Bodil Kjær, the world's most famous desk designer (and James Bond's favorite): “Before, it was just an object for a 'big shot' to sit behind”

Bodil Kjær today alongside several of his designs.Keith Greenbaum / Keith Greenbaum

"When I was 12 I told my family that I wanted to be an

architect."

Bodil Kjær (Horsens, Denmark, 1932) was clear that neither the time nor the fact of being a woman would be a problem when it came to realizing her dream of designing and improving the space with which she had lived.

Determination has always been a crucial personality trait.

"I have been inspired by the problems that arose in my projects, not other architects," he responds when we try to unravel the origin of his unmistakably Danish style that forever changed the functional concept of an office.

And that, like many other architects and designers, had almost no presence in the history books.

The jump to auction of some of his most iconic pieces, and their subsequent reissue by furniture firms such as Carl Hansen & Søn or Holmegaard, wanted his name not to be forgotten.

Since then, he has fought for his well-deserved place of honor in 20th century design.

Between 1955 and 1963, Kjær developed his first series,

Elements Of Architecture

.

Everything arose while solving some problems of a functional and aesthetic nature in the interior of the public spaces that he was building.

“I called them that because they were designed as

elements of a building itself,

like a door or a window.

And in this way, so are a bathtub or furniture ”.

In this series of furniture, glass objects and lamps, an object stood out that would change the direction of the workplace ever since,

The Desk

.

Created in 1959, this clean and functional desk is perhaps the most famous of its kind in all of history.

The cinema, on multiple occasions, has been in charge of perpetuating this legend.

The first and most talked about was in the

James Bond

film saga

.

Art directors Syd Cain and Sir Ken Adam must have been devoted to Kjær's design because it appears in three film adaptations of Ian Fleming's novels:

From Russia with Love

(Terence Young, 1964),

007 in Her Majesty's Service

(Peter Hunt, 1969) and

You Only Live Twice

(Lewis Gilbert, 1967).

In the latter, starring Sean Connery and with a script by Roald Dahl, the desktop appears up to five times.

Already an icon of design, he was also present in

Kingsman: Secret Service

(2014), the comedy that parodies the 007 universe and with which he also shares furniture.

Specifically, as the desk of veteran agent Harry Hart played by Colin Firth.

The furniture comes out again in the sequel,

The Red Circle

(2017), and it may make it for the third time in its next installment scheduled for March of this year.

From astronomical auctions to reissue

Bodil's design has not only starred in action scenes.

This table was used by the BBC to cover various elections, and personalities such as actor

Michael Caine

or jazz pianist

Oscar Peterson

had one in their homes.

Nor should we forget the fans he has among the British royal family.

Philippe of Edinburgh

purchased a copy for the country house he shares with Queen Elizabeth II at Sandringham, County Norfolk.

Those interested in acquiring an original model should, first of all, prepare the wallet.

Prices are around 30,000 euros in

online

auctions

and the

Pamono

antique dealers

community

has an unpublished copy for 65,000 euros.

It is a rarity made of wenge wood and black brass by

E. Pedersen & Søn,

the second company to produce it after making it by CI Designs in 1959. “The first time it was auctioned, my family did not give credit, they even laughed because they remembered it as an old desk that I had designed centuries ago, ”Bodil declared at the beginning of his bidding fever.

Faced with the commotion, the architect decided to take action on the matter and supervise its reissue, which would come from the hand of

Karakter

in 2018. This updated version bears the name of

Office Desk

and respects every detail of the original 1959 model, recognizable by its structure lacquered aluminum minimum.

On its simple and pure lines rests a compact wooden tabletop with drawers that gives the feeling of being suspended in the air.

Its price - starting at 6,500 euros - has made it a luxury item ever since.

Something that is far from the functional and economic approach with which it was initially conceived.

“I observed that the predominant desk in offices until then was nothing more than an object for a

big shot

to sit behind, as if he were a king.

Instead, young managers began to

lead companies as teams.

So I decided to design a desk around which several people could gather, like at a meeting table ”.

Along with the desk, Bodil designed a series of modules with drawers so that the new executive could accommodate it to his liking.

“My goal was for him to have everything he needed for his daily work.

But we must not lose sight of the fact that this was in 1959, not now ”, he clarifies.

The inventor of furniture for 'inside and outside'

These pieces of furniture emerged as a solution to a specific problem of an aesthetic, economic and functional nature in the buildings that she planned.

