Danish by Design by Various Travel Authors on Creators.com

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Danish by Design

By Joan Scobey

So you think Danish design is only blond furniture and sleek silverware? That's just the start. In Copenhagen design permeates just about everything, as if it's in the country's DNA. The profile of public street telephones is a steel question mark. When Tivoli twinkles at night, the design-savvy street lamps direct light downward, a legacy from World War II that kept the popular pleasure grounds open yet hidden from German bombers. Even the laundromats have good-design baskets and inviting wooden tables for folding clothes.

For a one-stop immersion in Danish design, check into the Radisson Blu Royal Hotel (formerly the Radisson SAS Royal Copenhagen), where just about everything, from faucets to door handles, illustrates Design 101, most of it by world-famous architect Arne Jacobsen, Denmark's Mies van der Rohe or Marcel Breuer. Completed in 1960, it was Copenhagen's first design hotel and first skyscraper, a tall, spare slab set on one end of a wide two-story base, said to be copied after New York City's International Style Lever House.

The spacious lobby, with marble floors and rich wood walls, is filled with swivel chairs of signature Jacobsen designs: here a group of tan leather "Swan" chairs, there the larger, enveloping black leather "Eggs," several red and black fabric "Swans" by the curving, floating staircase. Golden "artichoke" lamps of master craftsman Poul Henningsen, who designed those savvy Tivoli fixtures, hang above the circular check-in counters.

Upstairs, the 20th-floor restaurant, Alberto K, is Arne all the way. Named for Alberto Kappenberger, the hotel's first general manager who promoted Jacobsen's design, diners get panoramic city views through wraparound windows as they sit in the popular green leather "7" chairs, and sample Scandinavian-Italian cuisine with Jacobsen's sleek minimalist cutlery (for sale at Georg Jensen).

The furnishings of the 260 renovated bedrooms are in Jacobsen's style and include "Swan" and "7" chairs. One room, Suite 606, is pure Arne. Everything in it is original Jacobsen from the hotel's opening in 1960: blue-green "Swan" and "Egg" chairs, sofas, rosewood panels and cocktail table, the flip-top dressing table. Suite 606 is a regular guest room, but it is open to visitors any time it isn't booked.

If the Radisson Blu Royal is an introductory course in Danish design, the Danish Museum of Art and Design is where you'll get a graduate degree. This lovely 18th century building with an interior garden houses historical collections of European and Asiatic applied and decorative arts and a wing full of contemporary furniture. Chairs get pride of place, a cornucopia of modern masters: Hans Wegner's sinuous wood, Marcel Breuer's tubular steel, Harry Bertoia wire chairs, molded plastic Eames chairs, even a Frank Gehry cardboard carton construction and the popular "Nobody" chair made of molded felt.

Jacobsen rates his own room. What keeps the wing from looking like a showroom are how-it's-made exhibits like the deconstruction of the popular white swirly hand-folded lamp shade by Poul Christiansen. Other design-related institutions vie for attention, among them the Danish Design Center and Danish Architecture Center, but if you have time for only one, make it the Danish Museum of Art and Design.

If this look-but-don't-touch museum visit whets your appetite for a real hands-on experience, explore the main pedestrian-only shopping street, Stroget, and its environs to scope out the contemporary design market.

If the huge patchwork ball at the entrance to Normann Copenhagen doesn't alert you to the humor quotient in this inventive design store, playful toys and witty objects surely will. Think rubber egg cups in the shape of an egg; collapsible rubber funnels and colanders in black, red, green, yellow; stemless cognac glasses that tip and swirl; wash basins that looks like folded fabric rectangles; and a host of toys, bikes, clothes, kitchen pots, pottery and lamps from its own — and other — designers.

Virtually across the street on the second floor of a lovely art nouveau building is Hay House, which sells contemporary designs of its own manufacture.

You've seen the award-winning felt Nobody Chair and the child-size Little Nobody at the Danish Museum of Art and Design; here you'll also find various types of steel rod seating and the imaginative Prince Chair with a black or white perforated steel frame, now in New York's Museum of Modern Art collection. The spacious showroom is filled with pillows, colorful fabrics, toys, kitchenware, a host of accessories and just about anything that tempts a designer's imagination.

Nearby is the legendary silversmith George Jensen's flagship store, where Jacobsen's famous minimalist service is on offer, along with a vast display of traditional and modern silverware. In a sleight-of-hand marketing coup, before you know it, you'll have wandered into the connecting Royal Copenhagen porcelain emporium. Of course, there is the classic blue-and-white service and the enchanting flora danica botanicals, but also surprisingly hip modern ones that deconstruct traditional patterns and zoom in on single elements.

Time for a lunch or tea break? You're in luck. Dainty open-faced sandwiches and gorgeous desserts are on display at The Royal Cafe, a gem between Jensen and Royal Copenhagen. Order a cappuccino for a final design surprise: a whimsical image of an animal face or leaf embedded in the foam.

Yes, in Copenhagen wacky designs turn up in unexpected places. For instance, at Hotel Fox, each of the 61 rooms is a unique work of art, from the funky to the fantastic, by a roster of 21 international artists who were invited to participate to celebrate the launch of the Volkswagen Fox (get it?). Some painted oversize fairy tale creatures, some printed amusing messages, some defy explanation. The hotel is a good deal (rooms from $96 per person), but don't book it without a sense of humor and fun.

If you need a break from contemporary decor and cutting-edge modern, head over to the Nimb at the edge of Tivoli. The large white Moorish-inspired confection houses two excellent restaurants — Herman (one Michelin star) and the more casual Nimb Brasserie — and a hotel, also called Nimb, that's more like an elegant Danish country house than a city hostelry with antiques, wooden armoires, four-poster beds, spacious bathrooms with twin sinks and free-standing tubs. All 13 bedrooms have fireplaces, and all but one face Tivoli.

Understandably, you might be tempted to while away your visit at the Nimb's cornucopia of distractions, but don't miss a chance to wander around Tivoli, especially at night, when its charm and gaiety are particularly infectious. And keep your eyes out for those inventive World War II down-lights all over the park.

IF YOU GO:

Getting there:

SAS Scandinavian Airlines, (code share with United Airlines), flies nonstop to Copenhagen from New York (Newark), Washington, D.C., and Chicago, www.flysas.com/us. Most other carriers make at least one stop.

Where to stay:

Radisson Blu Royal Hotel, 1 Hammerichsgade, 800-395-7046, www.radissonblu.com/royalhotel-copenhagen; doubles from $265.

Hotel Fox, www.hotelfox.dk.

Nimb Hotel, 5 Bernstorffsgade, 011-45-8870-0000, www.nimb.dk; doubles from $1,100.

What to do:

Danish Museum of Art and Design, 68 Bredgade, www.kunstindustrimuseet.dk (book ahead for English-speaking tours).

Danish Design Center, 27 H.C. Andersens Blvd., www.ddc.dk.

Normann Copenhagen, 70 Osterbrogade, www.normann-copenhagen.com.

Hay House, 61 Ostergade, www.hay.dk.

Georg Jensen, 4 Amagertorv, www.georgjensen.com.

Royal Copenhagen, 6 Amagertorv, www.royalcopenhagen.com.

Time Out Copenhagen is a handy portable guide with maps and contact information.

For more information, contact VisitDenmark, 655 Third Ave., New York, NY 10017-5617, 212-885-9700, www.visitcopenhagen.com.

Joan Scobey is a freelance travel writer. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.