Exhibition: Sven Ivar Dysthe

Sven Ivar Dysthe (b. 1931) is one of Norway's most prominent designers, and has for more than fifty years been a corner stone in Norwegian design.

After he examined as cabinetmaker, Dysthe studied at the Royal Collage of Art in London, completing a Master's Degree in Industrial Design in 1953. Since then he has designed and developed a wide range of products ranging from furniture to ski bindings, disposal racks, trolley, air pressure compressor, and various lighting fixtures etc.

But it is primarily as a furniture designer, he has set traces. Norwegian designers pioneered the use of laminated wood structures, and in this area Dysthe did an early effort and developed lamination technology more than any of his Norwegian colleagues. His furniture series "Lamikolleksjonen" from 1963 was exemplary in the Norwegian furniture industry, and the stacking chair "Laminette" achieved to be one of Norway's best-selling chairs in the public sector, imitated and copied in several countries worldwide.

Sven Ivar Dysthe has his entire professional life been a productive and innovative designer and has, like few others, helped to characterize Norwegian design. The ability to develop a product to the smallest detail is characteristic of his work, and with the "inventors" insight for new challenges, he has managed to find simple solutions to complex technological and structural problems.

During his career he has received a large number of awards such as:

• Norwegian Design Council's award for good design in 1965, 1967, 1969, 1986 (two awards) 1988, 1994, 1999, 2002
• Norwegian Form, the Foundation for Design and Architecture in Norway  Jacob Price, 1989
• Norwegian Design Council Classics price for stacking chair Laminette, 1994