Fredericia celebrates Nanna Ditzel’s 100th anniversary by presenting the iconic Trinidad Chair in new colours

Having sold hundreds of thousands of Trinidad Chairs, the poetic yet sturdy piece of furniture has proven itself as a modern classic known globally for its poetic silhouette. It is expressive yet straightforward in refined dialogue with the surrounding space and is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year.

Trinidad Chair – A poetic design pushing the limits
Friendly, comfortable, and pushing the limits within production. Ditzel got inspired for the Trinidad Chair from her trips to the Caribbean Islands with its vivid folk culture, stunning nature and unique architecture with its ornamented gingerbread style and brightly painted fretwork. With parallels from Ditzel’s jewellery design, she adds expressive ornamentations to her chair design while including human curves, making it all about the impression of the person in the chair. It is essential to exude dignity and be gracefully positioned as if sitting in a beautiful flower, creating a poetic frame around the seated person.

Like iconic moulded plywood chairs from the 1950s, Ditzel seeks refined plywood forms on slender frames. She is enrolled in the neo-modernist way of cultivating aesthetics, adding a story to her design. While experimenting with materials and the capability of wood, she pushes the limits of what is possible. With the help of Denmark’s first 4-axis CNC milling machine, her vision is made possible for the industrial production of the Trinidad Chair.

“A chair is for sitting in, but it also expresses age, eroticism, essence, human feelings, and dreams. While functionality must naturally be preserved, for me, chairs have increasingly become attempts to meet the challenge thrown down by all these other elements“ Nanna Ditzel.

Inspired by the Caribbean winds and the sunrays playing with the fretwork and the shadows cast by trees on the gingerbread houses, this plywood chair is recognisable yet totally its own.

To commemorate what would have been Ditzel’s 100th anniversary and the 30th anniversary of the Trinidad Chair itself, it is being launched in the new colours Khaki, Nordic blue and a delicate Oak oil version, all with brushed stainless steel legs.