1. THE COPENHAGEN POST | CPHPOST.DK 20 - 26 February 201512 BUSINESS
Vipphastheanswerforthoseseekingshelterfromthecity
All-inclusiveDanishdesign
delivered:youprovidethe
wilderness,therestisincluded
PHILIP TEES
T
HE VIPP Shelter is a
product unlike any other.
The latest innovation
from the Danish design house
Vipp is a prefabricated and
fully equipped house that can
be delivered to the location of
your choice.
Designed as a getaway from
urban chaos, Vipp has already
installed one in Sweden, a
stone’s throw from the water’s
edge of a lake, with nothing
else in sight but sky and forest.
Just days after going on sale,
the first order came in for a
Vipp Shelter destined for the
Hamptons, New York.
Best of both worlds
INSPIRATION for the prod-
uct came to Kasper Egelund,
the CEO of Vipp and grand-
son of the company’s founders,
when he was living in Manhat-
tan. “City life is great but we
need to experience nature too,”
he said.
“Country retreats tend to
be either very upscale and
luxurious or very basic. I
thought that it would be great
to have a place with all of the
functionality you have in the
city, but where you are as close
to nature as possible.”
Rooted in who we are
EGELUND collaborated on
the concept with Morten Bo
Jensen, Vipp’s chief designer,
and the Vipp Shelter is the
result. It might seem like a
dramatic break from tradition
for a company that until now
has been known for producing
things to go inside a house
instead of the house itself.
But Jensen explained that the
Vipp Shelter is a continuation
of the company’s design
philosophy. “There is plenty of
amazing architecture out there,
but we wanted to conceive
something different that was
rooted in who we are,” he said.
“So we used our 75 years of
experience with steel processing
to craft an escape in the form of
a prefabricated object designed
down to the last detail, where
the only choice left to the
customer is where to put it.”
Vipp DNA
VIPP IS best known for its
original waste bin, designed in
1939 by Holger Nielsen for his
wife’s hairdressing salon.
Vipp was popular with
commercial clients in Den-
mark, such as hospitals and
ferries, but Nielsen didn’t live
to see it become an interna-
tional design classic.
In 2009 the pedal bin was
accepted into the architecture
and design collection of the
Museum of Modern Art in
New York.
Since its beginnings, the
company has developed an
extensive range of homeware
products and, according to
Jensen, they share the so-called
Vipp DNA.
“Functionality and a dis-
tinctive idiom based on
high-quality materials and spe-
cial manufacturing processes
are the pillars of Vipp DNA
and represent the common
thread between past, present
and future products,” he ex-
plained.
A family business
BUT IT isn’t just the products
that have a shared DNA. Vipp
is very much a family com-
pany.
Jette Egelund, the current
chairman, is the daughter of
Holger and Marie Nielsen and
took control of the company
when her father died in 1992.
“It is she who deserves the
credit for seeing the potential
of an industrial design product
in the private space,” her son,
Kasper Egelund, said.
Jette Egelund explained that
she was initially met with re-
sistance. “I had the challenge
that for my generation the bin
was a doctor’s or dentist’s bin,”
she said.
“So when I presented it to
the furniture shops they said
they had no interest. But I in-
sisted, as it had always been
used, in my home – so why
not!”
It was also a difficult time
for Jette Egelund in her per-
sonal life. “It was a problem
that I had no support from my
husband in terms of backup, as
he left the family shortly after
I took over the company,” she
said. “Without money it can
be hard.”
Hard work and good luck
HER RESILIENCE paid off.
“I decided to learn all about
the production and after two
years in the factory I knew
where to outsource produc-
tion and then set an office up
in Copenhagen,” Jette Egelund
explained.
“It was my luck that my
children Kasper and Sofie
wanted to join and – with a de-
gree from business school and
the school for graphic design
respectively – it helped a lot.
So there were three of us who
believed in the project and
could inspire each other.
“We added more prod-
ucts – all with the same DNA
and completely in my father’s
spirit. When we earned some
money, we added people with
other skills and expanded the
company. In short – that is
what we have done ever since!”
The company’s story hasn’t
gone unnoticed in the interna-
tional business milieu.
“One day I got a call from
someone at Harvard who want-
ed to know how a small Danish
company making trash cans
could become the brand that we
are today,” Kasper Egelund said.
“So now the story of Vipp is
a case study at Harvard Busi-
ness School.”
And see-through too, so it doesn’t even ruin the view
JONASSMIDTMOGENSEN
“We used our 75 years
of experience with
steel processing to craft
an escape in the form
of a prefabricated
object designed down
to the last detail,
where the only choice
left to the customer,
is where to put it”
VIPP:
• Founded in 1939 by Marie
and Holger Nielsen in Rand-
ers
• Headquarters and flagship
store in Copenhagen
• Vipp.com
THEVIPPSHELTER:
• Price: 485,000 euros
• Living space: 55 sqm
• Delivery time: 6 months
• Installation time: 3-5 days
• Sleeps up to 4
• Produced in Frederiksværk,
Zealand