Karpf’s designs are represented at numerous museums worldwide including Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, and the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris.
Throughout his career, Peter Karpf has been known for his work with furniture bent from one single piece of wood, giving them a unique sculptural appearance. His work is also characterised by its simplicity and personal expression and to Karpf, functionality is as important as the design of the product.
As an apprentice of the renowned furniture maker Fritz Hansen, he turned to architecture in 1961 at the Copenhagen School of Arts and Crafts. This robust training in both product and place lays a foundation for his belief that design is a process of discarding experiments.
One by one, his projects embrace both beauty and use, making innovative use of materials. His furniture bent from one single piece of wood, monolithic molded plywood chairs and light fixtures have all become modern Danish classics, the collection of which, alongside his architecture, which led to his award in 2002 of the Bruno Mathsson Prize – the most prestigious design award in Scandinavia.
