Room 606 - Michael Sheridan

The story of Arne Jacobsen's visionary masterpiece SAS Royal Hotel from 1960 examined through the microcosm of room 606 – the only room still left untouched with the original interior. In the centre of Copenhagen, on the sixth floor of the Royal Hotel, a single room preserves a microcosm of the definitive masterwork of Danish architect and furniture designer Arne Jacobsen (1902-71). Room 606 is the last surviving interior of the SAS House: an unparalleled example of modern architecture and design, completed in 1960. Jacobsen was one of the outstanding architects of the twentieth century, throughout his career, creating complete settings for daily life and dissolving the boundaries between architecture, interior and industrial design. The SAS House represented the pinnacle of his achievements, for which Jacobsen had designed every detail, including new furniture such as the now famous Egg and Swan chairs, fabrics, fixtures and even silverware. This book presents a unique insight into Jacobsen's work, using the 'time-capsule' Room 606 as a lens through which to examine the span of his entire career. A lost world of mid-twentieth-century form and sensation is rediscovered through hundreds of rare archival photographs, original drawings and sketches, and specially commissioned new colour photographs of Room 606. The chapters are organized thematically: each consists of three sections that together look at Room 606 as a microcosm of the SAS House, reconstruct the original building, and trace the connections between Jacobsen's masterpiece and his other works - from whole buildings to household objects.