Modern Danish Warehouse pop-up opens in London

The Modern Danish Warehouse pop-up store in London features vintage finds and rare items once used in Danish schools

(Image credit: TBC)

last updated 14 August 2022

The second edition of the Modern Danish Warehouse pop-up store is about to open its doors in London's South Kensington, uniting Denmark's inimitable design legacy and its fine education system in the best possible way. This year the neatly curated store will present a large selection - about 200 pieces - of vintage finds and rare items used in Danish schools over the past few decades with a focus on mid-century modern. From blackboards and benches, to chairs, stools and desks, there will be a wide range of beautifully crafted furniture on offer.

'The first Modern Danish Warehouse happened almost as an experiment but we knew we wanted to do it again,' says Sigmar and DMW founder Nina Hertig. 'For us it is a playground. Its temporary nature gives us a lot of freedom but most of all we want to show that there is a vast amount of furniture that is really well made, beautiful and classic coming from Denmark; furniture that one can buy for a very competitive price.'

Danish schools, it seems, have an enviably stylish heritage. It was none other than seminal Danish architect Arne Jacobsen that designed many of the pieces on sale, almost setting the pace for the whole project.

Highlights at DMW include Jacobsen's original furniture created for his influential Munkegaard School project (1956); an establishment Hertig was lucky enough to attend as a child and one which recently got a much-discussed makeover and extension by local firm Dorte Mandrup. The original school, a low grid-based structure located in the Copenhagen suburb of Dyssegaard, is a classic modernist example of experimental and innovative school architecture. The building, comprising 24 pavilion-type classrooms interconnected through a parallel corridor system, was an inventive school prototype, complete with a strong colour palette, bespoke fittings and detailing that rendered it a truly unique architectural experience.

Also in the store are genuinely rare finds that owe their existence to the host of high quality schools built in the country. Additionally, contemporary contributors have been tasked to create bespoke pieces around the theme for the Warehouse - such as Danish type foundry Playtype (a project by design agency e-Types), which have created letter-inspired items, and Lebanon-based lighting company PSLab, which has produced a series of lights out of industrial heaters.

Lasting for two weeks only, with prices starting from £40, the Modern Danish Warehouse is a pop-up that comes top of the class.

A red leather office pedestal chair and a box of old books — A small selection of the over 200 items available to purchase at the pop-up store

A brown wooden dressing table with mirror and stool — Mid-century cabinets and stools

A black table in the foreground with a brown wooden chest of drawers and a map of the world behind it. There are also stacks of large cubes featuring black lettering. — The school theme extends from old blackboards and maps to school desks

A brown wooden high-board displaying blue and white bowls. — All items are finished to typically Danish, exacting standards

A traditional dark wooden office desk with a green leather tub chair. — 1950s green leather armchair by Fritz Henningsen

A lounge chair in light green with a brown wooden side table. — Green Magnus Olesen armchair

Side profile of a series of brick-built buildings with large glass frontages and architectural lines.

The side facade of the Danish institution that inspired the pop-up store: the Munkegaard School

(Image credit: TBC)

Exterior of grey and white two-storey school building with courtyard area. — The Jacobsen designed school’s main courtyard

Exterior of school buildings showing light wells in the courtyard to the underground spaces. — The courtyard gives glimpses of the new underground extension by local firm, Dorte Mandrup, via two light wells

Circular paved courtyard surrounded by classrooms and corridors. — The courtyard gives glimpses of the new underground extension by local firm, Dorte Mandrup, via two light wells

Internal school courtyard with large tree growing in the middle. — Jacobsen specified different plants and garden designs for each internal courtyard

A grass and sand school courtyard flanked by two-storey building to the right and single-storey buildings on the other sides of the courtyard. — The last series of classrooms look towards the teacher’s assembly room, on the right

View of roof of school building with roof windows to let in more light. — Light also flows into the school from skylights on the roof

School corridor with windows all along the left side looking out to courtyard and bright orange wall to the right. — The corridors are brightly coloured according to Jacobsen’s specified scheme

View into underground space looking through glass ceiling constructed of triangular panes of glass with black trims. — The School’s extension was built underground, so as to have as little impact on the original building as possible

A dark sky view of school building with central underground space with glass light well. — The Dorte Mandrup extension is only visible from the outside through the big light wells in the main courtyard

View from underground space looking up through geometric glass light well to school buildings above. — A light well, seen from below

Bright white underground space with brightly coloured seating area positioned around central glass light well. — The extension was designed to be simple but clearly different to the old school

Bright white underground classroom with bright green feature wall. — The extension’s clean bright spaces are used for after school clubs and activities

A bright white staircase leading down to a grand piano with brightly coloured curtains behind. — The main assembly room features curtains with original Arne Jacobsen prints

Four bright white WC cubicles in school bathroom. The floor and walls have a flowing dark green leaf print with light green background. — The Munkegaard School extension’s bathroom area, also complete with Arne Jacobsen nature-inspired prints

A large open space with central island of children's workstations including computers, globes and cubby holes for books. — The Munkegaard School’s main assembly room, restored by Dorte Mandrup Architects to its former glory, using the original Jacobsen colour palette

A black and white themed room. In the centre sits a long light wooden table on which sits many white mugs with black lettering. The floor is black and white chequered. The walls are white with black and white framed prints. — The brand new store in central Copenhagen of Playtype, a contributor to this year’s edition of the Modern Danish Warehouse

A light wooden table displaying a series of exercise books of differing sizes. In the background there are large scale black letters displayed on a white wall. — Playtype stock a range of products created in-house and inspired by their fonts

A stack of large boxes featuring large scale black lettering. — Playtype’s contributions to the Modern Danish Warehouse

ADDRESS

The Garage
North Terrace
London SW3 2AB

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Ellie Stathaki is the Architecture & Environment Director at Wallpaper*. She trained as an architect at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece and studied architectural history at the Bartlett in London. Now an established journalist, she has been a member of the Wallpaper* team since 2006, visiting buildings across the globe and interviewing leading architects such as Tadao Ando and Rem Koolhaas. Ellie has also taken part in judging panels, moderated events, curated shows and contributed in books, such as The Contemporary House (Thames & Hudson, 2018), Glenn Sestig Architecture Diary (2020) and House London (2022).

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