When Jacobsen designed the SAS Royal Hotel in Copenhagen from 1955 to 1960 he seized the opportunity to work with the new material plastic. As part of this commission, he created two organically shaped lounge chairs – the Egg and the Swan. The Egg’s seat shell consists of a single piece of injection-moulded polystyrene padded with foam and upholstered in either leather or fabric. While conventional chairs can be viewed as a construction mediating between the human body and the floor, the Egg’s seat shell relates fully to the body and embraces it, while the column base effectively sprouts up from the floor. As a result, the seat shell almost appears to be floating in space.
In November 1958 the furniture for the SAS Royal Hotel, including the Egg, was revealed at the "Formes Scandinaves" exhibition at the Musée des Arts décoratifs in Paris. In the SAS Royal Hotel, which opened in July 1960, the Egg was primarily used in the lobby, a public space in which its properties could be displayed optimally: It shelters the seated person from the surrounding space yet remains open as it can easily be turned in any direction. Several chairs placed at a round table form a space within a space. In this context, the Egg is not merely a chair but also a social instrument.
Text: Carsten Thau / Kjeld Vindum
