Forget all you know about Danish design and start again with Poul Henningsen or just the PH he used as his signature: simple, functional and to the point. Everything he produced from architecture and furniture to cultural critique and poetry follows this one single line of thought. Born in 1894, Poul Henningsen’s early life was considered rather unconventional at the time. The fourth child of writer Agnes Henningsen and the son of liberal writer Carl Ewald, PH was born in to a highly creative and rather non-traditional family environment that by it’s very nature challenged the concept of ‘traditional Danish...

Very early on in his career, before he had reached the age of 30, Poul Henningsen (PH) had designed a number of items of lighting that could be described as a ‘commercial’ successes. Having trained as an architect and begun to experiment with furniture design in his twenties, Poul Henningsen in 1924 collaborated with the lighting manufacturer Louis Poulsen on what we today know as the iconic PH Lamp. Having become one of Denmark’s authorities on lighting theory, Poul Henningsen designed the PH lamp in 1925, a lighting icon inspired by the way natural light falls through the foliage of...

Born in 1894, the early life of Poul Henningsen (PH) was considered rather unconventional in his lifetime. The fourth child of writer Agnes Henningsen and satirist Carl Ewald, PH was born in to a highly creative family environment. Undoubtably, PH’s childhood enabled him to feel that he was free to undertake an ‘non-traditional’ and creative path as he grew older as it had already been demonstrated by his parents that this was not only acceptable, but also to be applauded. A common theme throughout Poul Henningsen’s life that can be observed from his very beginnings was his desire to design...