Everything you need to know about Nanna Ditzel, the grand dame of Danish design

Nanna Ditzel didn’t just design furniture, she imagined new ways of living. Where others saw a chair, she saw an opportunity to rethink how people sat, moved and occupied a room. Seating could hang from the ceiling or become a landscape of upholstered steps; colour and curves could invite a less prescribed way of inhabiting a space.

Ambitious and experimental, Ditzel (1923–2005) deserves a place alongside Danish contemporaries such as Hans J. Wegner, Arne Jacobsen and Verner Panton but – like so many female designers from the 20th century – remains less widely known. Across furniture, textiles and jewellery, she combined technical curiosity with a determination to question established forms.

Her work could be radical, but its starting point was everyday life: how design might make it more comfortable, flexible and interesting. She approached practical obstacles with the same persistence, summed up in her maxim: 'Three steps forward and two steps back still means I've taken a step in the right direction.'

Here's everything you need to know about the designer's life and career, from her early collaboration with Jørgen Ditzel to the work that helped renew appreciation for Danish furniture design in the 1990s.

Early life

Born in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1923, Nanna Ditzel trained as a cabinetmaker before studying at the School of Arts and Crafts and the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen. As a 20-year-old student, she exhibited her first furniture at the annual exhibition of the Carpenters' Guild, graduating as a furniture designer in 1946. The same year, she married her colleague Jørgen Ditzel and together they started a design studio.

'The Padded Cell', 1952

'The Padded Cell' was the couple’s first ever ‘stairscape’ – a series of cushioned seating landscapes based on the idea that people think and converse better when they can lie down rather than just sitting. Created for an avant-garde exhibition at Winkel og Magnussen, the ‘Padded Cell’ took the form of a multi-level upholstered terrace, with movable foam-rubber elements and small cushions that allowed people to arrange their own support. Fellow Danish designer and sculptor Aagaard Andersen devised its bold blue, yellow and red colour scheme.

Jewellery for Georg Jensen, from 1954 - 2003

Ditzel brought her interest in organic forms to jewellery, becoming the first woman to design for Georg Jensen in 1954. Her bold silver pieces included a bracelet composed of crescent-shaped discs and a ring designed to elongate the finger. Designs created with Jørgen won gold medals at the Milan Triennale in 1957 and 1960; the couple also received the Lunning Prize for their jewellery designs in 1956.

'Hanging Egg' chair, 1959

One of the Ditzel’s most recognisable designs, this suspended wicker chair embodied their ambition to use every dimension of a room. Freed from the conventional four-legged base, the seat could move with its occupant.

Two years after launching this piece, Jørgen died, leaving Nanna to raise their three daughters and continue the studio alone.

'Chill' lounge chair, 1961

Designed in late summer 1961, the lounge chair and footstool were the first furniture Ditzel created after Jørgen’s death. Originally called the Fireplace Chair, the design was developed with Danish rattan maker Robert Wengler and remained in her summer house for more than 40 years. Its low, rounded form offered another way to sit close to the floor.

'Trisse' stool, 1962

Originally known as Trissen in Danish, meaning ‘spool’, and Toad Stool in English, this playful design responded to children’s tendency to climb over furniture and knock it over. It could be turned, rolled and stacked, encouraging uses beyond conventional sitting. Conceived for children, it found an audience among adults too.

This year it was reintroduced by Danish brand Fredericia. Maria Bruun, Head of Design at Fredericia, believes Trisse possesses a rare balance. 'It is intuitive and playful, yet highly resolved,' she says. 'You understand it immediately, but it continues to reveal new ways of being used. That sense of openness is very much at the core of Ditzel’s work.'

'Hallingdal' upholstery fabric, 1965

Hallingdal brought Ditzel’s love of colour to an everyday material. Developed with Norway’s Gudbrandsdalens Uldvarefabrik as part of a collection for the Halling-Koch Design Centre, the upholstery fabric appeared in Ditzel's choice of vivid pink, blue, turquoise, red and orange. Its bright palette offered an alternative to the subdued shades prevalent at the time.

