Fritz Hansen: Shaping the Future of Legacy
Interview with Els Van Hoorebeeck
Els Van Hoorebeeck was appointed the new Creative Director at Fritz Hansen in late 2024, and during her visit to Japan, she stopped by the new NOT A HOTEL office to talk about collaboration and her exciting plans for the brand.
How did you originally get interested in design?
Els: There was a confluence of circumstances that brought me to where I am today. Even since I was six years old, I always wanted to be an interior designer. I come from the middle of nowhere in the Belgian countryside, and then I went to study interior design in Brussels. I had this goal to work for Vitra, where I worked on the new Belgian airport. Then I followed my heart to London, working for a company that makes flexible workspaces. I bought a lot of furniture and worked with interior designers and architects, doing around six buildings a year. And then I decided to move to Australia. I had never been before, so it seemed like a good place to make a big change in my life. But then I had to come back to Europe for family reasons, and I decided I didnât want to go back to Australia because it's too far. I ended up talking to the CEO of &Tradition who moved me to Copenhagen. And then I got this opportunity with Fritz Hansen.
What was your impression of Fritz Hansen before you joined?
Els: Fritz Hansen is not just a furniture brand â it's Danish royalty in the design industry. Itâs an institution. Itâs a real privilege to be able to work on that. Everyone who studies design comes across Fritz Hansen. You canât talk about Danish design history without touching on Fritz Hansen. It has existed since 1872, and every great Danish designer has crossed its floor. And someone like Arne Jacobsen is like married with Fritz Hansen. (laughs) So it has this big reputation, a big name. Everybody in Denmark, regardless where they live, has an opinion about Fritz Hansen. There arenât that many brands out there in the furniture industry that have the depth that it has. The archive is incredible.
Shinji, when did you first become aware of Fritz Hansen?
Shjinji Hamauzu (CEO of NOT A HOTEL): I founded a tech company in Japan that was acquired by Zozotown. When I left that role, I was thinking about what to do with my second company, and I really like furniture. So I was thinking about what I could do in a new space with design. When designing a new place for NOT A HOTEL, I always start with small details, like the furniture, and expand out from there. When Yosuke Aizawa and I were thinking about designing BASE, I asked the creator director Yosuke Aizawa (from White Mountaineering) what the right furniture would be, and he said Fritz Hansen. Els: I think that's really great, because I think that's how a space should be designed â from the inside out. When thinking about products, I approach it from an interior-design point of view, because in the end, all the objects and the furniture need to speak to each other. That is Arne Jacobsenâs point of view as well: He looked at a total environment to design the pieces so they could talk to each other.
Why do you think Danish design is so resonant across the eras?
Els: From the very start, the Danes always combined functionality with aesthetics. And they worked with a lot of tactility in their designs. It was always about the human and the human interaction with the furniture. They used wood because thatâs what was available at the time, but a lot of the designs are so timeless, because they have the right amount of detail, no excess, nothing extra, just what is needed. And to make it work in the wood, they had to have incredible craftsmanship, which of course creates high quality. So today, the pieces still resonate with everyone because the brand is still around, but thatâs because of the tradition of craftsmanship.
Shinji, why do you think Danish pieces work so well in Japan?
Shinji: Japanese architecture and Danish furniture work really well together, maybe because they influenced each other so much in the past. Modernist Japanese architect Kunio Maekawa added a lot of Scandinavian elements, which pushed Japanese architecture forward. But it wasnât just Danish furniture. French designers Jean ProuvĂ© and Charlotte Perriand also took up Japanese elements, so in the mid-century, there was a great mutual respect between Japan, Scandinavia, and France. Els: Yes, I think they have the same values â minimalism with the right amount of detail and an attention to craft.
So, Els, you were talking about the archive, and when you look at your role, how do you think about balancing that weighty tradition and innovation thatâs necessary?
Els: People are sometimes afraid to talk about a brandâs heritage because they think they'll be stuck in the past. But you have to understand the past to be able to proceed in the future. Or maybe itâs like, you have to fully understand the rules to break them in the right way to move forward. Fritz Hansen has an incredible legacy. The traditional aspects provide us with great continuity, which serves as a very strong foundation. Yet we have to pursue innovation to keep the tradition alive. And I think that that is a very fine balance, and that is sort of trying to find the right way of translating that forward, which is the biggest part of my role. In the last six months, I have done my best to understand the archive, the past, the legacy that the brand carries, the markets, the customers. Now I can decide the way to move forward: where we can bend the rules, and where we can break them. Thereâs a lot of emotions with legacy as well, so you have to keep that in mind with the classics. You have to bring them forward in a different way. Itâs a difficult task, but that is also why we look at collaborations because they can put an iconic piece in a different light.