But

their constructive rigor and the comfort

they conveyed caught the attention of other architects who wanted to include them in their buildings, which started their production.

The architect and dean of the Harvard School of Design

Josep Lluís Sert

was one of them.

He wanted to have his exterior designs for Boston University.

The Blue Cross-Blue Shield tower that

Paul Rudolph

built

in 1957 or the golf club designed by

Harry Weese

in Chicago were other buildings that claimed the presence of their architectural elements.

One of the most prominent requests was that of the industrial designer

Marcel Breuer,

with whom Bodil shared a rational and light vision of furniture.

The Hungarian wanted the line of upholstered sofas and seats created by the Danish to furnish his office in New York.

This was a crucial support for the take-off of the Kjær factory in the USA.

Its first production began in Boston with the

CI Designs

company

.

One of its most memorable collections is Indoor / Outdoor

,

manufactured for 25 years until the closure of the company in 1985. In designing this innovative series, conceived for both indoor and outdoor use, Bodil asked himself the following question: “Why What to have two sets of furniture if one is enough? ”.

With this premise, he devised prototypes that he left for days on a porch facing the Atlantic Ocean to test their resistance to wind, sun, salt or fog.

Comprised of several tables and seats (the sun lounger was added in 1974), the collection brings together Kjær's technical perspective, his determination to optimize physical environments and

comfort as a priority.

“I always kept in mind the context in which I developed each piece.

These pieces of furniture were designed as an extension of the modern architecture of the time, but also to serve as a comfortable support ”, he explains.

In 2018 he received a call from Carl Hansen & Søn to launch it again under the banner of BK 10-15.

Its solid teak wood construction, inspired by the linear and round shapes of Cubism, was reproduced to the millimeter by the Danish furniture brand, as it was conceived by Bodil more than six decades ago.

“I felt very comfortable collaborating with Carl Hansen's team.

We share this desire to create sustainable furniture and high-quality architectural elements ”, he confesses.

A pioneer of Arup engineering

In parallel, Bodil developed a solid academic career.

Daughter of a family of farmers settled on the Jutland peninsula (north of Denmark), Kjær did not hesitate to leave her life in the countryside behind to move to Copenhagen in 1951 and train in the creation of spaces with the precursor of Danish modernism

Finn Juhl.

Later, he would get a scholarship from the American-Scandinavian Foundation in the US, where he worked under the orders of industrial designer

Paul McCobb,

author of the iconic PM-02 now reissued by Fritz Hansen.

This Danish firm relaunched the Cross-Plex ™ table lamp, the most famous in Kjær's catalog, which was born out of the desire to reflect the natural warmth of candles.

The result of these years is also his series of Crosses vases.

Designed in solid glass, and shaped like a cross to house loose flowers as if growing in nature, they have recently been relaunched, in this case, by Holmegaard in various heights and colors.

In 1969 he moved to London on a new scholarship to start simultaneous studies at the Royal College of Art and the

Architectural Association,

the oldest independent architecture school in the UK.

In this city, she would be part of the prestigious group of architects, sociologists and planners that the engineering company Arups recruited until 1979, being the only woman along with 84 other men.

During these years Bodil's interest grew in experimenting with new materials, methods and ideas such as the

use of alternative energies

and human involvement in design.

This was the case of the solar-heated homes that he projected in tropical areas of Africa.

Already in his own studio, Kjær planned various buildings and urban development for a quarry of clients that would include the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

(where he developed the prototype of his famed desk), IBM, the government of Lombardy or Maryland.

In the faculty of this state she served as a qualified professor and for decades her involvement in the university world grew, offering lectures by educational centers around the world.

Harvard, Pratt Institute or the Royal Academy of Architecture in Copenhagen are some of them.

“Travel has been an inspirational engine for my work.

England, Italy, Japan, USA ... I have lived and worked in exciting places, where I got to feel very comfortable and enjoyed it very much.

However, I decided that it was time to return to the east coast of this peninsula [Jutland], where my family has lived for centuries. "

At 88, Bodil currently lives in a monastery in the town of Aarhus, but has not fully retired.

She is immersed in the preparation of a book and that tenacity and enthusiasm with which she announced to her parents her desire to be an architect has not diminished, although she acknowledges that it has not been an easy path.

"Of course I have felt discrimination in my profession for being a woman, but I decided from the beginning that that would not be an obstacle to fully enjoy and be happy."