Arne Jacobsen designed the AJ Lamp for the SAS Royal Hotel in Copenhagen (Radisson Collection) in 1957. Today, the AJ lamp family is regarded as the design that the Danish architect is best known for all over the world.
At that time, the AJ lamp family comprised a table lamp, a small table lamp, a wall lamp, a floor lamp and a working lamp that was designed to attach to the table. In combination with the AJ Royal pendant, the AJ Lamp formed part of the overall design concept that Jacobsen created for the hotel.
Arne Jacobsen did not just design the hotel down to the smallest detail for SAS (Scandinavian Airlines), he also designed almost all the hotel’s original furniture – such as the famous Egg chair and Swan chair –, the utility items and the lighting.
The profile of the AJ Lamp with its straight lines and its combination of oblique and right angles is not only seen as a formal parallel to the profile of the 3300 Series, but also to the geometric profiles of his building.
Fun fact: the round in the foot of the lamp was meant to receive an ashtray.
