Gubi

Gubi was founded in Copenhagen in 1967 by Gubi and Lisbeth Olsen, initially as a modest design studio before growing into one of the most influential Scandinavian design houses of the twenty-first century. Today led by their son Jacob Gubi Olsen, the brand has built its identity on a distinctive dual strategy: reviving forgotten masterpieces of twentieth-century design, and commissioning new work from leading contemporary designers. The result is a catalogue that feels at once encyclopaedic and unmistakably modern — a library of great chairs, lamps and tables that reads like a curated museum collection.

The revival programme is the heart of the brand. Gubi has rediscovered and reissued pieces by figures such as Greta M. Grossman (the Grasshopper floor lamp, the Pedrera table), Gio Ponti, Mathieu Matégot, Pierre Paulin, Paavo Tynell and the British Bestlite by Robert Dudley Best — once found in Winston Churchill's study and still produced today as a Gubi icon. The Beetle Chair by GamFratesi, launched in 2013, has become a modern classic in its own right, specified in restaurants, hotels and offices worldwide from the Ace Hotel to Copenhagen's Noma.

Gubi's contemporary design conversation is equally serious. The brand collaborates with Space Copenhagen, OEO Studio, Komplot Design, Sebastian Herkner, Luca Nichetto, Mario Bellini, Nanna Ditzel and Tanya Aguiñiga, translating their ideas into production with Danish manufacturing rigour. Product categories span lounge chairs, dining chairs, sofas, coffee and dining tables, desks, lighting, textiles, mirrors, and now a growing outdoor range that brings the same archival-meets-contemporary sensibility into the garden.

Visually, the Gubi identity is warm, playful and colourful in a way that sets it apart from more austere Nordic competitors. The brand embraces oxblood velvets, bouclé, lacquered curves, brushed brass and marble — a sensual interpretation of Scandinavian design that reaches back to the 1950s rather than the minimalist 1990s. Flagship showrooms in Copenhagen, Milan, Paris, Stockholm, New York and Los Angeles stage the collection in richly atmospheric interiors that have become a reference for restaurant and hotel designers globally.

For architects and stylists seeking character-rich modernism with an authentic design lineage — pieces that can converse equally with a 1930s villa and a 2025 penthouse — Gubi offers one of the most coherent, intelligent and beautifully produced catalogues in contemporary design.