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Children's Wishbone Chair by Hans Wegner via Carl Hansen & Son

Five classic chairs making a comeback at 3 Days of Design

If there are two things you are certain to find at Copenhagen's 3 Days of Design festival, it's chairs and reissues of historic design icons. Here we've picked five of the most interesting examples combining both.

Danish brands are known for reissuing classic designs by the country's most prominent designers, from Verner Panton to Hans J Wegner – and this year's edition of Scandinavia's most significant design festival did not disappoint.

Among the usual mid-century seating designs from the 1940s and 50s, there were revivals of more expressive designs from the 1960s to 80s, courtesy of Frenchman Pierre Paulin and Finnish designer Yrjö Kukkapuro.

Read on for five standout designs that were unveiled as part of 3 Days of Design.


F300 Lounge Chair by Pierre Paulin via Gubi

The curvaceous fibreglass F3000 armchair by French designer Pierre Paulin from 1967 has been reimagined in a fully recyclable polymer by Italian company Abaco for Gubi's Fall 24 collection.

It is the most difficult design the brand's decades-long product manager has ever worked on, Gubi's chief brand officer Marie Kristine Schmidt told journalists during a preview of the launch.


RFH chairs by Robin Day via &Tradition

&Tradition has a long history of reissuing the work of Danish masters. But this year marks the first time the brand has resurrected classic products by a non-Dane – the British furniture designer Robin Day.

Most notable among the relaunches are three chairs created by Day for London's newly opened Royal Festival Hall in 1951. Most have not been reissued for decades and the slatted terrace chair (above) never went into production in the first place.


Children's Wishbone Chair by Hans Wegner via Carl Hansen & Son

To celebrate the 110th birthday of the late Danish architect Hans J Wegner, Danish brand Carl Hansen & Son has released a miniature version of his seminal CH24 Wishbone Chair, designed specifically for children (top and above).

Each of the chair's 14 components was individually scaled down to maintain the proportions and expression of the original design from 1949.


Experiment Chair by Yrjö Kukkapuro via Hem

Hem took 3 Days of Design as an opportunity to share a preview of this 1980s chair by Finnish designer Yrjö Kukkapuro, set to be relaunched in September.

It contrasts modernist design tropes like a tubular metal frame and simple black leather upholstery à la Marcel Breuer's cantilever chair with squiggly colourful armrests.


Clam Chair by Arnold Madsen via Dagmar

British brand Dagmar, which specialises in reissuing Scandi classics, is making its 3 Days of Design debut this year with a presentation of the 1944 Clam Chair by Danish upholsterer Arnold Madsen.

Madsen's association with the design was forgotten over the decades. But Dagmar founder Aaron Fitzgerald was among a group of researchers to confirm the provenance of the design, before finally putting it back into production in collaboration with Madsen's family.

3 Days of Design took place in Copenhagen from 12 to 14 June. For more events, exhibitions and talks in architecture and design visit Dezeen Events Guide.

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