Distributed internationally by Kvadrat, Hallingdal has remained in production for decades, its colours revised over time. Gudbrandsdalens Uldvarefabrik, which still distributes the design in Norway, reports that over 10 million metres of the fabric have been sold since its launch in 1965

'Villette' furniture landscape, 1966

Concieved as 'body-freindly' upholstered building blocks, 'Villette' extended Ditzel’s stairscape experiments into soft, upholstered seats. Designed to be lightweight and affordable, the 'Villette' elements were upholstered in brightly-coloured knitted fabric.

The introduction of the design coincided with Ditzel's move to London (where she remained until 1986). 'Villette' was installed at Interspace, the furniture showroom and meeting place she established with her second husband, furniture dealer Kurt Heide, in London’s Hampstead. Housed in a former chocolate factory, Interspace hosted exhibitions and parties attended by figures including Terence Conran and Verner Panton. Ditzel’s seating landscape provided a setting for the informal encounters her work encouraged.

Fairy Tale Room, 1968

Developed for the children’s library in Lyngby, near Copenhagen, the Fairy Tale Room brought the stairscape concept into a public setting. Its multi-level arrangement gave children a space to explore, play and listen to stories, treating furniture as an invitation to use their imaginations.

Ditzel's work was full of colour and curved lines. Her daughter Dennie Ditzel recalled when she would ask her mother why she didn't use straight lines: 'Look outside, there are no angles in nature,' she replied.

Ceramic and wooden tableware, 1970s

Many of Ditzel’s designs slipped into everyday life, from ceramic salad bowls and serving dishes for Søholm and tea and coffee services for Nordlys to wooden bowls and cheeseboards for Brdr. Krüger – familiar objects that people may have lived with without ever knowing who designed them. These smaller domestic pieces reveal the breadth of a practice often remembered chiefly for its furniture.

'Bench for Two', 1989

After the death of her second husband, Kurt Heide, in 1985, Ditzel returned to Copenhagen and established a studio in her home in Klareboderne. In 1989, she began working with Fredericia on 'Bench for Two', a conjoined pair of seats that positioned two people at a right angle to one another.

Thin plywood surfaces carried a screen-printed striped pattern, creating a sense of movement. A quarter-circle table fitted between the seats like a slice of cake – a solution suggested by her daughter Dennie, replacing Ditzel’s original square design.

Dennie recalls asking her mother how she knew when a design was complete: 'It's finished when it looks like something that's always been here,' she told her.

The bench won a gold medal at the international furniture design competition in Asahikawa, Japan, in 1990. Its unconventional form reflected Ditzel’s continuing willingness to experiment, well into her sixties.

'Trinidad' chair, 1993

Inspired by the carved fretwork Ditzel saw on Caribbean balconies and doorways, the 'Trinidad' chair translated an architectural detail into a finely patterned seat and back. Its cut-outs allowed light to pass through, casting shifting shadows.

The chair’s instant success (the company has sold over 1 million to date) strengthened her partnership with Fredericia and helped establish her as a leading figure in the renewal of Danish design in the 1990s. It also marked a turning point in Fredericia’s history, establishing Nanna Ditzel as Fredericia’s second house designer after Børge Mogensen.

Recognition continued through the decade. Ditzel received Denmark’s ID Prize in 1995, was elected an Honorary Royal Designer for Industry by London’s Royal Society of Arts in 1996, and received a lifelong artists’ grant from the Danish Ministry of Culture in 1998.

Legacy

Ditzel died in 2005, leaving a body of work that ranged from everyday household objects to radical proposals for how a room might be inhabited. Reissues continue to introduce her designs to new audiences: Mater reimagined the outdoor furniture she designed with Jørgen in 1955 using ocean-waste plastic in 2019; Kvadrat revisited her 1960s Sisu textile with artist Danh Vo in 2021; and Fredericia continues to reissue pieces from her archive, including the 'Bench for Two,' which was reintroduced in 2025.

Behind this prolific output lay a patient process of observation and experimentation. ‘Inspiration is the result of many thoughts and many experiences in the company of other people or alone in nature,’ she said. ‘I look at life, people, shapes, colours, the weather and everything around me. Ideas don’t come out of thin air. You can’t ask for them. They are hard work. Out of one’s exertions, analyses and thoughts something surprising often comes. Something one hadn’t expected.’