Morten Georgsen rethinks furniture for urban living with BoConcept, and recommends to designers a particular Hans Christian Andersen tale. Yvonne Xu meets the man in Singapore for this story.

indesignlive.sg
November 2nd, 2011
“He’s a little like me, you know. Although I started with a bit more than he did,” muses Morten Georgsen. The designer is referring to Clumsy Hans, the boy in the Hans Christian Andersen tale, who, despite the odds, trumps all other contenders to win the heart of a princess – all by way of a little creativity.
“To have Clumsy Hans’ fantasy, that creativity, is what we should do,” Georgsen explains. “Creativity is to see the options in life, but I don’t think that you can see that if you are not optimistic.”

Options, creativity, and optimism are qualities that the Danish designer brings to the BoConcept 2012 collection. In Singapore to deliver a talk on Danish design and to launch this new collection, the Futhark Design founder explains how his own design ethos sits with the brand’s philosophy.

“I’m trying to find beauty, but also make [furniture] comfortable and practical for today’s way of life, which is what BoConcept champions. The urbanisation that we have, people moving into cities… means we have less and less space.

“At the same time we also want to do more things. We want to cook, we need space to sleep in, but we also want to work on our laptops and watch TV. We have added things we didn’t have or need before but we live in smaller rooms. We need to change the way we think about our furniture and we really need to work with space optimisation and see how we can get as many things out of a product as possible, and take up the least space as possible.”

To that end, Georgsen finds ways to make furniture multifunctional. Many of the pieces in the new collection are modular, flexible, foldable, extendable and can be used practically anywhere in the home. There is a sense of practical possibility in these solutions, which could, used with a little creativity, easily set up many happily-ever-after scenarios for urban living.
BoConcept
boconcept.sg
Futhark Design
futharkdesign.com
INDESIGN is on instagram
Follow @indesignlive
A searchable and comprehensive guide for specifying leading products and their suppliers
Keep up to date with the latest and greatest from our industry BFF's!
CDK Stone’s Natasha Stengos takes us through its Alexandria Selection Centre, where stone choice becomes a sensory experience – from curated spaces, crafted details and a colour-organised selection floor.
London-based design duo Raw Edges have joined forces with Established & Sons and Tongue & Groove to introduce Wall to Wall – a hand-stained, “living collection” that transforms parquet flooring into a canvas of colour, pattern, and possibility.
For Aidan Mawhinney, the secret ingredient to Living Edge’s success “comes down to people, product and place.” As the brand celebrates a significant 25-year milestone, it’s that commitment to authentic, sustainable design – and the people behind it all – that continues to anchor its legacy.
When Caroline Olah conceptualised furniture that could be tailored, well made, classic and supplied in a timely fashion, little did she and husband Andrew, realise the impact their vision would have on the Australian design scene.
Among the Blum products to be featured at the AWISA-DESIGN 2012 exhibition in July will be Tandembox intivo which offers versatile design and differentiation opportunities for pull-outs.
The internet never sleeps! Here's the stuff you might have missed
BVN’s Sirius Redevelopment has been named one of two joint winners of The Building category at the INDE.Awards 2025. Celebrated alongside Central Station by Woods Bagot and John McAslan + Partners, the project reimagines an iconic Brutalist landmark through a design approach that retains heritage while creating a vibrant, sustainable future for Sydney.
The Senior Design Director at RSHP reflects on Barangaroo South Masterplan during a visit to Sydney marking ten years since the completion of the first phase.