OntwerperNorwegian
Jahn Aamodt
1 actieve items
A chair that reclines, swivels, and holds you at ease - the Timeout by Jahn Aamodt for Conform has become one of the more enduring pieces of Scandinavian lounge furniture produced in the last three decades. It captures the core concern that runs through Aamodt's career as a designer: the conviction that ergonomics and aesthetics are not competing values, but the same problem approached from two directions.
Aamodt is a Norwegian industrial designer and interior architect based in Sykkylven, a coastal municipality on Norway's west coast that became one of the centres of the Norwegian furniture industry. He qualified as an interior architect and furniture designer at the National College of Art and Design in 1976, and as an industrial designer at Industridesignerutdanningen in Oslo in 1980. He is a member of both NID (the Norwegian Association of Industrial Designers) and MNIL (the Norwegian Association of Interior Architects). Through his studio Aamodt Design, he has worked across more than 50 enterprises on multiple continents.
His collaboration with Conform Collection - a Swedish manufacturer - produced several pieces that circulate regularly on the secondary market: the Timeout lounge chair with its aluminium swivel base, moulded plywood frame, and tilt-mechanism backrest; the Air, a more sculptural recliner; the Globe, a rounded swivel armchair in leather; and smaller pieces such as the Funco magazine rack. For Vestre, the Norwegian street furniture company, he co-designed the City waste bin in 1989, a product that has remained in production for over thirty years, as well as the Hvilan bench series. His philosophy, stated plainly: "Design should unite and it must have a personality. It must have a duration and function which will satisfy the requirements of its users, manufacturers and society."
On Auctionist, 23 items carry Aamodt's name, almost all of them chairs - dominated by the Timeout and its footstool, with the Air and Globe appearing alongside. The pieces turn up across Swedish auction houses including Crafoord Auktioner Stockholm, Göteborgs Auktionsverk, and Lysekils Auktionsbyrå. Sold prices have ranged from 1,100 to 7,000 SEK, with a pair of Timeout armchairs fetching 4,600 SEK and a single Timeout with footstool reaching 7,000 SEK.