Danish Luxury

Design Lighting Louis Poulsen

AJ lamp

Arne Jacobsen's 1957 lamp of straight lines and oblique angles, part of his SAS Royal Hotel in Copenhagen and made by Louis Poulsen.

Designed by
Arne Jacobsen
First made
1957

Visit louispoulsen.com

The AJ floor, table and wall lamps in a sand colour beside a rush-seat chair
The AJ floor, table and wall lamps in a sand colour beside a rush-seat chair

Pictures © Louis Poulsen, from louispoulsen.com.

Why it is renowned

Arne Jacobsen designed the AJ lamp in 1957, and it became known as part of his design for the SAS Royal Hotel in Copenhagen, which opened on 1 July 1960.123 He first used it in a furnished house at the Interbau building exhibition in Berlin in 1957, and later at St Catherine's College in Oxford from 1964.1 The lighting magazine Atmosfera counts the AJ lamp among the best-known pieces of Scandinavian design, for its simple form and close attention to use.4

The story

Jacobsen designed the whole of the SAS Royal Hotel for Scandinavian Airlines, from the façade to the stainless-steel cutlery and the Egg and Swan chairs.3 The AJ lamp builds on his earlier table and floor lamps, reduced to straight lines and straight and oblique angles.1 He drew three versions: a floor lamp, a table lamp and a wall lamp.1 It stood in the SAS air terminal beside the 3300 sofa series in 1959 and in the hotel when it opened the following year.1 Louis Poulsen has made all three versions since the late 1950s.1

  • Egg chair, by the same designer, also for the SAS Royal Hotel
  • Swan chair, by the same designer, also for the SAS Royal Hotel
  • Series 7, by the same designer
  • KV1, Jacobsen's one-handle kitchen mixer for VOLA
  • HV1, Jacobsen's one-handle basin mixer for VOLA, 1968
  • 111, Jacobsen's one-handle build-in mixer for VOLA
Sources
  1. AJ Lamp - Arne Jacobsen. arnejacobsen.com, read 28 September 2026.
  2. AJ Floor Lamp, Louis Poulsen. louispoulsen.com, read 17 October 2026.
  3. Radisson Collection Royal Hotel, Copenhagen, Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org, read 28 September 2026.
  4. Arne Jacobsen and the story of the AJ lamp designed for the SAS Royal Hotel | Atmosfera Mag. atmosferamag.it, read 4 October 2026.

Checked 17 October 2026, against the maker's own pages.