Mogens Koch (1898–1992) was a Danish architect and furniture designer whose modular bookcase system and folding chair became icons of Danish functionalist design.

Born in the Frederiksberg district of Copenhagen, Koch studied architecture at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, where he was mentored by Kaare Klint, the father of Danish functionalism.

From 1925 to 1932, he worked in the studios of Carl Petersen, Ivar Bentsen, and Klint, absorbing the principles of evolutionary design based on historical furniture traditions.

Koch’s most celebrated work, the Bookcase System, was designed in 1928 for his own home. With its unusually thin solid wood profile and modular construction based on common book heights, it exemplified his philosophy that furniture should be flexible, space-saving, and adaptable for future needs. Rud Rasmussen has produced the design since 1932.

In 1932, Koch designed the MK Safari folding chair in response to a brief from the Danish Society of Ecclesiastical Art for portable seating. Based on British campaign furniture, the chair became one of his signature designs.

Koch served as professor of architecture at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts from 1950 to 1968, teaching at MIT in 1956 and Tokyo’s Industrial Art Institute in 1962. His wife, Ea Koch, collaborated on textile designs that complemented his furniture.

His awards include the Eckersberg Medal (1938), C.F. Hansen Medal (1963), Cabinet-Makers’ Guild Prize (1964), and ID Prize (1992). Though more discreet than contemporaries like Wegner and Jacobsen, Koch’s work represents the purest expression of Klint’s functionalist teachings.