A new book exploring the remarkable career of Danish modernist Arne Jacobsen showcases ten pivotal projects that demonstrate his extraordinary range across architecture, furniture design, textiles, and industrial products. "The Designs of Arne Jacobsen" by authors Thomas Dickson and Henrik Lund-Larsen reveals how the renowned designer seamlessly fused architectural vision with product design, creating works that span from intimate cutlery pieces to grand civic buildings.

While Jacobsen remains one of Denmark's most celebrated designers, the authors argue that his reputation has been unfairly limited to architecture alone. "Most books about Arne Jacobsen focus on him being an architect," Dickson and Lund-Larsen explained. "Maybe because these books are often written by Danes, and in Denmark he is seen mostly as someone who designed buildings and, on the side, he designed furniture, lamps and other products. So, we saw that there were a lot of stories that hadn't been told yet."

The book spans Jacobsen's entire career from 1925 to 1971, highlighting projects that remain remarkably relevant today. "His designs still look really modern today; they have a kind of air about them that makes them look fresh and sexy," the authors noted. "That's probably why Jacobsen's chairs are often seen in music videos, ads and interior magazines. An Egg Chair, for example, can be a really good place to be sitting as a public figure, like an actor or a rock star; it's a perfectly framed stage that doesn't demand all the attention."

Among the featured projects is the Søllerød Town Hall from 1941, which exemplifies Jacobsen's comprehensive design approach. Located 10 miles north of Copenhagen, this building represents a collaboration with classmate Flemming Lassen, where the architects designed every interior detail from chairs and lamps to door handles, clocks, and signage. The competition-winning design was completed in 1942 and remains largely unchanged today as a listed building.

Jacobsen's textile work, including the 1948 "Lemons in Net" pattern, emerged from a crucial period when he and his wife Jonna fled to Sweden in 1943 due to his Jewish heritage. During their exile, they created nearly 150 textile designs, with Jacobsen contributing watercolor paintings and Jonna applying her expertise in textile printing and design. These romantic patterns featuring flowers, plants, and everyday scenes reflected "a longing for peace and a brighter future," later evolving into more abstract and geometric designs in the 1960s.

The famous Ant Chair of 1952 marked a breakthrough in industrial furniture manufacturing, developed through collaboration with assistant Verner Panton and manufacturer Fritz Hansen. This lightweight laminated chair featured a revolutionary three-dimensional shell combining seat and backrest, mounted on minimalist bent tubular steel legs. The year-long development process mastered new manufacturing technology, spawning subsequent models including the 7-chair and Grand Prix variations.

Jacobsen's architectural projects extended beyond buildings to encompass complete environmental design, as demonstrated in the Munkegaard School of 1955. This listed building functions as "almost a little village in itself" with each classroom featuring its own private garden. Jacobsen designed not only the building but also furniture in three sizes, ceiling lamps, loudspeakers, and meticulously planned courtyard gardens complete with classical sculpture reproductions for student recreation.

The designer's attention to human interaction with built environments appears in details like the AJ door handle from 1956, first used in The Royal Hotel and now commercially available for residential use. This organic-shaped handle contrasts deliberately with the straight-angled steel and glass architecture characteristic of Jacobsen's later career, demonstrating his philosophy of creating softer forms for elements touching the human body.

Similar principles guided the AJ cutlery series of 1957, where Jacobsen's exceptional eye for proportion created elegantly curved utensils that "please the eye, maybe even more than pleasing the hand." Though he designed three different flatware lines in the late 1950s, only the AJ series survives in production today, testament to its enduring design excellence.

The iconic Swan and Egg chairs of 1958 showcased Jacobsen's fascination with new technology and industrial production methods. Working with Fritz Hansen's patent for hardened styrofoam rigid enough for furniture use, he created a series of upholstered furniture for The Royal Hotel in Copenhagen. These chairs, including The Drop and The Pot, feature distinctive contour lines as their primary design characteristic, with The Swan originally conceived as a low, wide version of the Ant chair.

Jacobsen's final years focused intensively on flexible, movable, and industrially manufactured buildings, culminating in the Kubeflex modular house system of 1969-70. This innovative concept consisted of cube-like modules transportable by standard flatbed truck, linkable in numerous configurations with various window, door, and paneling options. Only one cluster was completed before Jacobsen's death in 1971, serving as the family vacation house before renovation and relocation to the Trapholt Museum near Kolding in Southern Jutland, where it remains on permanent display as a testament to his forward-thinking architectural vision.