Bodil Kjær

Danish designer, 1932-present

Bodil Kjær designs furniture as a constructed environment rather than as separate pieces. Her working table of 1959, made first in ash for MIT and later in walnut, pairs a four-drawer surface with freestanding storage units that slide beneath or stand against a wall. The system responds to her dissatisfaction with fixed office furniture that contradicted the spatial ideas of contemporary architecture and management. Prototypes were commissioned for Yale, Harvard and Boston University, and Marcel Breuer installed her upholstered sofas in a New York building he had designed. Kjær studied interior architecture in Copenhagen under Finn Juhl and Jørgen Ditzel, then worked at Arup in London and taught at universities in the United States. E. Pedersen & Søn manufactured the table and storage elements in Denmark and Boston until 1974. She also designed glass for Gullaskruf in Sweden during the 1960s, including the Kryssvase series in clear and opal glass.