This January, Designmuseum Danmark opens the third exhibition in the Laboratorium series, which takes visitors deep into the “creative engine room” of a designer or maker. In this exhibition, visitors can get very close to the design process behind selected pieces of furniture by the renowned design studio Foersom & Hiort-Lorenzen, who, at the opening of the exhibition, are also being honoured with the Danish Design Council Award 2026.

Johannes Foersom and Peter Hiort-Lorenzen will almost literally open their studio to the public in a new exhibition at the design museum, offering an intriguing insight into how the two furniture architects work with furniture design. As lecturers at the Danish Design School, they have influenced several generations of designers, and for more than half a century they have left a decisive mark on Nordic furniture design through collaborations with a number of leading furniture manufacturers. In the exhibition, visitors can explore the development and production processes of selected pieces of furniture through original hand-drawn sketches, full-scale (1:1) working drawings, small handmade chair models, prototypes, and digital 3D drawings.

Craftsmanship at the forefront

Johannes Foersom and Peter Hiort-Lorenzen are classically trained as a cabinetmaker and a ship’s carpenter respectively, before qualifying as furniture architects at the Furniture School of the School of Arts and Crafts. Together they have created a staggering number of pieces of furniture and products over more than 50 years of practice. One of their most well-known designs is the Campus Chair, which they designed in 1992 for the furniture manufacturer Lammhults. Today, the chair can be found in almost all newer universities and has been produced in more than 1.5 million copies. The Campus Chair, which is also included in the exhibition, is a good example of the studio’s design approach, where craftsmanship is central and every detail is carefully considered and tested so that form, function, and aesthetics come together as a whole. “We are craftsmen at heart, so we are not afraid to use our hands in what we do,” says Johannes Foersom.

Focus on sustainability

For the past 25 years, Foersom & Hiort-Lorenzen have been researching materials to enable sustainable furniture production on a large scale. While they initially experimented with shell chairs moulded in cellulose, today it is hemp that occupies their attention: “We use the hemp stalk—previously used to make rope for, for example, ships—to create a very strong shell. The leftovers that are cut away when the shells are formed can then be used for new mouldings for table bases, so that everything is used,” explains Peter Hiort-Lorenzen.

Foersom & Hiort-Lorenzen have developed furniture for, among others, Normann, Cane-line, Fredericia Furniture, Hay, Lammhults Möbel AB, Paustian, and FDB. They have won several international design awards as well as the Finn Juhl Prize, and their works are represented in the collections of institutions including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Moderna Museet in Stockholm, Trapholt in Kolding, and the design museum’s own collection.