Hot Seat

How a salacious moment in the spotlight made Arne Jacobsen's practical 1955 Series 7 chair an icon

- HANNAH MARTIN

In the 1950s, Danish design legend Arne Jacobsen began an investigation into molded plywood. His American peers, Charles and Ray Eames, had already been experimenting with the technique, and he wondered how he might put his own twist on the material of the moment, where thin layers of veneer were glued together and molded into sculptural forms. Several icons would be born out of these trials, undertaken with manufacturer Fritz Hansen—there was the 1952 Ant chair, the brand’s first try at joining seat and back in one piece, and then, in 1955, the model 3107, a.k.a. the Series 7. (Danes call it “the Sevener.”)