Mid-Century Kerstin Hörlin Holmquist Paradise Sofa, Sweden, 1950s

Renowned for her curvaceous armchair and sofa designs that utilize wood and, pioneeringly so, polystyrene, Swedish modernist architect and furniture designer Kerstin Hörlin-Holmquist hails from a robust early-century generation of Scandinavian female furniture designers that includes Nanna Ditzel, Grete Jalk, and Tove Kindt-Larsen.

Born May 30, 1925, in Arvika, Sweden, Hörlin-Holmquist began her career path studying Art History in postwar England (1946-1947) before returning to Sweden in 1948 to study at Stockholm’s esteemed College of Arts, Designs, and Crafts (now Konstfack), an institution which had, in earlier decades, already graduated such multi-discipline design luminaries as Greta Magnusson Grossman and Stig Lindberg. It was at the end of her time at Konstfack that Hörlin-Holmquist designed her famous shell-seated, hand-woven wicker Kraal Chairs, the debut of which—at the Röhsska Museum’s 1952 exhibition 52 Möbler 52 in Gothenburg—attracted the attention of major department store Nordiska Kompaniet. Hörlin-Holmquist’s chair design was incorporated into Nordiska Kompaniet’s Triva Collection, a new versatile and easy-to-assemble furniture series aimed at modern, postwar consumers. 

After Hörlin-Holmquist agreed and production began at Nordiska Kompaniet’s workshops in Nyköping, Hörlin-Holmquist was asked to take a larger role in the development of the Triva Collection and to provide the company a variety of furniture designs and interior fittings that expressed a modern Scandinavian ethos through soft lines and adaptive humanism. It was during this tenure, which spanned until 1964, that Hörlin-Holmquist designed her most iconic work—namely, her Paradiset Collection (“Paradiset,” the Swedish word for “Paradise” or “Eden”) from 1956-1958, which included the wood-framed Eva ­Lounge Chair, its masculine counterpart, the Adam Chair, and, later, the button-back (a Hörlin-Holmquist hallmark) Paradiset Sofa.

Notably, Hörlin-Holmquist often involved her husband, Erik Holmquist, in her creative process; together, they would craft and model her designs so that the prototypes could be tested for functionally in their own home before initiating production.

While most of her design oeuvre fell within her time at Nordiska Kompaniet’s, Hörlin-Holmquist did continue to design after 1964, with standouts including her Charlotte Dining Set for famous Finnish firm, Asko, as well as the Skrindan series of chairs for OPE Möbler—both sometime in the later 1960s. In her later years, she was linked with Kalingrad-based firm A&C Collection, whose design focus was on selling complete interiors to offices and other public environments.

She passed away February 3, 1997, in Ängelholm, Sweden.

Stirred by the eye-catching grandeur and service possibilities of early-century Parisian and Londoner high-end shopping, Swedish businessmen Josef Sachs (1872-1949) and Karl M. Lundberg established Nordiska Kompaniet in 1902, laying the foundation for what would become Scandinavia’s first and, in time, most influential entry into the realm of luxury retail.

In 1915—after a twelve-year jaunt in a repurposed space at Stureplan Plaza and following Lundberg’s departure from the company—Sachs began construction of an entirely new and substantially more opulent store on Stockholm’s major Hamngatan corridor. The building was designed by one of the country’s leading architects at the time, Ferdinand Boberg (1860-1946), of Stockholm’s Rosenbad and Central Post Office fame. Nordiska Kompaniet emerged as Stockholm’s premier department store: modern and multi-tiered, centrally located, offering a lavish smorgasbord of services and Nordic-inspired merchandise capable of enticing the region’s most elite clientele. 

Beyond jewelry, fashion, cosmetics, food, Sweden’s first escalator, and endless panoramas of mahogany (which, noteworthy upon its opening, lined most of its interior), Nordiska Kompaniet Hamngatan offered shoppers its own line of custom-made furnishings crafted in workshops in Nyköping (est. 1904). The design aesthetic reflected the general ethos of the company: high quality production, pared-down lines with touches of genteel elegance, and, above all, an air of exclusivity.

As the century progressed, the in-house design and production wing of the Nordiska Kompaniet operation attracted some of Scandinavia’s most salient design innovators. Swedish architect-designer Axel Einar Hjorth headed up Nordiska Kompaniet’s furniture and interiors department between 1927 and 1938, a clout-expanding time for the company on the international stage. He directed Nordiska Kompaniet’s showcases at a number of important industry exhibitions, such as the 1929 World Fair in Barcelona, the 1930 Stockholm Exhibition, and the 1933 World Fair in Chicago. Along the way, Hjorth garnered acclaim for his often pine-crafted interiors designed for a range of prestigious public and private clients, including Stockholm’s Gunnar Asplund-designed city library and a train carriage for the Shah of Persia. During Hjorth’s tenure, Nordiska Kompaniet commissioned iconic work from Asplund—namely, his tubular steel Karmstol Side Chair and GA-2 Armchair (both 1931)—as well as esteemed Swedish architect-designer Carl Malmsten, who created furnishings for Stockholm’s Concert Hall (1928), the House of the League of Nations in Geneva (1934), and more.

While bespoke interior design in public spaces remained Nordiska Kompaniet’s main focus in the midcentury—especially in 1950s, when Nordiska Kompaniet furniture filled Swedish banks, hotels, embassies, steamers, and restaurants—this era also saw the rise of the company’s furniture designs for serial production. Of particular note is the Trivaserie (alternatively, Triva-Bygg), designed by Elias Svedberg and launched in Malmö in 1944, which featured standard furniture items distributed in flat packages to be constructed by consumers themselves at home (one of the first instances of the knock-down furniture later made famous by fellow Swedish heavyweight Ikea).

Under designer Lena Larsson’s direction from 1947-1965, the Trivaserie line was subsumed into Nordiska Kompaniet’s experimental NK-bo (NK “Living”) label. During these years, the Triva series moved beyond knock-down furniture and expanded to include designs like Kerstin Hörlin-Holmquist Paradiset Sofa (ca. 1958) and Yngvar Sandström’s Tokyo Bench (ca. 1964). Other notable midcentury Nordiska Kompaniet designs include the Annette Dressing Table (1943) and Trienna Chair (1957) by prominent architect, interior and industrial designer Carl-Axel Acking. 

Aided by the consumer influence of the department store, which gave the space and context to present single products not just exclusively, but also within full room settings, Nordiska Kompaniet enjoyed decades of manufacturing success before declining profitability forced the closure of their Nyköping workshop in 1973 and turned their focus to trade. Today, the company is still renowned as a high-brow supplier of goods and services, operating from two outlets: the original NK on Hamngatan, and another in Gothenburg (est. 1971).