What the work is
Arne Jacobsen designed the SAS Royal Hotel in Copenhagen, which opened in 1960. The commission extended from the building’s exterior to furniture, lighting, textiles and restaurant cutlery.
How it was made
Green tones connected furniture and fabrics with Jacobsen’s modern-garden theme. Organic furniture forms, including the Egg and Swan chairs, sat within the hotel’s more geometric architectural framework.
What works
The project demonstrates coordination across scales. A chair, a fabric and a room could be developed as related decisions, giving the interior a coherence that cannot be understood through one object alone.
What does not
Much of the original furnishing was subsequently replaced. Surviving room 606 preserves an important reference, but later photographs of the hotel cannot automatically be treated as records of Jacobsen’s complete original interior.
What it influenced
Several furniture and lighting designs went into wider production, while others remained specific to the commission. The hotel therefore connects a particular interior with objects that acquired independent lives elsewhere.
Is it worth your time
Worth studying for interior design and hospitality. Compare archival room photographs with individual pieces and identify the relationships lost when an object is displayed alone. The whole commission provides a different lesson from a catalogue of its famous chairs.
