LABORATORIUM ANDERS HERMANSEN

Just as this year’s design festival 3daysofdesign kicks off, the first exhibition in a new series at Designmuseum Danmark opens, exploring how design comes into being under the title LABORATORIUM. The first designer to take on this new format is award-winning industrial and furniture designer Anders Hermansen.

An extraordinary exhibition experience awaits visitors when LABORATORIUM Anders Hermansen opens on 18 June at Designmuseum Danmark. The acclaimed designer has created a total design featuring floating airplanes, helicopters, bicycles, and furniture made from steel wire – a dreamy universe that, for Anders Hermansen, forms the very starting point of his creative process. The exhibition offers a unique insight into how Hermansen’s designs come to life and showcases pieces from his extensive career.

Thinking with his hands
Anders Hermansen thinks with his hands and always in three dimensions. During his studies, Anders Hermansen began designing his products using steel wire, which became his preferred sketching method instead of drawing. In the early years after graduating from the School of Applied Arts in 1982, he developed a series of wire-frame chairs that balanced between sculpture and high-tech. This led to designs for the Danish design and furniture house Paustian, lighting producer Louis Poulsen, design company Engelbrechts, and more than 20 years as a lead designer at Bang & Olufsen. Most recently, Hermansen has developed a groundbreaking electric bicycle built around an innovative frame design.

Hermansen’s design process is a journey into both the object and himself. He has a direct and natural approach to the process, following a feeling rather than working from theory or symbolism. He is deeply engaged with what the hand can do – the intuitive sense of form and atmosphere that inspires the next move in the design. Hermansen’s wire sketch universes reflect the life he himself wishes to lead. “It’s not a successful industrial product if the human being isn’t part of the equation. There’s no product that isn’t about us. Products should suit people, make us beautiful,” says the designer.

New exhibition series
LABORATORIUM is a series of special exhibitions showcasing innovative and exemplary contemporary design, while also shedding light on the design process – from the initial spark of an idea to the finished product or piece. The series features the work and processes of both established, acclaimed designers and the visions and experiments of the next generation of rising designers and craftspeople.

LABORATORIUM Anders Hermansen will be on view at Designmuseum Danmark from 18 June to 2 November, 2025.