Biography of Viggo Boesen

Viggo Boesen was a Danish architect who, in addition to architecture, was primarily active in the field of interior design. Boesen's designs can be classified as functionalist and Danish modernist and are now produced by manufacturers such as &tradition and Sika Design. Design objects by Viggo Boesen are now available as licensed originals from premium interior designer TAGWERC.

Viggo Boesen was born shortly after Christmas and before New Year's Eve in 1907, on December 29 to be precise, in the Danish capital Copenhagen. The son of a teacher, he studied architecture at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen, where he met Finn Juhl, two years his junior. The young men hit it off right from the start and are on the same wavelength both personally and professionally. Boesen and Juhl later work together on several furniture designs. Initially, however, their private rooms served as a field for experimentation. And so the two begin designing Boesen's first own apartment on 'Sortedams Dosseringen', a small street in the north of Copenhagen that follows the western shore of Lake Sortedam and leads from the Nørrebrogade district to the Østerbrogade area to the south. This is also where Boesen's first armchair, a wickerwork of bent rattan, finds its place in the living room.

Natural materials

Viggo Boesen's love of natural materials will continue throughout his creative period and is reflected in all his designs. In the years that followed, Viggo Boesen designed a range of modern wicker furniture, which now took advantage of the strength and durability of rattan and had previously been made from bamboo by the Danish company E.V.A. Nissen & Co. However, the material is more difficult to work with and is simply harder overall, which reduces comfort. It was therefore later replaced by rattan.

Boesen's maxim

Viggo Boesen loves and studies nature and integrates its formal language into his designs. Like nature, which produces flowing forms and is in harmony with its surroundings, Boesen's furniture also follows this organic flow. In Boesen's armchairs, the sitter's anatomy is taken up as a kind of passive form that gently embraces the sitter's body and gives it warmth and security. Boesen's maxim: "My furniture should please the eye of the beholder, but also be solid and durable."

Connoisseur of the design scene

In this style, armchair is created, such as the Teddy Lounge Chair with ottoman, a footstool, or the Fox Lounge Chair. The latter won the design competition organized by the Danish Wicker Makers Guild in 1936. While Finn Juhl became known in the USA at the end of the 1940s through publications in American publications and realized a series of projects overseas, Viggo Boesen remained known only to connoisseurs of the design scene for a long time. This may be due to the fact that, despite several trips to France and England, Boesen lived in his native city of Copenhagen throughout his life and his work in the fields of architecture and interior design was realized exclusively in Denmark.

Naturalness and sustainability

This explains why only around 30 examples of his armchair and sofa 'Little Petra', named after his mother-in-law, were only produced in around 30 pieces during Boesen's lifetime, which now fetch top prices at international auctions. With the resumption of production by &tradition in 2018, Boesen's design recently landed a coup and international fame, which is certainly also due to Boesen's special design philosophy, which already focused on naturalness and sustainability in the 1930s.

Funky style

During his lifetime, Viggo Boesen gained some notoriety, at least in Denmark, when he established his 'Funky Style' with his architectural designs. Boesen had already shown his own, at that time completely new, functionalist design direction in his student works in 1930, which became increasingly popular in Denmark after the Stockholm Exhibition and was taken up by other designers. With his designs in the 'Political Pattern House Competition' in 1935, Boesen showed a completely new type of villa. Staggered room plans, large living room, mighty wooden ceiling, hipped roof - this architectural design in combination with natural materials caused a sensation and established Boesen's 'Funky Style'.

Rowing club and church

Boesen's later works include the Lyngby Roklub, consisting of an ensemble of buildings with a whitewashed boat hall and a wood-clad, thatched clubhouse, and the Grøndalslund Church. The latter, a brick building, is characterized by open loggias under a steeply pitched hipped roof, combined with a free-standing bell tower. The mighty hipped roof, one of the oldest roof shapes, is typical of old farmhouses and stately buildings. When used on a church, its shape is more reminiscent of a large manor house than a classic parish hall and has an inviting and cozy appearance.

Viggo's vision

Viggo Boesen dies on a Saturday in the fall of 1985 at the age of 77 - in his designs from TAGWERC Design STORE the visionary and in his time underestimated Designer will live on forever. Posthumously, he will receive the attention he deserves, as Viggo Boesen was one of the most inspiring and imaginative Designer of Denmark's Golden Age.