Hans J Wegner’s CH621 Swivel Chair Gets a New Lease on Life

Almost 80 years after the original, Carl Hansen & Søn re-releases Hans J Wegner’s CH621 swivel chair with a few contemporary updates to the iconic design

Often referred to the master of the chair, Danish modernist Hans J Wegner is said to have designed almost 500 chairs in his lifetime. His famous quote ‘If only you could design just one good chair in your life… But you simply cannot’ has fortunately been judged incorrect by design enthusiasts around the world.

Of all his chairs, only a handful were swivel versions, which have now unsurprisingly become collector’s items. One, the CH621, is being re-released by longtime collaborator Carl Hansen & Søn. The chair’s design blends a sleek, brushed-steel frame with oak, fabric and leather details in the seat, arm and backrest. Users will note the timeless comfort of the chair, as with the designer’s other seating pieces. Wegner was one of Denmark’s first mid-century designers to focus on ergonomics, in addition to form and function, collaborating with doctors and physiologists on lumbar support and sitting posture. While the original 1948 model’s spindle height-adjusting mechanism required the user to rotate the seat to their desired height, the new iteration incorporates a more user-friendly height-adjustment lever with a modern gas lift cylinder. The relaunched chair is also equipped with five castors rather than the original four, their brushed steel an apt finishing touch to the industrial aesthetic.

Images courtesy of Carl Hansen & Søn