In 1939 Holger Nielsen (1917-1992), the Danish designer and founder of Vipp, had the brilliant idea of designing a pedal-operated trash bin. It immediately became an icon of practicality in the domestic landscape, an object that embodied a brand – Vipp is the Danish transcription of the sound made by the lid opening and closing – and marked the beginning of a pathway towards the design of furnishings and indoor spaces on a wide spectrum: furniture, modular elements, lamps and kitchens, all the way to concept hotels developed by Vipp in Denmark, Sweden and Norway.
Starting now, the evolution of the Vipp universe is narrated and can be directly experienced in Shanghai, inside the company’s first Chinese store, and its largest such facility in the world: the building, made particularly luminous by the insertion of glass wall segments, is a sequence of open spaces furnished with the entire Vipp range. It was designed by the studio Kenjii Mantani for the occasion of Expo 2010.
In the space, resembling a minimalist glass house, the essential elegance of Vipp outlines the trends of interior design, conserving the rigorous approach that has always been intrinsic to the company’s character, a legacy of Nordic taste and functional beauty: a style that since the mid-1900s, when Nielsen was at the apex of his career, has conquered the décor market all over the world.
Vipp’s DNA stays alive in the attachment to its roots, encouraged by the fact that this is a family business, presently helmed by Nielsen’s grandson Kasper Egelung. For this new opening, he emphasized the importance of the past in the approach to today’s challenges: “Whether it is the design of a trash bin, a kitchen or a line of furniture, a hotel or a club, we always gauge the quality and the concepts of products on their ability to provide an extraordinary long-term experience.”
After openings in Australia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand, the new store expands Vipp’s horizons on the wave of rapid growth of the luxury sectors on the Chinese market.
