Niels Gammelgaard

Niels Gammelgaard first met IKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad in Denmark in 1975. Niels wanted IKEA to start selling his furniture, but instead Ingvar challenged him to design a new type of chair in steel and plastic. Niels accepted the challenge and two weeks later presented sketches for the FOLKE chair. This was the starting point of a collaboration that would last three decades and result in over 50 designs for IKEA.

The foldable chair TED was created by Niels Gammelgaard in a model workshop in a large factory in Italy. He wandered around the factory to learn about their production process and stumbled into their model workshop. Together with the skilled craftsmen in the shop, Niels started developing the TED chair then and there. TED was an instant hit and stayed in the range for ten years, supplemented with two small folding tables and one wall-mounted table.

In the 1980s, Niels Gammelgaard developed a way for IKEA to make affordable and light metal products. Steel tubing furniture, popular since the 1930s, was both too expensive and heavy. A visit to a manufacturer of shopping trolleys inspired him to create the easy chair JÄRPEN using thick metal wire. Released in 1982, its low price and edgy form appealed to teenagers and was an immediate hit.

Niels continued experimenting, eventually developing a sofa with simple, straight lines and a steel mesh underframe. Launched in 1984, MOMENT became the world’s first flatpack sofa. That same year, IKEA introduced the GUIDE shelving unit, to which Niels applied the same production technique. In 1986, he followed up with the MOMENT table, featuring a tempered, frosted glass tabletop that floated 72 centimetres above the floor, supported by a metal frame similar to the seat and back of the MOMENT sofa. “It was basically that simple,” said Niels.

In the following decades, Niels designed everything from the NORDISK table to the HOFF trolley for IKEA. In 2006, several of Niels’s pieces were part of a bolder edition of the STOCKHOLM collection. Niels contributed a cowhide swivel pouffe, a coffee table made from glass and aluminium, streamlined sofas, and a generous bright red armchair.

In 2023, Niels Gammelgaard received the Thorwald Bindesbøll Medal from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. The motivation especially mentioned his long-standing collaboration with IKEA and his creation of “furniture classics for the people”. Throughout his career, he has received many more prestigious awards, including an Excellent Swedish Design award for the MOMENT table.

Leading up to 2023, Niels worked with IKEA on new releases of the 1982 JÄRPEN easy chair and the 1983 HOFF trolley, updated to meet today’s requirements in materials and construction. For instance, the HOFF trolley could be folded through hinges. In its new release, the two shelves on JÄRLÅSA were supported with a solid metal bar and removable wing nuts to avoid injury.

Since turning 80 in 2024, Niels has kept using his design skills to do good in the world. He was happy to see his old IKEA products back in the stores and said: “If the design is good and the next generation still finds it trendy, then we have succeeded. I think we have succeeded with this chair. And I’m very proud, forty years later.”