Mark de Vos Dalhoum Wins Danmarks Næste Klassiker 2026 with Bench for Kronborg Slot
Mark de Vos Dalhoum, a 45-year-old architect and furniture designer from Allerød, has won the seventh season of the Danish DR television programme Danmarks Næste Klassiker — and he did it with a bench.
The brief for episode five asked the five competing designers to create a bench for visitors to Kronborg Slot: beautiful without overpowering, functional without anonymity.
For de Vos Dalhoum, whose background is in architecture, the assignment was a natural fit. Rather than imposing a new formal language onto the site, he chose to listen to what was already there.
From Castle to Chair The bench reads as a compressed architectural survey of Kronborg. Its frame draws from the rhythm of the castle’s mullioned windows, its seat profile echoes the vaults found in the interior — in ceilings, niches and bay windows. The feet are cast in copper, a direct material reference to the castle’s characteristic green-patinated rooftops and towers. The bench is executed in oak, finished with pigmented linseed oil.
“I found security in registering all the architectural details of the castle and using them in the furniture,” de Vos Dalhoum has said. “I had to find the balance between making something that wasn’t too overpowering, but not too dull either.”
The jury agreed. Judge Pil Bredahl cited the bench’s restraint as its defining quality: it underlines Kronborg rather than competing with it. Fellow judge Kasper Salto noted how difficult it is to make something very simple that still fits precisely into a setting that is far from simple.
The Programme and the Win Danmarks Næste Klassiker is produced by DR and draws approximately half a million viewers per episode. Season seven featured five designers — alongside de Vos Dalhoum: Daniel Zajdenfeld, Martin Kechayas, Laura Kjær and Dögg Guðmundsdóttir — each producing six pieces over a six-month period under varying briefs and constraints. The programme is judged by designers Kasper Salto and Pil Bredahl, with Mette Bluhme Rieck as host.
De Vos Dalhoum was selected after a casting process and left his full-time position to participate — the programme carries no salary. His Kronborg bench, presented in episode five, was ultimately the work that secured him the overall title.
When the bench will enter production and be placed at Kronborg has not yet been announced.
Photo: Mikkel Russel