GUBI

Why it is renowned

GUBI is known abroad for bringing 20th-century designs back into production next to new pieces by contemporary studios.¹² Joe Colombo's Basket lounge chair for GUBI won Best New Weaves at the Wallpaper* Design Awards 2023.³ It keeps GUBI Houses in London, at Charterhouse Square, and in Paris, on Rue de Monceau, and sells through retail partners around the world.⁴¹

Its lamps travel with it. Louis Weisdorf's Multi-Lite hangs in Chloé stores around the world, and Winston Churchill chose the Bestlite BL1 for his desk in Whitehall.⁵⁶ The Beetle chair, designed with GamFratesi in 2013, has grown into a family of dining, meeting and lounge chairs.⁷⁸

The story

GUBI is headquartered in Copenhagen, where it has a showroom at Orientkaj in Nordhavn, employs more than 100 people and has its pieces made by specialist manufacturers in several countries.¹⁴ The Danish investment firm Axcel invested in the company in 2018.⁹

The collection runs from archive designs to new commissions. Greta M. Grossman's Gräshoppa and Cobra lamps date from the 1940s and 1950s; the Semi Pendant was drawn by Claus Bonderup and Torsten Thorup in 1968; Weisdorf drew the Multi-Lite in 1972.¹⁰¹¹¹² New work comes from studios such as GamFratesi, founded in 2006 by the Danish architect Stine Gam and the Italian architect Enrico Fratesi, and Space Copenhagen.⁷¹

What to know it by

• Beetle Dining Chair⁷2013GamFratesiShell chair, later a family of versions
• Multi-Lite¹²1972Louis WeisdorfLamp with two rotating quarter-sphere shades
• Bestlite BL1⁶1930Robert Dudley BestBauhaus-era table lamp
• Semi Pendant¹¹1968Claus Bonderup and Torsten ThorupGeometric pendant
• Gräshoppa Floor Lamp¹⁰Greta M. GrossmanFloor lamp