Daniel Schofield: Folding Chair in focus

For the 2025 edition of The Cabinetmakers’ Autumn Exhibition (Snedkernes Efterårsudstilling, SE), Fredericia is proud to collaborate with British designer Daniel Schofield, representing a new generation of voices and viewpoints, building on Fredericia’s legacy of supporting experimental design by matching it with the possibilities embedded in skilled craftsmanship.

Daniel Schofield has taken on one of design’s most challenging objects: the folding chair. In collaboration with Fredericia’s cabinetmakers and upholsterers, he has succeeded in crafting a piece that balances practicality with refined elegance.

“ I wanted to create a folding chair that doesn’t necessarily look like a folding chair (…) Most are cheap and meant to be hidden away. I wanted something you’d be proud to keep out. ”
Daniel Schofield

Here, Schofield is seen in the upholstery workshop alongside Rasmus Graversen, CEO and third-generation member of the family behind Fredericia.

“A friend once told me never to design a folding chair or an ironing board,” he recalls laughing, “because everything moves and is all at strange angles.” Yet for The Cabinetmakers’ Autumn Exhibition, he embraced precisely that challenge.

His design features a wooden frame with an upholstered seat and back, crafted in two versions: oak with canvas – the Danish classic – and smoked oak with leather. With a simple mechanism, the seat lifts up, allowing the frame to fold, creating a chair that is practical yet striking. A silhouette that works as well when stowed as in action.

“I wanted to create a folding chair that doesn’t necessarily look like a folding chair,” Schofield says. “Most are cheap and meant to be hidden away. I wanted something you’d be proud to keep out.”

His dialogue with the Fredericia workshops has enabled him to develop a seamless folding mechanism that adds to the piece’s function and beauty alike. With its visually distinctive profile and versatile use, the chair demonstrates how thoughtful design can transform a typology too often overlooked.

Keep exploring

Fredericia’s long-standing involvement with The Cabinetmakers’ Autumn Exhibition is more than tradition. It reflects the company’s belief that design must always remain open to new voices and new directions. By providing designers with access to workshops, materials, and expertise, Fredericia helps bold ideas materialise and mature into lasting contributions.

https://www.fredericia.com/inspiration/cabinetmakers-autumn-exhibition