Related Object: Side Table
Nienkämper
Organization
Identifier
CU.ENT.00378
Display date
1968-
(activity)
History
"Minimalist modernism and refined postmodernism define the Nienkamper style. For more than thirty years, the company has fashioned sophisticated office furniture.
The firm’s ebullient founder, Klaus Nienkamper, rejected his family’s antiques business and served a three-year apprenticeship with Knoll International in Dusseldorf, Germany. At twenty-two, he immigrated to Canada and worked with Gary Sonnenberg at Toronto’s Precision Craftwood (now Craftwood). Two years later (1962) he joined forces with David Bain, who had licences to manufacture furniture by European modernist designers like Robert Haussmann, Verner Panton and Eero Aarnio. Fuelled by the baby boom and Expo 67 building bonanzas, the firm added local content to its repertoire, most notably a leather Safari chair and a simulated pony-skin seating cube, designed by Klaus. In 1968 Swiss Designs of Canada became Klaus Nienkamper Design, minus Bain.
By the mid-seventies Nienkamper, as it was henceforth known, began producing furniture under licence for Knoll International as well as De Sede of Switzerland, a world renowned leather furniture manufacturer. Notably, it produced custom furniture for Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau's office, created by the architect Arthur Erickson and the designer Francisco Kripacz. It furthered the commitment to Canadian design by hiring Thomas Lamb as director of design (1982-90). Significant Lamb designs of the period reflect a postmodern, curvilinear aesthetic, including the Sculpted armchair. The firm also produced custom furniture for Toronto’s Roy Thomson Hall by Erickson and Kripacz (1982) and the Ambassador and Elle chairs by Christen Sorensen (both in 1985).
By 1987, when annual sales approached $10 million (about half with Knoll), the licence to produce Knoll product expired. Five years later, the company slipped into receivership but was quickly revived by private backers (including the package designer Don Watt and the branding guru Dave Nichol) until it formed a partnership with New York-based ICF Group. In the nineties, Canadian design leaders such as Tom Deacon, Scot Laughton and Yabu Pushelberg have created office furniture for Nienkamper. The industrial designer Mark Muller, a graduate of Barrie’s Georgian College, joined the company as Lamb’s assistant in 1988 and was appointed design director in 1995."
The firm’s ebullient founder, Klaus Nienkamper, rejected his family’s antiques business and served a three-year apprenticeship with Knoll International in Dusseldorf, Germany. At twenty-two, he immigrated to Canada and worked with Gary Sonnenberg at Toronto’s Precision Craftwood (now Craftwood). Two years later (1962) he joined forces with David Bain, who had licences to manufacture furniture by European modernist designers like Robert Haussmann, Verner Panton and Eero Aarnio. Fuelled by the baby boom and Expo 67 building bonanzas, the firm added local content to its repertoire, most notably a leather Safari chair and a simulated pony-skin seating cube, designed by Klaus. In 1968 Swiss Designs of Canada became Klaus Nienkamper Design, minus Bain.
By the mid-seventies Nienkamper, as it was henceforth known, began producing furniture under licence for Knoll International as well as De Sede of Switzerland, a world renowned leather furniture manufacturer. Notably, it produced custom furniture for Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau's office, created by the architect Arthur Erickson and the designer Francisco Kripacz. It furthered the commitment to Canadian design by hiring Thomas Lamb as director of design (1982-90). Significant Lamb designs of the period reflect a postmodern, curvilinear aesthetic, including the Sculpted armchair. The firm also produced custom furniture for Toronto’s Roy Thomson Hall by Erickson and Kripacz (1982) and the Ambassador and Elle chairs by Christen Sorensen (both in 1985).
By 1987, when annual sales approached $10 million (about half with Knoll), the licence to produce Knoll product expired. Five years later, the company slipped into receivership but was quickly revived by private backers (including the package designer Don Watt and the branding guru Dave Nichol) until it formed a partnership with New York-based ICF Group. In the nineties, Canadian design leaders such as Tom Deacon, Scot Laughton and Yabu Pushelberg have created office furniture for Nienkamper. The industrial designer Mark Muller, a graduate of Barrie’s Georgian College, joined the company as Lamb’s assistant in 1988 and was appointed design director in 1995."
History Source
Design in Canada (2004), p. 246
Domicile
Canada