Finn Juhl, architect

Through the analysis of more than 300 original drawings, most of them never published before, held by the Archive of the Design Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen, the study brings together for the first time the work of the architect and designer Finn Juhl, in order to introduce him in the Italian context. Before this publication, very little has been said on Finn Juhl in Italy. While everyone gets to know figures like Alvar Aalto, Erik Gunnar Asplund, Arne Jacobsen and Jørn Utzon, many Danish designers are almost unknown by Italian people. There is no monograph on Finn Juhl written in the Italian language, though he is one of the greatest and most influential designers of the Danish Modern. More than a considerable furniture designer, Finn Juhl has been also a talented architect and one of the promoters of the Danish design all over the world. Thanks to his friendship with Edgar Kaufmann Jr. and to his exhibitions during the 50s, Juhl became famous in Europe and in the USA, but remained unknown Italy, where his popularity concerns mostly the IX, X and XI Triennale in Milan. The first articles on Juhl in Italian date back to 1950, describing his own house in Ordrup, built almost 7 years earlier. Moreover, there is no work published in the Italian language about the other villas he designed from the beginning of the 40s till the end of the 60s in Denmark, such as Villa Aubertin, the Summer House in Asserbo, the Summer House in Raageleje and the Projects in Klelund. The aim of this thesis is in the first place to describe Juhl's projects, in order to introduce them to the Italian people, then to critique his design relating to the world of arts and furniture design, referring to his contemporaries and to others who may have influenced him.