Bruno Mathsson was a Swedish architect and furniture designer whose ideas were influenced by functionalism, modernism, and old Swedish craft traditions.
Biography
Mathsson grew up in the town of Värnamo in Sweden’s Smland region, the son of a master cabinet maker. After a brief schooling period, he began working in his father’s gallery. He quickly developed a strong interest in furniture, particularly chairs, their function and their design. In the 1920s and 1930s, he invented a method for making bentwood chairs out of hemp webbing. In 1931, the first model, the Grasshopper, was used at Värnamo Hospital.
Mathsson’s chairs were collected by Edgar Kaufmann Jr., director of the Industrial Design Department at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), and featured in several exhibitions in the 1940s. Kaufmann regarded Mathsson’s contribution to furniture design as equal to that of Alvar Aalto. At Fallingwater, Kaufmann and his family also had a Mathsson chair.
Architecture
Mathsson was also a skilled architect, completing approximately 100 structures in the 1940s and 1950s. He was Sweden’s first architect to create all-glass structures with heated floors. His furniture showroom in Värnamo (1950) was a notable example; it has been well-preserved and is open to the public today. He created “Bruno-Pane” double- and triple-pane insulated glass units for his glasshouses.
He travelled extensively in the United States and was heavily influenced by George Fred Keck’s solar houses. Mathsson’s architecture was also influenced by Charles and Ray Eames’ visit to the Eames House in March 1949, just as it was being completed.
Sources
Wikipedia contributors. (2021, July 31). Bruno Mathsson. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 20:31, October 13, 2021, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bruno_Mathsson&oldid=1036346611
Design Store
Books| Swedish Design
Creed III
Lagom: Not Too Little, Not Too Much: The Swedish Art of Living a Balanced, Happy Life
The Lagom Life: A Swedish way of living
Swedish Design: An Ethnography (Expertise: Cultures and Technologies of Knowledge)
The Scandinavian Home: Interiors inspired by light
Swedish Country Interiors
Carl and Karin Larsson : Creators of Swedish Style
Modern Swedish Design: Three Founding Texts
You may also be interested in
-
Carl Malmsten (1888 – 1972), Swedish furniture maker
Carl Malmsten was a Swedish furniture designer. Inspired by Italian Renaissance and Swedish 18th-century forms, his work is typical of the new trends of the 1920s. Read More →
-
Sofa, Borge Mogensen, 1945
This sofa’s straightforward execution and regular silhouette reflect characteristics that were considered essential for advanced design at the time. Nonetheless, the turned spindles, stretchers, and exquisite details owe a lot to Borge Mogensen’s use of the lexicon of traditional furniture forms—especially American Shaker and English Windsor—in his wRead More →
-
Wiwen Nilsson (1897 – 1974) Swedish Silver Designer
He was trained in the workshop of his father Anders Nilsson. He studied at the Konigliche Preussische Zeichenakademie, Hanau (Germany), and in the Paris studio of Georg Jensen while at the Académie de la Grande Chaumiere and Académie Colarossi.Read More →
-
Carl-Axel Acking (b. 1910), Swedish Architect & Furniture Designer
Carl-Axel Acking (1910-2001) was a prominent architect and interior and industrial designer who was particularly active during the 1940s and 1950s. He studied at the National College of Art in Stockholm and the Art School and Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. He was the architect of the Swedish Embassy in Tokyo and interior designer…
-
Sigurd Persson (1914 – 2003) Swedish metalworker & glassware designer
Sigurd Persson (1914–2003) was a Swedish sculptor, blacksmith, and professor who is regarded as one of the twentieth century’s most influential Swedish designers. Growing up in a goldsmith family, Persson founded his studio in Stockholm in 1942. Throughout his long career, he crafted objects in various materials ranging from metal to glass to plastic. Read…
-
Bruno Mathsson (1907 – 1988) Swedish Designer & Architect
Mathsson grew up in the town of Värnamo in Sweden’s Smland region, the son of a master cabinet maker. After a brief period of schooling, he began working in his father’s gallery.Read More →
-
Stockholm Design Week September 5-9, 2023
The Stockholm Design Week will be held from February 6 to 12 and from September 5 to 9 in 2023.Stockholm has a lot of places where design events take place, from galleries and showrooms to dinner parties, meetings after fairs, opening cocktails, museums, and cultural centres.Read More →
-
Julius Olaf Randahl (1880 – 1972) Swedish silversmith
In 1901, he moved to New York and worked for Tiffany and Gorham Manufacturing. In 1907, he worked at the Kalo Shop in Chicago before opening his own Randahl Shop in Park Ridge, Illinois, in 1911.Read More →
-
Kurt Versen (1901 – 1997), Swedish lighting designer
In the 1940s and 1950s, executed many assignments from architects for flexible lighting appropriate to Modern interiors.Read More →
-
Ola Wihlborg Swedish industrial and product designer
He took his first steps towards his career as a designer at Beckmans College of Design in Stockholm, Sweden, where he studied furniture and product design. After graduating in 2004, he began working as a freelance designer.Read More →
-
Sydney Opera House – Design Classic
The design of the Sydney Opera House (1956-73), which he won in an international competition, was Utzon’s crowning achievement. He envisioned a solid sculptural building made of a series of giant interlocking billowing white ‘sails’ inspired by the ships of Sydney Harbour.Read More →
-
Simon Gate (1883 – 1945) Swedish artisan and designer
Gate began his long affiliation with the Swedish glassmaking firm Orrefors in 1916. He worked as an artistic director and built the firm foundation for Sweden’sSweden’s substantial modern glass industry, alongside Edvard Hald, Vicke Lindstrand, Knut Bergqvist, and others.Read More →
-
Praktika Tableware (1933) designed by Wilhelm Käge
Praktika Tableware (1933) designed by Wilhelm Käge. White earthenware stacking dishes, oval with rounded sides.Read More →
-
Group of Ten (est. 1970) 🇸🇪 design collective promoting creative individuality
Because its members had previous careers in the textile industry, they wanted to be free to promote their creative ideas. Read More →
-
Ulla Forsell (b.1944) Swedish Glassware Designer
Ulla Forsell was born in 1944 and studied at the College of Art and Design in Stockholm and Holland. SheRead More →
-
Ingeborg Lundin (1921 – 1991) Swedish Glassware Designer
Ingeborg Lundin (1921 – 1991) was a Swedish Glassware Designer. Between 1941 – 1946 she studied at Konstaackskolan and Tekniska Skolan, Stockholm.Read More →
-
Stig Lindberg (1916 – 1982) – Swedish Ceramic, Designer, Painter
Stig Lindberg (1916 – 1982) was a Swedish ceramic, glass, textile, industrial designer, and painter and illustrator. During his long career with the Gustavsberg pottery factory, Lindberg produced whimsical studio ceramics and graceful tableware lines, making him one of Sweden’s most important postwar designers. Read More →
-
Anders B. Liljefors (1923 – 1970) Swedish Ceramicist
Anders Liljefors was a Swedish ceramicist. He initially concerned himself with household ware, discovered a new method of casting ceramics in a sand mould, and worked feverishly to extract new and unexpected effects from this material during the later years of his life.Read More →
-
Sven Markelius (1889 – 1972) – Swedish Architect, Textile Designer
Sven Markeilus (1889- 1972) was a Swedish Architect, Town Planner and textile designer born in Stockholm. He taught in Stockholm and at Yale University. In the 1950s, Markelius designed simple wooden furniture and printed fabrics with Astrid Sampe, produced by Nordiska in Stockholm.Read More →
Comments are closed, but trackbacks and pingbacks are open.