DESIGN ICON
Brilliance by Design
The lighting innovations of Poul Henningsen.
By Ian McMaster
POUL HENNINGSEN’S PIONEERING WORK FOCUSED ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LIGHT, SHADOWS, GLARE AND COLOR REPRODUCTION, CREATING THE MOST ICONIC LIGHT FIXTURES IN MID CENTURY MODERN DESIGN.
Photography courtesy of Louis Poulsen
POUL HENNINGSEN (1894–1967) was a Danish designer, architect and cultural critic whose groundbreaking work in lighting remains iconic. Born in Copenhagen to renowned writers Agnes Henningsen and Carl Ewald, Henningsen grew up an intellectual, shaping his creative and critical approach to design. Initially trained as a functionalist architect, Henningsen shifted his focus to lighting in the 1920s.