‘I’ve been creating a lot of line extensions lately,’ says Spanish designer and artist, Jaime Hayon in his only interview during Copenhagen’s 3 Days of Design. As part of a long-standing relationship with Danish brand Fritz Hansen, he designed the new Fri sofa (available from September 2024) as a companion to the Fri lounge chair originally designed in 2015.
There’s also a new addition to the crafted Analog dining table (2014), now reimagined as a low coffee table and side table in lacquered walnut and ash tabletops set on solid walnut and ash legs respectively, and the side table in FSC certified solid oak.
Jaime Hayon and Fritz Hansen reveal new furniture
‘I believe that certain projects can be better if you consider them again,’ he suggests. ‘We had a lot of success with the dining tables and thought with the system we developed cast aluminium fixings for the angled legs, and the table’s form – it’s so nice and spacious – that we could create it as a low coffee and side table too.’
Hayon’s been working with Fritz Hansen since 2011 and appreciates the dialogue they have. ‘The Fritz Hansen exercise is so interesting, the testing, the conversations, and the thinking around the smallest details. You know they’re doing it right in terms of materials, construction, sustainability.’
With that in mind, Hayon and Fritz Hansen spent several years working on the Analog table’s form. ‘The table has a strange geometry with six sides,’ says Hayon. ‘It’s hard to say what that geometry is, I invented it. It’s not a rectangle, it’s not a circle or oval but it’s about a shared geometry. The sides are a little organic.’ Likewise, the Fri sofa, crafted with a timber base, aluminium legs and upholstered over moulded foam, takes on the sculptural, generous proportions of the lounge chair, a 1.5-seater. ‘I remember seeing the chair in the American Airlines lounge, watching people use it: putting their bags on it, reading with their kids. I understood its success was in the proportions.’
Hayon has applied the same principles to the 2.5-seater sofa. ‘It’s like creating a sculpture, you look at it in the round, the shadows, how it sits in the space, making adjustments to ensure the proportions work.’ Where both the tables and sofa speak to his existing piece, is in a convivial sensibility, the bringing people together, sharing experiences.
Fritz Hansen’s head of design, Christian Andersen, explains that the starting point is always ensuring the brand and designers are sympatico. With Jaime that connection was immediate. ‘His language is playful, but he’s good at elegance and good at proportions. Also, he’s very good at interiors, understanding space. I see him as more of a craftsman than a furniture designer. That’s probably why it’s a completely different process working with Jaime,’ Andersen explains.
‘We prepare a brief for him and then he designs on the spot with us. He draws, we iterate, it’s a really live thing – it’s like we’re in the artist studio with him; a very dynamic way of working.’ Hayon sums up the relationship. ‘The work I do with any brand is about living, sharing spaces, sharing moments. That’s very Fritz Hansen – creating harmony in spaces with objects and people and that’s very me as well.’
