsen. In December 2012, the house – complete with furnishings – was sold for DKK 7.1 million to Ole Paustian, founder of the furniture store Paustian, and his wife, who knew Børge Mogensen well – but were unaware of the debate surrounding the house.
‘Someone wrote to me saying that they hoped we would transfer the house to a foundation. But we have no intention of doing that. It will only be open to our friends. But we will treat it with care,’ Paustian told Berlingske Nyhedsbureau.
Historical influence
Børge Mogensen was born in Aalborg on 13 April 1914, the middle child of three siblings. His father, Niels Mogensen, and mother, Else Kristine Katrine Mogensen, gave their children a Christian upbringing with Sunday school and hymn singing. However, this did not compensate for what happened behind closed doors. In the book Et fuldt møbleret liv (A Fully Furnished Life, 2004), his second son, Thomas Mogensen, writes: ‘Time and again, Grandfather Niels' ageing anger was taken out on Børge.’ An apprenticeship in craftsmanship became his escape route from home.
In 1934, he enrolled at the Kunsthåndværkernes Møbelhøyskole (Craftsmen's Furniture School) in Copenhagen, now the Danish Design School, where he met Hans J. Wegner, one of Denmark's great furniture designers. Together they continued their studies at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture, and Børge Mogensen never enlisted in the war. For him, the struggle was to overcome the heavy Danish furniture design of the time.
In 1942, Mogensen was hired as creative director at FDB Møbler and decided to make everyday furniture: things that adapted to people, not the other way around. Arne Jacobsen, Poul Kjærholm, Hans J. Wegner and Poul Henningsen shared this way of thinking, and what is internationally known as ‘Danish Design’ was established. Industrialisation brought efficient production processes and functional furniture that everyone could afford.
‘They grew up at the right time, when there was a shift from carpentry to industrialised production,’ says Peter Mogensen.
‘Børge had the Ikea idea, with the difference that he wanted the furniture to last a lifetime.’
The designer struggled to balance his private life with his calling to design furniture. His wife Alice Mogensen was an established clothing designer when she met him, and the two were frequent visitors to Copenhagen's cultural scene in the early years.
"Børge lived off her for many years. It was her clothes that made money in the beginning," says Peter Mogensen.
As her career took off, Alice Mogensen gave up hers to serve celebrity guests from home and abroad in their villa in Gentofte. She became the stable element in the family, while her husband struggled with the boundaries between work and socialising. ‘The shape is perfect and the chair is perfect. He himself lies dead drunk under the table with a pillow under his neck, which I have been waiting all evening to place there. Tomorrow it all starts over again with a new chair, a new void that no one, neither the furniture, friends, exhibitions nor the bottle can fill,’ writes Thomas Mogensen in his book.
His drinking ended in drink driving, which sent him to prison for thirty days in 1967. His stay there inspired him to design a series of old-fashioned furniture, which was put into production by Federicia Furniture in 1968. He carried the demons that ravaged his inner self with him until the end.
CAUGHT IN AN INHERITANCE
Peter Mogensen has not changed much in his father's old drawing studio in the nearly 40 years since Børge Mogensen died. The bookshelves are still filled with old ring binders, books and magazines, and original drawings of the old classics hang on the walls. An unassembled Tremme sofa stands in a corner
The only thing that stands out are a few photos of a rock band, hung up with thumbtacks. The hippie with the headband in the photos is Peter Mogensen, who was the drummer in the political band Røde Mor in the 1970s.
‘It was difficult to make a living as a musician, so I trained as an architect. Because I had hung out in my father's study since I was a child, it was natural for him to teach me,’ says Mogensen.
When Børge Mogensen died on 5 October 1972, his 28-year-old son was left with responsibility for the 4,000 drawings his father had left behind.
"It wasn't fun. There were lots of things that needed to be finished, and I was playing music on the side.
He cannot deny that he has felt trapped by his father's legacy.
‘I tried to break free when I turned 40 and went through a divorce. I applied to film school and became a sound engineer, worked a little with that, but got tinnitus and had to quit,’ he says.
Left his mark. Without work, he returned to the drawing office in Soløsevej in Gentofte. Since then, Peter Mogensen has managed his father's legacy. For each new upgrade, he checks that the new production matches the original drawings.
"I've always designed my own furniture on the side, but no one wants it. They don't have the right name," he says with a laugh.
In the living room stands an armchair he designed. His brother describes it as ‘Peter's finely felt variation on Børge's basic theme’.
‘He left his mark, the old man,’ says Peter Mogensen.
‘It hasn't been easy to follow in his footsteps.’
BØRGE MOGENSEN
Danish furniture designer.
Born 14 April 1914, died 5 October 1972.
Designer of a number of Danish classics, including the Tremmesofa sofa and the Jaktstolen chair.
Trained as a cabinetmaker, studied architecture. Worked at a number of design studios in Copenhagen and was head of FDB's furniture design studio from 1942 to 1950.
Revolutionised attitudes to furniture design: design should not be reserved for an elite, but should be accessible to everyone.
Established his own design studio in 1950.
Began collaborating with Federicia Furniture AS in 1955, which today produces several of his classics.
Received the Eckersberg Medal in 1950, the Furniture Prize in 1971 and the C.F. Hansen Medal in 1972.
Appointed honorary member of industrial design at the Royal Society of Arts in London (1971).
