Bodil Kjær

“All my life, I have endeavoured to embrace the essential.”

For more than seven decades, Bodil Kjær (b. 1932), professor, architect MAA has seen it as her foremost task to solve problems: From the development of modern design and flexible working environments to urban development, research, consultancy and teaching at home in Denmark and abroad.

From a very young age, Bodil Kjær was drawn to the world beyond the Danish borders, and at the age of 26, she travelled to the US for two years. First in New York and then in Boston, she worked for leading firms and developed a series of “architectural elements” which immediately garnered international recognition. It was also at this time – in 1959 – that she designed the “Office Desk”, the elegant desk that seems almost to float in the air and has been proclaimed “the most beautiful desk in the world” on more than one occasion.

With a great interest in all levels of society, Bodil Kjær established an independent design studio in Copenhagen in 1960. Her global outlook led her to London in 1965, where she underwent management training. With her subsequent appointments and countless ground-breaking projects, Bodil Kjær has marked herself throughout her life as an international, female front-runner, who is currently the subject of renewed interest and several relaunches from the Italian manufacturer Cassina, among others. In 2022, Bodil Kjær was awarded the “Bindesbøll Medal” for her work as a furniture designer with an architectural holistic approach.