Torbjørn Afdal

Torbjørn Afdal (1917-1999) is among our most gifted and productive furniture designers. After graduating from the Norwegian National Academy of Craft and Art Industry in 1946, he spent his career with the legendary Bruksbo Tegnekontor, who for three decades were one of Norway’s leading design offices for quality furniture. They created models for dozens of furniture manufacturers, and in the mid-1960s a large percentage of Norwegian furniture exports were designed by Bruksbo. Afdal got recognised internationally as a highly skilled designer, he was awarded with a gold medal for the lounge chair Broadway at the Deutsche Handwerksmesse in Munich 1959. Among those who purchased Afdal’s design were First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy and the Japanese Emperor, and he later designed the office of Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland.

His work is characterized primarily by a refined understanding of material and form. Afdal had a combination of art and tradition in his work, with a talent of utilizing the natural possibilities of wood. Around 1955-65, Afdal’s furniture design gained a more crafted feel, the armchair Broadway together with the hunting chair Hunter was his artistic highlights. Many of his products are true classics and deserve to be revived.

Country

  • Norway

Design for

Sybilla

Torbjørn Bekken

Thanks

This website is dedicated to all those people who, in one way or another, have helped this project/dream/desire to begin and take shape.

Special thanks to my wife and my parents for supporting me, to Cristina Escarrà and Alfonso Pérez Rosales for generously sharing with me their experience as agents, to those clients who, in one way or another, have given me wise advice, to the brands that have placed their trust in me, and to Gonzalo, my godfather, who, with his always generous help, and guiding me throughout this process, is largely to blame for the fact that I can boast of being an “entrepreneur”.

Thanks also to Nuria, Rafa and Guillermo, who, to help me in the hard beginnings of any entrepreneurial activity, have opened the doors of their home, let me share with them a bit of their personal lives when I pass through their cities of residence, and give me free accommodation.

Thanks to all!