Dinesen, Denmark’s leading manufacturer of handcrafted wooden flooring and products, has announced a bespoke furniture collection with long-term collaborator and British architectural designer John Pawson.
The Pawson Furniture Collection is a new high point in a three-decade-long relationship that both Dinesen and Pawson are immensely proud of. Having previously collaborated on projects of varying scale and type; including private homes, exhibitions, museums and chapels – the new furniture collection distils the ethos of the Danish word Umage, which means going beyond what is expected or considered possible, as it expands this sense of progression that Dinesen and Pawson bring to their work.
The new collection includes the Dining Series, which encompasses a dining table, bench, and stool, a design that John Pawson drew back in 1992. This design has been updated, adding a shadow gap detail.
The Lounge Series is a new complementary addition to the original Dining Series. Made from Solid Douglas wood, it includes a lounge chair, lounge table, sofa and daybed. Skilled local cabinet makers have built the wooden frame in Denmark and it is upholstered with textiles from the Danish textile company Kvadrat. As each piece of furniture is made to order, the end customer can choose the desired textile from the Kvadrat upholstery library.
John Pawson comments on the design of the collection for Dinesen, saying: “When I look at this new furniture collection for Dinesen, I see the essence of the thinking that has shaped my work since the beginning. Everything about these pieces is pared back to the logic and poetry of the wood. The dimensions of the timber determine the proportions of the forms and then it’s all about the inherent sensory character of the material.”
Thomas Dinesen, fourth generation at Dinesen, comments on the new furniture collection: “When we met John Pawson in 1992, we provided planks only for castles, manors, and churches, and at that time, they were conical Douglas fir planks only. He was the first to request our wood for a private home, and he wanted planks of the same width (450 mm). John Pawson has in many ways changed our relationship with the ‘plank’ from a restoration material for historic buildings to a design element in modern architecture.”
The Pawson and Dinesen relationship was first struck with Thomas Dinesen in 1992. Since Thomas stepped down in 2021, his son Hans Peter has taken the reins to continue the family’s connection with Pawson for this new furniture launch.
Hans Peter Dinesen, fifth generation, says of the new collection: “More than 30 years after Dinesen and John Pawson first met, we reflect on how far we have come but also to shape our future course. John has had a great impact on the way we view architecture and wood. When John ordered our wood for the first time in 1992, it was a renaissance for our flooring and the plank itself that became a furniture collection. Together with Pawson, we have refined our Heritage Furniture collection and added new pieces to pay tribute to our shared joy in the simple and timeless.”
