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From 'Vision to Legend' book<p style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0px 20px; color: rgb(83, 101, 124); font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><i>Bang & Olufsen, founded in 1925 by two young Danish engineers, Peter Bang and Svend Olufsen, was set up to build radio sets for the newly-emerging radio industry.</i></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0px 20px; color: rgb(83, 101, 124); font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">The company's history, told in a new publication: 'Bang & Olufsen - From Vision to Legend' , was published in order to celebrate their seventy-fifth year and includes a traumatic event in World War II that nearly brought the company to collapse. Danish saboteurs, with help from German occupying forces, blew up the<a href="https://archived.beoworld.org/article_view.asp?id=56" style="color: rgb(51, 153, 204); outline: none;">Struer</a> factory in retaliation for the company's refusal to work with the Germans and their role in the Danish resistance. Bang & Olufsen survived the setback and the company flourished.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0px 20px; color: rgb(83, 101, 124); font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">In 1978, Bang & Olufsen was honoured by New York's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) (see Exhibitions 1) with a special exhibit displaying their products and in 2000, in honour of their three-quarters of a century existence, they hosted the "Vision and Legend" exhibition at the Danish Design Centre in Copenhagen, opening just before the ribbon was cut on the new Oresund Bridge connecting Sweden and Denmark.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0px 20px; color: rgb(83, 101, 124); font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">The book: 'Bang & Olufsen - From Vision to Legend' by Jens Bang (Denmark 2000) was published in recognition of its first successful 75 years. The edition is a comprehensive history of this famous company and its design-led products. With text in English it is profusely illustrated in both colour and monochrome. Hard bound, 591 pages. Dimensions: 25cm x 30cm. Weight: 3.5 kg. Cost: 100 euros</p> | History | |||
Headquarters<p style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0px 20px; color: rgb(83, 101, 124); font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><i>Creating a dialogue between technology & Nature</i></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0px 20px; color: rgb(83, 101, 124); font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0px 20px; color: rgb(83, 101, 124); font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">The new Bang & Olufsen Headquarters in Struer, Denmark are affectionately known as 'The Farm' and were designed by Jan Sondergaard MAA of <span style="color: rgb(51, 153, 204); outline: none;">KHR Architects</span> in 1997. It opened for business the year later. The building covers a total area of 1121 square metres and provides a working area of 5131 square metres.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0px 20px; color: rgb(83, 101, 124); font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">'The Farm' is one of the most distinctive and talked-about Danish buildings with hybrid ventilation. The building is ventilated with the help of natural airflow when possible, and supplemented mechanically with helping fans when the natural pressure from wind and convection isn't enough.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0px 20px; color: rgb(83, 101, 124); font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">The building has three floors with a collective height of 12 meters. The floors are fitted with a large open office and a number of directors' offices in addition to washrooms, elevators and the like. The north façade is outfitted in clear glass. The idea behind the construction is high quality with a minimum of technical mechanisms, which to the highest degree possible are hidden.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0px 20px; color: rgb(83, 101, 124); font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">The building is ventilated according to the principle of displacement, where lighter, cool air is brought into the lowest parts, and pushes heat and pollution upwards, where the air is sucked out or expelled into the attic. The air exits the building via two vents through the large axial fans. The fans remain stationary when the natural air pressure is sufficient, and at other times are regulated by the air quality in the building in the form of CO2 concentration. During the night, the fans can also be used for night cooling in periods of warm weather, by which the building's solid parts are used to accumulate warmth during the daylight hours and radiate it back during the night. By this means the temperature during the day is reduced during the hot summertime, and one avoids using mechanical cooling.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0px 20px; color: rgb(83, 101, 124); font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Aalborg University has been involved in a number of target programs at the B&O building. The building has also been a "participant" in many Danish energy research studies and a number of international research projects.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0px 20px; color: rgb(83, 101, 124); font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">The design of 'The Farm' was inspired by the solitary farmhouses typical of the area. The new main building and its courtyard form a sheltered space with an unfettered view of all activities. Like its historic models, the building makes an effort to create a dialogue between the function and technology of manmade structures and the poetic dimension of the surrounding landscape.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0px 20px; color: rgb(83, 101, 124); font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">KHR and Jan Sondergaard have recieved many awards and accolades including First Prize in the <span style="color: rgb(51, 153, 204); outline: none;">Architechture for Humanity</span> competition, beating entries from around the world.</p><div><br></div> | History | |||
