Bonderup & Thorup

Kindred spirits Torsten Thorup and Claus Bonderup have designed almost everything together: wrist watches, displays for Georg Jensen, Finland’s Arktikum musem and the Helsingør harbor in Denmark. Designing in reaction to the prevalent cozy or hygge era in Denmark; Bonderup & Thorup are best known for their application of sharp, clean lines and geometries and classic simplicity. This approach to design is best reflected in their famed Semi Pendant - created in 1968 by adjoining two quarter-circles back-to-back. The lamp achieved great success in the 1980s with worldwide recognition as the best selling Danish design of the decade - retaining its iconic status to this day. Today in their native Denmark, Thorup’s architectural oeuvre has been likened to that of Le Corbusier, while Bonderup has become a professor at Aalborg University, where a lifelong fascination with Andrea Palladio, an Italian Renaissance architect from the 16th century, continues to inspire him. With such a fixed gaze upon timeless principles of beauty and proportion, it is no wonder that their work is represented, among other places, at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.