If you’re a design nerd like us, you’re probably familiar with Danish-American furniture designer Jens Risom. As the man who created the first-ever Knoll chair, Risom holds a prominent, if sometimes overlooked, position in the canon of mid-century design. At 96, he is “living comfortably doing nothing” with his wife, Henny, in Connecticut, and recently collaborated with DWR on a Jens Risom Collection.
In this Dwell-produced video, filmmaker Gary Nadeau takes us on a visit to Risom’s prefab cottage, built in the ’60s on Block Island, off the coast of Rhode Island. A half century later, the home still exists in essentially its original form, and it looks as amazing as you might expect. Risom, for his part, comes off like a friendly, humble design sage who we would love to chill with.
