Arne Jacobsen Little Giraffe™ Chair by Fritz Hansen 2025

Fritz Hansen has launched Little Giraffe™, a previously unreleased prototype designed by Arne Jacobsen in 1959 for Copenhagen’s SAS Royal Hotel.

The chair represents an alternative vision that remained archived for 65 years before its 2025 release

During the development of the iconic Giraffe chair for the hotel’s restaurant, Jacobsen’s team at Fritz Hansen created multiple prototypes exploring different design directions.

Little Giraffe™ featured a lower, more discrete backrest compared to the high-backed version that was ultimately selected for the hotel project.

The original Giraffe chair’s tall backrest created intimate spaces within the restaurant’s open floor plan, establishing visual and psychological boundaries without physical walls. The lower-backed prototype, while equally elegant and well-proportioned, served a different spatial purpose. Jacobsen’s design philosophy prioritized function alongside beauty, and the taller version better fulfilled the specific requirements of the SAS Royal Hotel project.

Little Giraffe™ offers a more open, lighter presence compared to its throne-like sibling. The lower profile makes the chair less dominant in a room, increasing its versatility across different interior settings. This adaptability extends its application from restaurants to home offices, lobbies to bedrooms, paradoxically making it suitable for environments beyond the original hotel context.

The launch reflects a broader trend of furniture manufacturers revisiting their archives to release forgotten or unproduced designs. This approach combines sustainability benefits with historical authenticity, offering documented design provenance in an era of constant new product releases.

Fritz Hansen’s strategic timing leverages renewed interest in Jacobsen’s work, particularly following renovations at the former SAS Royal Hotel (now Radisson Collection Royal Hotel). The launch extends the company’s Jacobsen portfolio without diluting the original Giraffe chair’s iconic status, while the prototype’s backstory provides compelling narrative value beyond standard product specifications.

Little Giraffe™ documents Jacobsen’s design process, revealing the explorations and alternatives that existed before the final form emerged. The chair serves as both a commercial product and a design historical artifact, demonstrating that even master designers explored multiple directions and made choices that reflected specific project requirements rather than absolute aesthetic superiority.