Arne Jacobsen AJ8 Bellevue Table Lamp

Founded in 2010, &tradition is a Danish design company with a founding principle of tying tradition to innovation. Their unique library of furniture and lighting spans from the 1930s to the present, and includes designs by internationally renowned designers. The designers &tradition works with are connected by a desire to push manufacturing techniques and to find innovative uses for materials. Although  influenced by their Nordic heritage, they handpick design talent and production facilities internationally and across the ages. This is part of their remit to reshape, redefine and reinvent materials, techniques and forms, helping them to find a unique position in the international design market.

“All of our designers have a unique vision and their designs have the capacity to reach people in their everyday lives,” says Martin Kornbek Hansen, founder of &tradition. “Our vision is to carry on the tradition of fine craftsmanship as well as introducing our design heritage to a new generation of conscious consumers."

Arne Jacobsen was born on February 11, 1902 in Copenhagen. After a spell as an apprentice mason, Jacobsen was admitted to the Architecture School at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts where from 1924 to 1927 he studied under Kay Fisker and Kaj Gottlob, both leading architects and designers.

Before leaving the Academy, Jacobsen also traveled to Germany, where he became acquainted with the rationalist architecture of Mies van der Rohe and Walter Gropius. Their work influenced his early designs. After completing architecture school, he worked at Poul Holsøe's architectural practice.

In 1929, in collaboration with Flemming Lassen, Jacobsen won a Danish Architect's Association competition for designing the "House of the Future" which was built full scale at the subsequent exhibition in Copenhagen's Forum. Jacobsen immediately became recognized as an ultra-modern architect. The following year, Arne Jacobsen set up his own office and designed the functionalist Rothenborg House, which he planned in every detail, a characteristic of many later works.

The collaboration between Arne Jacobsen and Fritz Hansen dates back to 1934, though during WWII, Jacobsen was forced to flee Denmark for Sweden, returning when the war ended in 1945. In 1952 a breakthrough came with the success of the Ant chair. This was succeeded by the Series 7 chair in 1955. The Series 7 propelled both Arne Jacobsen’s and Fritz Hansen's names into furniture history.

At the end of the 50s Jacobsen designed the Royal Hotel in Copenhagen, and for that project he also designed the Egg chair, the Swan chair, the Drop chair, and Series 3300.