Arne Jacobsen designed the AJ Lamp for the SAS Royal Hotel in Copenhagen (Radisson Collection) in 1957. Today, the AJ family is regarded as the design that the Danish architect is best known for all over the world. At that time, the AJ family comprised a table and a floor lamp as well as a wall lamp, a small table lamp and a table lamp that was designed to attach to the table. The wall lamp could be found in beautiful rows in stainless steel in the lobby when the hotel was opened in 1960. In combination with the pendant AJ Royal, the AJ Lamp formed part of the overall design concept that Jacobsen created for the hotel. Arne Jacobsen did not just design the hotel down to the smallest detail for SAS (Scandinavian Airlines), he also designed almost all the hotel’s original furniture and utility items. The profile of the AJ Lamp with its straight lines and its combination of oblique and right angles is not only seen as a formal parallel to the profile of the Series 3300 seats, but also to the geometric profiles of his buildings. The AJ Lamp was used in several parts of the hotel, in copper and stainless steel. Furthermore, it was originally available in light grey, dark brown and black like the AJ Pendant. New colours have since been introduced over the years in celebration of the series’ jubilees. In 2020, the 60th anniversary of the opening of the SAS Royal Hotel will be celebrated with the reintroduction of the AJ Mini Table which looks particularly at home on a window sill, on a bedside table or in combination with other occasional furniture. All the AJ Lamp versions will be reintroduced in the original stainless steel version, which reflects its surroundings in the spirit of Arne Jacobsen and emphasises the lamp’s minimalist and distinctive shape and flawless emission of light.
