We speak to functional fundamentalist Åke Axelsson about the importance of comfortable chairs

Most days, you can find Åke Axelsson in his workshop in Valholm, where wooden chairs of various shapes and sizes hang from hooks attached to the birch wood roof. His tools – chisels, mallets and hammers – are neatly displayed on one wall above a well-worn workbench. Even though he’s accomplished so much in his life, at 91, he is still working, his lifelong passion for carpentry as unrelenting now as when he was a child. “When I was 12 years old, I made a small wall cabinet in the woodworking class in school,” the carpenter designer reminisces. “It has followed me through the years.”

His work – awarded with an array of prestigious accolades – is subtle, meaning it can sometimes get glossed over when discussing “Scandinavian furniture classics”. While most people have come to covet known icons from the likes of Alvar Aalto, Arne Jacobsen, and Finn Juhl, Axelsson has been quietly working on his unassuming, understated carpentry. In fact, most people in Sweden have probably sat on an Åke Axelsson-designed chair without really realising it. His chairs line the desks at Vogue Scandinavia’s offices, perch quietly in corners of libraries, and in the coming year will house politicians in the United Nations.

Related: Tour the workshops of two Swedish design icons: Åke Axelsson and Fredrik Paulsen

Axelsson’s work is primarily found in public spaces, a factor that invigorates the designer. “When I work with and have responsibility for environments that affect the good of society, my creativity kicks into high gear,” he says. Still, he is “always aiming for the highest quality,” whether it concerns a public library or King Carl Gustaf XVI of Sweden’s ‘jubilee room’ in the Royal Palace, redecorated with the inclusion of Axelsson’s work in 1998. “I have had the privilege of working with large environments that affect many people in society,” he says. “It has been of the utmost importance to solve the functional and environmental requirements set by the assignment in consultation with users.”

Axelsson is a functionalist in the true sense of the word. In the 1930s, functionalism was transformed to align with minimalist expressions, bent wood and steel pipes, but in its inception, functionalism meant creating furniture that helps humans in a practical fashion. “For me, functionalism is a positive word, but also one of the most misused,” says Axelsson. “I have always worked to find solutions.” One such manifestation of this philosophy is how Axelsson reuses parts of his furniture in other pieces. For example, the legs in the ‘Light & Easy’ chair have been used extensively in many models, further highlighting the no-nonsense carpenter’s unwavering simplicity. A “no bullshit” sensibility, of sorts.

In 2003, Axelsson, along with his daughter and her husband, assumed the reins of Gärsnäs, a family-owned furniture company with a storied history dating back to 1893. Axelsson f irst came into contact with the manufacturer in 1963. “A number of influential people active in Österlen – including Herbert Andersson, then owner of Gärsnäs – saw that the landscape was changing,” he recalls. “The farmers felled the beech forest and planted spruce instead. [Gärsnäs] wanted to try to change that.” An international competition was announced to produce a chair for the expanding public environment. “I came second with a small stackable chair that Gärsnäs took up in its production and named S-217.” It is still in production. Meanwhile, the planting of spruce was banned.

Axelsson is best described as a restless workaholic with a single-minded, stubborn work ethic. He gets up early and is often in the workshop at six o’clock, works until nine, and then coffee. Then it’s time to continue. Working days become productive that way, according to Axelsson. Just two summers back, at 89, he built four armchairs for an exhibition in a few weeks. And Axelsson is still producing, at the same tempo, continuing to carve his carpentry legacy one chair at a time.

Discover three of Axelsson's best-known designs below:

“I wanted to create an even better chair than ‘Light & Easy’,” says Axelsson. This new version was softer in shape and could be delivered flat-packed, a trait that helped with transportation and storage. Made from seven parts, eight nuts and washers, and four wooden dowels, “‘Wood’ is probably the chair that best corresponds to the concept of sustainable form,” the carpenter notes.

"I wanted to create the perfect chair for the growing public environment,” explains Axelsson. The result was the ‘Light & Easy’ chair: stackable, light, comfortable, material-saving, utilising a simple form that can be produced in large numbers. The name says it all, as the chair is so light you can lift it with one finger. It is still one of Gärsnäs’ best-selling chairs after almost 20 years of production.

“I have studied and researched antique furniture,” says Axelsson, who has built full-scale copies of historical pieces. “It was probably easier for ancient carpenters to make round holes and tenons than square ones. It is for me, too.” ‘Nomad’ is a collection of furniture derived from this work – produced as “ecological anti-design,” where simplicity is pushed to its peak without screws or glue in the chairs. The chair from 2013 was further simplified in 2019. “Now it’s finished, I can’t go any further. After 70 years in the industry, it turned out like this,” Axelsson says. “This chair is one of the best things I’ve made.”