Bodil Kjær

Bodil Kjær (born 11 March 1932) is a Danish architect, furniture designer, professor and researcher, who has specialized in interior design and city planning. Today she is recognized above all for the flexible series of office furniture she designed in the 1960s.

Early life

The daughter of a Jutland farmer, Kjær studied in Copenhagen at the School for Interior Architecture (1964) and then in London at the Royal College of Art and at the Architectural Association School of Architecture (1965–69).

Bodil Kjær was born into a family, where her parents in her terms were "well-read pillar of the community". Within such a family, she started developing an understanding of what makes a cohesive society along with aesthetics, feeling for quality and respect for nature.

As a child, Kjær was very active and engaged with sports. After passing her high school exams at a former Latin School, she went off to England for language studies. This gave her the chance to meet students from different countries and learn about different cultures. While in England, in 1950, discovering the tradition of well-thought-out furniture and accessories eventually led her to study interior architecture.

Kjær lived in Italy for some time as well, where she "combined her practice in Europe with teaching appointments at universities in the United States." Her interior design work has included the development of furniture, lighting, and glass for a wide range of buildings from housing in the African tropics to factories, offices and universities. She has since conducted research into the future of cities and has worked as a planning and design consultant.

Furniture

Kjær's furniture designs date mainly from 1959 to 1964. Her first assignment was an upholstered series for Paul Rudolph, dean of the Yale School of Architecture, who made the order for his Blue Cross Blue Shield tower in Boston, Massachusetts. She also provided designs for Josep Lluís Sert, dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Design, for a Harvard University building. Marcel Breuer installed 28 of her upholstered sofas in a building he had designed in New York. Examples of her furniture can still be seen today at Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Boston University.

The table has been used widely in films (From Russia with Love) and on television (BBC election broadcasts) as well as by celebrities including Prince Philip (at Sandringham), the actor Michael Caine, and the pianist Oscar Peterson.

The significance of På Vej lies beneath the time's politized agenda of gender equality, social and ecological justice. Within that context, the exhibition negotiated feminist concerns and brought up the ongoing tensions and challenges both in the architectural and curatorial practices. På Vej still holds its relevance in today's agenda as it offers a pre-context to contemporary architectural work taking up feminist position.

Nevertheless, the exhibition was successfully displayed at Copenhagen City Hall during the summer of 1980, followed by another display in Aarhus City Hall and accompanied with a book Kvinder ytrer sig om omgivelserne in Danish, and Women's Expressions on the Environment: A Commentary to the Exhibition PÅ VEJ That Shows the Work of Women Architects, Planners and Artists in English.

Regarding the overall exhibition, an architectural periodical Arkitekten noted that På Vej challenged the common narrative that women were often overshadowed by their male counterparts. Instead, it highlighted that women architects and artists were equally capable of creative imagination and socio-political engagement.