Fathers of invention: VOLA

To mark its 50th anniversary, VOLA has commissioned seven short films celebrating this iconic Danish design brand’s core values and unique culture. Each film focuses on a different facet of VOLA’s history; together they paint a vivid, comprehensive picture of the company’s past and present, while casting an inquisitive eye to its future. Reaching a new generation of architects and interior designers, not just the many architects who visit the company’s factory in Horsens in Denmark, they draw attention to the brand’s heritage and affirm its longevity.

The first film, called Form and Function, was released on January 15. This emphasises the important role clean-lined design has played in Denmark’s design heritage, a seminal example being Arne Jacobsen’s uncompromisingly simple wall-mounted mixer taps, created at the behest of VOLA’s founder Verner Overgaard in 1968. VOLA has barely modified these in the past 50 years. What’s more, an interview with Torben Madsen of Link Arkitektur, the studio that has guided VOLA’s product design for the past decade, reveals that its work is an ongoing development of Jacobsen’s exquisitely pared-down design.

While HV1’s unsightly mechanical components are kept neatly out of sight, this film arguably does the opposite, going behind the scenes of VOLA’s HQ and factory, shedding light, for example, on its sophisticated soldering and brushing techniques. The film points out that the HV1 is of such high quality that, though widely imitated, its design and manufacture have never been matched.  

The films have been created in parallel with other events held at VOLA showrooms to mark this important anniversary.

© Architonic