Poul Henningsen
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Poul Henningsen was born in Copenhagen in Denmark, the son of the famous Danish actress Agnes Henningsen. He never qualified as an architect, but studied at the Technical School in Frederiksberg from 1911 to 1914 and then at the Technical College in Copenhagen from 1914 to 1917.
He also began working in traditional functionalist architecture. His professional interest soon focused mainly on lighting design, however – and that is what he is famous for. He extended his work to writing and became a journalist and author. For a short time at the beginning of the Second World War, he was chief architect at Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen. But like many other creative people, he was forced to flee Denmark during the German occupation and soon became an important part of the Danish artistic community living in Sweden.
His lifelong collaboration with Louis Poulsen Lighting began in 1925 and lasted until his death. Louis Poulsen Lighting still benefits from his genius today. Poul Henningsen was also the first editor of the company magazine "NYT". Poulsen's CEO at the time, Sophus Kaastrup-Olsen, gave PH the magazine as a gift after he had just been dismissed from the Danish newspaper he had worked for (apparently his opinions were too radical).
Poul Henningsen's pioneering work on the relationship between light structures, shadow, reflection and colour rendering – measured against the human need for light – remains the cornerstone of the lighting theory still used by Louis Poulsen Lighting.
