41 / 56
I was amazed by the beauty and ingenious design, and when I showed the picture to my fellow
students they all thought the same! I found it strange–and quite a shame–that this beautiful
chair was not in production anymore, so I contacted the original manufacturer and asked if
they would consider restarting production of the Scandia range. They refused, so I decided I had to
do it myself. I got in contact with Hans Brattrud and told him about my plans. He liked the idea,
so suddenly I was an architect student and a furniture manufacturer. Since the very beginning
in 2002, I have no record of how many times I have travelled to visit Hans Brattrud and our factory
at Dokka. We are privileged to still have this cooperation with the designer himself.
How do Fjordfiesta and Hans Brattrud work together now?
Pål Lunder:
Hans Brattrud lives close to where our factory is situated in the small town of Dokka.
So every now and then he drops by the factory to discuss technical improvements, new designs
and other matters concerning him with our
skilled craftsmen. He quite clearly speaks his
mind regarding the development of his furniture,
and of course we have a huge amount of respect
for his opinions and try to meet his wishes in
the best possible way. At the same time we try to
update the chairs technically and adjust them
to new machinery and solutions, but also refresh
them for potential new markets by trying out new
colours and new designs on accessories, etc.
Fjordfiesta is deeply committed to the
Norwegian design tradition. Are there other
groundbreaking pieces of Norwegian design history you would like to reedit?
Pål Lunder:
Yes, I believe there are a handful of classic designs that would be highly relevant
today. So many great designs were made during the golden era of Scandinavian Design,
in the1950s and 60s that is. So only from that small period of time we could gather enough
remarkable furniture to make up a whole collection. (If we disclosed exactly what we had in mind
though, we would reveal our commercial secrets.) Not to mention that also after the so-called
golden era there are some really nice and interesting designs from Norway, of course!
40|41