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Nanna Ditzel

Nanna Ditzel (1923 - 2005) was quite young when she made her entrance into Danish design. As a 20-year-old student at the School of Arts and Crafts in Copenhagen, she exhibited her first furniture at the annual exhibition of the Carpenters' Guild, and when she graduated as a furniture designer in 1946, she married her colleague Jørgen Ditzel (1921-1961) and together they started a design studio. 

With a portfolio that encompassed furniture, jewelry and textiles, Nanna Ditzel did not limit herself to one field of work or material. From the early 1950s, working closely with Jørgen, Nanna designed a range of advanced, innovative furniture in unconventional materials, such as the then untested foam rubber, and later ventured into polyester and fiberglass. Throughout her life, materials and techniques were challenged, and her love of nature's organic forms often resulted in an avant-garde design language.  Likewise, classic materials such as wicker, laminated wood and silver were transformed into iconic furniture and jewelry. 

In 1956, Nanna and Jørgen Ditzel were awarded the Lunning Prize. Jørgen died young in 1961, but Nanna continued their joined work on her own. In 1968 Nanna Ditzel moved to London, where together with Kurt Heide she created Interspace - International Furniture and Design Center. When she returned to Copenhagen in 1987, she established a design studio in her home in Klareboderne, where she continued her design career until she passed away in 2005. 

 

Since Nanna Ditzel's death, her three daughters have taken over her life's work. Together with Thomas Graversen from Fredericia Furniture, they form the company's board of directors. Until 2023, the day-to-day management was handled by Dennie Ditzel, but now, after a generational shift, Nanna's granddaughter Camilla Ditzel and Henriette Noermark have taken over.

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