What role does Japan play for Fritz Hansen, and based on your experiences here, are you thinking about the brand differently?
Els: Japan is the second biggest market for Fritz Hansen after Denmark. I think that says quite a lot and, in general in Asia, it's more advanced in communication and branding. The level of experience in Japan just goes so far beyond. I love being in Japan. I feel very inspired. I like the fashion part, because it's just so different. It's exciting. It's pushing the boundaries and you and people are very open-minded. Like, there's so much room for everyone to exist. Also shop design is very interesting. I like to go through spaces. I also find that there's this sense of gratitude. It just puts a really nice framework around the brand. I would love to come more! Shinji: I went to Denmark and Finland for my honeymoon. It was a design and sauna tour. Els: That sounds like a perfect honeymoon! Shinji: All the signage in Denmark is beautiful. The entire city is designed to work together, whereas in Japan, all the signs are in different styles. Els: I often say Copenhagen is utopia. Everything is beautiful. Everyone is beautiful. The food is beautiful. Everything is beautifully presented. So every now and then itâs good to step out and understand that youâre very spoiled, but it does make your day-to-day really nice because it's easy, it's beautiful, and itâs calming.
What is the connection between Fritz Hansen and hospitality?
Els: A lot of the designs we have came from large-scale projects. The Ant chair was made for Novo Nordiskâs canteen, so it was tapping into hospitality. The Egg was made for the SAS Hotel, so itâs in the DNA of the brand. But no matter the product, they were always made with a purpose. Fritz Hansen started as a manufacturer, so it was the place to go when you were a designer and you wanted to get your design made. Then it turned into a design brand, where it was also still getting the designs for projects and then getting some new designs. Weâre still in that duality right now. We also talk a lot about experience â everything around the furniture. Where do you eat? Where do you stay? Where do shop? What wine do you drink? Itâs this whole life around the brand that is very important, so it goes undeniably hand in hand with hospitality on many levels: the origin of the designs, but also the experience of the designs. Also you have to have quality if you want to survive in hospitality. Shinji: Fritz Hansen furniture is not just about the design, but the functionality is exceptional. Els: If it's only nice to look at, but not comfortable, it will not survive for over 70 years, like the Series 7. Shinji: It must be difficult to have a job where you have to take something that's already perfect and then keep elevating it! Els: Yes, it's a heavy weight! That's why collaborations can help. It is perfect so you don't want to touch it, but you want people to see it in a different light Shinji: Have you thought about making the entire home? Els: I think it would be really amazing to get the full experience about what it means to live with Fritz Hansen. But it also needs to not feel like a showroom. Shinji: Historically, so many of the masterpieces of furniture were designed for a specific building. If you design the entire house, and then design the pieces for its furniture, that makes for a very interesting story. Els: Yes that would be a dream, because then the brand goes into everything: you choose materials that live up to your standards.
Whatâs your favorite piece?
Shinji: The Series 7 chair, and the Grand Prix. Also the Drop. The Grand Prix was the chair that made me really like Fritz Hansen. Els: Yes that is where he started experimenting with bended plywood. The Ant is one of my favorites, because that was the first one. It was the first time when the seat and the back were attached to each other. Before that, the plywood had to be completely flat. As a designer, he pushed the brand out of its comfort zone, and I think that's very important. I guess when NOT A HOTEL works with architects, they take you out of your comfort zone and question the status quo. Sometimes today, it's a bit more difficult, because we like things to happen very fast. But like the cliché says, good things take time.
Whatâs the first thing youâll do when you go back to work in Denmark?
Els: Iâm very much focused on rethinking the visual identity at this moment, because the origin of the brand was very much in Denmark, but we are global now. Images speak the most these days, so I'm working a lot on our future photography and storytelling. As I said, we have many stories to tell. First of all, it's to create the framework for new products to exist within, so it needs to be more future oriented. You need to feel the values of the brand and it needs to have a bit more tactility. So that's the first thing I'm focusing on, and the second thing is the collection. This is my favorite part of the job: How do we take a Series 7 â a very analog product â and take that into a digital world without touching the design. I will work with designers into translating it into the digital age. We cannot get around tech, so it needs to be updated. And then we obviously have some gaps in our collection if we want to do an entire interior, so weâre also finding some new designers, both lesser known and very well known.
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Yuka Ito(Newcolor inc.)