I’m not a big fan of the term ‘disruption’ when applied to a business approach or creative direction. It seems to have become as meaningless as words like ‘sustainable’, ‘green’ and ‘eco’ along with terms like ‘environmentally friendly’.
Certainly Danish brand TAKT is doing things differently to its competitors and doing an extremely good job of it. For one thing they have come out with a clear and bold manifesto - something which seems to have been relegated to a quaint bygone era when brands such as Artek were born and movements like the Bauhaus delivered an aesthetic code to live by and ideological goals to strive for. TAKT wear their hearts on their sleeves with bold graphics quantifying the amounts of C02 in each design populating their website among the tightly controlled collection of restrained Scandinavian style designs. All design MUST be flat-pack to reduce the brand’s carbon footprint with an intended consequence being cheaper prices for the consumer.
Thomas Bentzen’s T04 ‘Soft Lounge Chair’ (2019) for new Danish brand TAKT. Beautiful, simple, affordable. Photograph: Mikkel Mortensen
It’s not the first time in recent memory that a brand has stuck its neck out for a combination of a pure design philosophy using sustainable manufacturing practices - Mattiazzi and Emeco spring to mind but TAKT just do it a lot more thoroughly.
The 10 guiding principles of the TAKT ‘eco-system’. Not just words on a whiteboard.
Since launching in 2019 TAKT has only released 14 designs, each one following the flat pack model but with no (or at least very little) compromise on materials. The designers, Thomas Bentzen, Depping & Jørgensen, Cecilie Manz, Pearson Lloyd, Sam Hecht & Kim Colin and Rasmus Palmgren have delivered products that are minimal materially and visually but which maintain a strong link to classic Scandinavian design and quality craftsmanship with FSC timbers used on each and every product. The brand’s financial model eschews flagship showrooms in expensive locations like London, Milan and New York in favour of an online direct to customer approach with key collaborators in these cities offering potential customers the ability to try before they buy.
The T07 ‘Sling’ Lounge Chair’ (2021) by Sam Hecht and Kim Colin is an entirely new form that incorporates elements of slab furniture with the lightness and energy of a sling chair. Photograph: Mikkel Mortensen.
One might argue that Ikea in ts heyday had a roster of excellent designers producing quality furniture pieces and it’s true. They did but they don’t any more. While they once had designs by Kai Christiansen (he remembers being offered a Porsche to become their in-house designer) and Vico Magistretti in those early days the designs were merely produced in large numbers rather than being put through a global design filter where interesting initial concepts were watered down to reduce cost and to achieve safety standards that met every known code across the globe. While Ikea started off with design as the driver it has slowly come to be all about cost - even when the designs are by important design figures like Tom Dixon, the Swedish designers Front, and Ilse Crawford, one time editor of Elle Decoration and all-round arbiter of good taste.
While TAKT’s centralised distribution no doubt leads to efficiency and therefore lower prices and fast turn around time (TAKT claim that their products can be delivered in Europe within 10 days of the order being received), this isn’t what sets them apart. Brands like Resident from New Zealand and One Nordic Furniture Company from Finland embraced this model years ago. Its also not the global manufacturing model followed by many other Danish brands to bring their prices down such as Hay (who makes in countries as varied as China and USA) and Carl Hansen and Son who ships their classic CH24 chair frames to Eastern Europe for paper cord weaving before shipping them back to Denmark). The real reason why TAKT has created waves is that it is committed to sticking to its design doctrine which involves total transparency. for the consumer.
The life-cycle of each design in the TAKT collection has been calculated and is shown clearly on their website. The graphics show how much carbon is stored in each object and how much C02 is added during manufacture, distribution and disposal.
The life-cycle of each of the TAKT products has been thoroughly analysed for it’s carbon footprint. The resulting kilograms of C02 is offset with viable and validated carbon removal initiatives through the reputable Finnish carbon marketplace, Puro. Each product has achieved the EU Ecolabel (Flower Mark) for that certifies that the highest level of environmental practice has been followed. EU Ecolabel requires products to achieve a score of 80 or above. TAKT regularly scores 100. The brand openly reveals where the money has been spent bring a product to market. - Materials 50%, Tools 2%, craftsmanship 28%, Packaging 3%, transport 7%, credit card fees 2%. Who’d have thought that an honest, open approach like this would ever threaten to upset the applecart for large international brands that for years have relied on massive global advertising budgets to push their ‘luxury brand’ agenda?
“Flatpack producers generally consider only what is economical for the manufacturer, which is why the experience as a customer is like working in a factory – people dread it. The duty of the designer is to make the assembly process as experiential as possible”.
Sam Hecht, Industrial Facility
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TAKT founder and CEO, Henrik Taudorf Lorensen, was the former Vice President of B&O PLAY from 2011 to 2016 and it was during his time there that he came to appreciate the outstanding talents of Danish designer Cecilie Manz who designed the Beolit 12, BeoPlay A1 and A2 and several other products for B&O. Approaching her to design a product for TAKT was an obvious decision. The result, the T014 Plint bench involves just four wooden parts in oak, oregon pine or kalmar pine, hinged together with vegetable tanned leather from Sweden’s prestigious Tärnsjö Garveri tannery. This company is one of the few remaining tanneries that continue to use traditional bark extracts for their tanning rather than the quicker but environmentally damaging chrome tanning used widely in the furniture industry. The boards are not laminated but made from carefully selected full width boards with the components locked together by a discrete wooden peg.
