Design schools are much more than just a place to learn a trade. For young designers, particularly those coming of age at times of great change, they are often the site of bold innovations that will go on to define a new generation’s aesthetic tastes. 

For Danish designer Poul Kjærholm, the three years he spent at the School of Arts and Crafts in Copenhagen were transformative. By the end of 1952—the year he graduated—he had already designed four pieces that marked him out as one of Denmark’s most important mid-century designers, despite being only in his early 20s. One of these—the PK4 chair—has recently been reissued by the Danish design house Fritz Hansen.

Developed as a simplified version of Kjærholm’s graduation project, the PK4 demonstrates the idiosyncratic approach to form and materials that he developed as a student. While most of his contemporaries were working with natural materials, Kjærholm designed the PK4 from sections of tubular steel and a length of halyard rope, woven back and forth to form the seat and back of the chair.  

Kjærholm’s use of industrial materials goes beyond their practicality. “I consider steel a material with the same artistic merit as wood and leather,” he once said. “The refraction of light on its surface is an important part of my artistic work.”

Only a few PK4s were initially made, the frames manufactured by the father of Knud Holscher, another celebrated designer whom Kjærholm had met at school, and the halyard woven by Kjærholm and his wife, Hanne. The reissued Fritz Hansen PK4, developed in collaboration with the Kjærholm archive, is faithful to his straightforward design, with just one concession to make the chair even more comfortable. 

“The slim-profile, circular pillow adds to the graphic appearance of the chair itself, and the materials borrow from Kjærholm’s tradition of working with canvas and leather,” says Marie-Louise Høstbo, creative design director at Fritz Hansen. “When you add to a historic design, it must be done respectfully, and with this loose pillow, the chair’s profile remains defined.”

This post was produced in partnership with Fritz Hansen.