60s Mogens Koch ‘mk-16’ safari chair for Interna

Mogens Koch furniture designed a lot of award wining mid-centuru furniture. The Danish architect was known for his functional approach to furniture design and for prioritizing comfort and accessibility. Koch also drew on older traditions and techniques. His chairs and tables show the influence of the Shaker Style and Englisch pieces of the 18th century.

Koch was born in Copenhagen and attended the Royal Danisch Academy of Fine Arts. After graduating, he worked as an assistant to Kaare Klint, an important figure in Danish modernism who was responsible for establishing the furniture design program at Koch’s alma mater. Klint favored historical styles and inspired Koch to view furniture design as an evolutionary process built on the traditions of the past. Over the course of their partnership, in the late 1920s, Koch began creating modular bookcases.

In 1932, Rud Rasmussen began to produce Koch designs. An early Koch seating design that the Danish manufacturer made was the MK Safari chair, an unassuming folding chair based on traditional British campaign furniture. Also known as safari or directors chairs.

It greatly resembles Klint’s own Safari chair which was designed in 1933 and was also inspired by military furniture. It became one of Koch’s signature chairs.

This MK-16 is a reproduction of Interna Denmark who re-marketed the timeless piece of furniture in the 1970s to honor Mogens Koch design.
Chair is in beautiful condition consistent with age and use.