Cecilie Manz’s T14 ‘Plint’ bench (2020) for TAKT uses vegetable tanned leather hinges and a wedge fixing system to achieve a flat pack design where no tools are required for assembly. Kalmar pine (left), oregon (right). Photograph: Mikkel Mortensen.
“We subscribe to classic Danish design virtues: a focus on functionality, honest and natural materials, reduced ornamentation while still retaining personality. Cecilie Manz has this amazing touch to her designs – a pared-back aesthetic that doesn’t shout but has this strong personality, presence and atmosphere.”
Henrik Taudorf Lorensen (founder and CEO of TAKT)
The T14 ‘Plint’ bench (2020) by Cecilie Manz for TAKT. Photograph: Mikkel Mortensen.
TAKT makes a large percentage of its products in Latvia, partly because labour costs are low but also because Latvia has a long history in quality woodworking and in moulded plywood in particular. Danish designer Thomas Bentzen’s Soft lounge chair, Soft table and Soft bench all feature a beautifully subtle use of moulded plywood. Their solid oak or ash frames are reminiscent of classic Borge Møgensen designs such as his famous J39 ‘Shaker’ chair but with the addition of moulded plywood that ‘drapes’ across the structure and in the case of the lounge chair wraps itself around the vertical rods that form the back rest. The design has all the hallmarks of classic Danish modernism but is created with flat pack principles in mind, using contemporary manufacturing techniques.
T04 ‘Soft’ lounge chair (2019) by Thomas Bentzen for TAKT. A flat-packed design using solid oak frame with moulded plywood that appears to drape over the structure. Photograph: Mikkel Mortensen
T05 Soft Bench (2019) by
Thomas Bentzen for TAKT
Available in Natural Oak or Ash or in grey or black lacquered Ash.
T05 Soft Bench in a box
A lot of stuff in a small carton (with carry handle).
The flat pack principle followed assiduously by TAKT is not just about reducing freight costs. When a design is able to be taken apart it can also be repaired and if necessary have parts replaced. This is the case with all TAKT items in an attempt to make give their products true longevity. In addition to the freight advantages the flat pack provides TAKT uses a centralised distribution warehouse so that purchases can usually be received by European customers within 8-10 days of ordering. On top of this the shipping is free to twenty European countries (although Britain is now a little more complicated than the rest due to Brexit and for Norwegian orders the delivery time can be up to 14 days). TAKT also offers a 30 day return policy should the customer not be satisfied with their purchase - they even pay the return freight! This is much like the model adopted by fashion e-commerce but is far less common in the furniture industry.
More than the sum of its parts. The T12 ’Arc’ chair (2020) by Line Depping and Jakob Jørgensen for TAKT. ‘Arc’ is the perfect flat-pack but also easy to dismantle to make repairs or for recycling at the end of its long life.
The T12 ‘Arc’ chair by Danish designers Line Depping and Jakob Jørgensen expresses everything that TAKT stands for: maximum design with a minimum of materials. With Arc the designers have created a simple tubular steel base made from two parts in a cross form that meets a beautifully crafted armrest in solid oak. Subtle curves and a continuous groove around its shape delivers an immediate tactile response and confirmation that the design is not about minimising cost. This design manages to sum up the history of mid century Danish design in one back rail. -Part Hans Wegner Round chair, part Poul Kjaerholm PK11, the chair is visually light, extremely beautiful and the perfect flat-pack.
T12 ‘Arc’ chair (2020) by Line Depping and Jakob Jørgensen. The backrest is everything. Photograph: Mikkel Mortensen.
“There is a renewed interest in craft and being culturally responsive – people are becoming more aware of the objects that they surround themselves with. With Arc Chair we pursue the translation of craft to modern production methods while maintaining recognition and presence."
Line Depping, co-designer
T12 Arc Chair
T12 ‘Arc’ chair (2020) by Line Depping and Jakob Jørgensen. Photograph: Mikkel Mortensen.
The first designers to contribute to the TAKT collection however, were not Danish but British: Pearson Lloyd. Their Cross chair and Cross table designs signalled the brand’s approach right from the get-go - simple, solid and affordable but with a highly resolved form and perfect proportions. Serious design without the eye watering price tag would be one way of expressing it.
T01 ‘Cross Tube Chair’ by Pearson Lloyd for TAKT. Photograph: Mikkel Mortensen.
Key to TAKT’s B Corp certification is the company’s utter commitment to transparency. Employing third-party assessor MÅLBAR to verify the company’s overall carbon footprint, TAKT publishes detailed breakdowns of the lifetime carbon emissions of each and every product it produces. Their best-selling all wood Cross Chair, for example, has total climate emissions of 13.8 kilograms of CO2-e over its lifetime (including disposal), which is the equivalent of 83 hours of Netflix streaming - little more than a weeks worth of binge watching in Sydney right now!
“A few years ago, when we began talking to TAKT about working together, we were attracted to their energy, ambition and enthusiasm. The proposition to deliver sustainable furniture using simple ecommerce principles with Scandinavian design values was utterly compelling.
Tom Lloyd - Pearson Lloyd
For more on this inspiring new brand and the products and ethos of TAKT, please click here or follow them on instagram @taktcph
Australian readers will soon be able to experience TAKT in the flesh. The brand has recognised its inability to service their direct purchase model for Australian customers due to the distances involved and has appointed SeehoSu to be their Australian distributor.