{"id":30319,"date":"2025-02-04T12:03:34","date_gmt":"2025-02-04T12:03:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/exagono.es\/profesionales\/niels-gammelgaard\/"},"modified":"2025-04-16T08:53:56","modified_gmt":"2025-04-16T08:53:56","slug":"niels-gammelgaard","status":"publish","type":"profesionales","link":"https:\/\/exagono.es\/en\/designers\/niels-gammelgaard\/","title":{"rendered":"Niels Gammelgaard"},"content":{"rendered":"

Niels Gammelgaard<\/b><\/span> (Copenhagen, 1944) is a Danish industrial designer renowned for his innovative, minimalist, and highly functional approach to furniture design. He graduated in Industrial Design<\/b><\/span> from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts<\/b><\/span> in 1970. Early in his career, he was co-owner of Box 25 Architects<\/b><\/span> (1969\u20131978), and later co-founded Pelikan Design<\/b><\/span> with architect Lars Mathiesen (1978\u20132005).<\/p>\n

From 1975 to 2005, Gammelgaard served as an external designer for IKEA International<\/b><\/span>, marking one of the most influential and prolific collaborations in the company\u2019s history.<\/p>\n

His partnership with IKEA<\/b><\/span> began when he met founder Ingvar Kamprad<\/b><\/span> in Denmark in 1975. Eager for IKEA to carry his existing furniture designs, Gammelgaard was instead challenged by Kamprad to design a new kind of chair using steel and plastic<\/b><\/span>. Two weeks later, he presented sketches for what would become the Folke chair<\/b><\/span>\u2014the beginning of a relationship that would yield over 50 IKEA products<\/b><\/span>.<\/p>\n

One of his early commercial successes was the Ted folding chair<\/b><\/span>, created in an Italian mock-up workshop. It became an instant hit, remaining in IKEA\u2019s catalog for a decade, later joined by folding side tables and a wall-mounted table.<\/p>\n

In the 1980s, Gammelgaard developed a production method for lightweight, affordable metal furniture<\/b><\/span>. A visit to a shopping cart factory inspired him to design the J\u00e4rpen armchair<\/b><\/span> from thick metal wire. Launched in 1982, it was a commercial success\u2014its low cost and edgy design made it especially popular among younger consumers.<\/p>\n

Gammelgaard continued pushing boundaries. In 1984, he introduced the Moment sofa<\/b><\/span>, the first flat-packed sofa in the world<\/b><\/span>, made from a steel mesh frame with clean, straight lines. That same year, IKEA launched his Guide shelving unit<\/b><\/span>, based on the same metal construction technique. In 1986, he followed up with the Moment table<\/b><\/span>, featuring a frosted, tempered glass top seemingly floating 72 centimeters above ground, supported by a metal frame reminiscent of the Moment sofa\u2019s design.<\/p>\n

Beyond IKEA, Gammelgaard has also designed furniture for a wide range of prestigious manufacturers, including <\/span>Fritz Hansen, Bent Krogh (now Magnus Olesen), Fredericia Furniture, Erik J\u00f8rgensen, Tranek\u00e6r Furniture (now Carl Hansen & S\u00f8n), Duba (now Holmris B8), Fora Form, Matteo Grassi<\/b>, and <\/span>Cappellini<\/b>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Niels Gammelgaard\u2019s legacy lies in bridging industrial functionality with thoughtful design<\/b><\/span>, making high-quality, forward-thinking furniture accessible to the masses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":24887,"template":"","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","editor_plus_copied_stylings":"{}","footnotes":""},"categorias-profesionales":[1326],"class_list":["post-30319","profesionales","type-profesionales","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","categorias-profesionales-designers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/exagono.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profesionales\/30319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/exagono.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profesionales"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/exagono.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/profesionales"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/exagono.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profesionales\/30319\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exagono.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/exagono.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"categorias-profesionales","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exagono.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categorias-profesionales?post=30319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}