Museum in Struer<h2 style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.375em; margin: 0px 0px 15px; color: rgb(51, 133, 173); font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Struer Museum</h2><p style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0px 20px; color: rgb(83, 101, 124); font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><strong>From miniature plans to full-scale development</strong></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0px 20px; color: rgb(83, 101, 124); font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><i>The new Bang & Olufsen Museum at <span style="color: rgb(51, 153, 204); outline: none;">Struer</span>, Denmark</i></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0px 20px; color: rgb(83, 101, 124); font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">The year 2003 saw the continuation of an exciting project launched the previous year, to design and construct a museum dedicated to the technological skills of the company's workers and its audio-video products which have now been in production in the town for over three-quarters of a century.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0px 20px; color: rgb(83, 101, 124); font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">The new Bang & Olufsen Museum will be constructed in the centre of the town of Struer - a town synonymous with the company's history - on Søndergade, at the side of the town's existing museum.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0px 20px; color: rgb(83, 101, 124); font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><i>Pictured - A glimpse into the proposed Bang & Olufsen Museum in Struer, where Jørgen Michaelsen already has placed the first 'visitors'. The models here depict the company's products throughout the years. Note the photograph on the rear 'wall' showing employees on the steps of the old building at Quistrup</i></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0px 20px; color: rgb(83, 101, 124); font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><strong>" B&O Museum ready in miniature. Negotiations about Bang-Foundation's gift to Struer municipality begin today, Tuesday.</strong></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0px 20px; color: rgb(83, 101, 124); font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">When plans of the gift were revealed in April they were in the form of architect Freddy Nielsen's drawings, but since then, the former B&O employee, architect Jørgen Michaelsen Venø, has created a miniature of the Project adding to it the latest expansion schemes. It turned out to be necessary to get more room for the museum's workshops; expanding the lowest levels by a couple of hundred square metres has solved the problem.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0px 20px; color: rgb(83, 101, 124); font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">The museum will be underground, only a metre of the top level and the glass roof will be visible on the lawn between the Struer Museum and Buchholtz's house in Søndergade. The museum will be on three levels with underground connections to existing museum buildings.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0px 20px; color: rgb(83, 101, 124); font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">The project will cost an estimated 10 million DDK, but the Board of the Kirsten and Peter Bang Foundation is willing to pay. The Board consists of Kirsten and Peter Bang's four children, Jens, Lotte, Peter and Dorte, and they gathered on Friday to approve the expansion of the project. It is now up to the Struer municipality to play its part of the project in these times of savings. It will have to buy half of the property at Søndergade 21. The house must be demolished to make room for the museum, but the municipality already owns the other half of the property.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0px 20px; color: rgb(83, 101, 124); font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">The municipality will also have to pay for the part of the museum that will be placed under the northern wing of Struer Museum, where the connection to the B&O Museum will be. In addition to this they will also pay for the necessary facilities in the museum and its daily operation.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0px 20px; color: rgb(83, 101, 124); font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">There is no doubt that a B&O museum of this standard will generate profit by virtue of increased tourism - it is not everyday that the municipality is offered a gift worth 10 million DDK, thereby recouping the municipality's original outlay.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0px 20px; color: rgb(83, 101, 124); font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Architect Jørgen Michaelsen was a former leader of Bang & Olufsen's Shop Design department. Before retirement he was involved in exhibition model-making. This talent has been utilised more recently for the proposed Bang & Olufsen Museum in Struer. Shown here, Michaelson presents the result of his efforts to Lars Peter Bang, who manages the Museum Project on behalf of the Bang-foundation.</p><div><br></div> | History | |||
Struer<p style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0px 20px; color: rgb(83, 101, 124); font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Struer is a market town by Limfjorden in the western part of Jutland. Struer is one of the youngest towns in Denmark (founded 1917) and currently has around 19 000 inhabitants. A Danish newspaper once named it the 'stockbroker belt' of western Jutland.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0px 20px; color: rgb(83, 101, 124); font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Its marina is the largest in Limfjorden with its industrial harbour (from 1856) being the second largest after Aalborg. The city is well known because of the Bang & Olufsen's predominance in the town.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0px 20px; color: rgb(83, 101, 124); font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">The city of Struer owes its growth to the railroad, which arrived in 1865 with Jutland's first railroad line from Århus/Randers over Viborg to Skive and Struer. Before its arrival Struer was a little town, that primarily functioned as a harbour for the residents of Holstebro; but after its arrival the town grew explosively into a big city, and eventually became one of Denmark's most important railway connection points. Although the station has been expanded several times, the central part of the well-maintained building is one of Denmark's oldest stations.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0px 20px; color: rgb(83, 101, 124); font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><strong>Fact - Struer received privileged status as a merchant town in 1917.</strong></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0px 20px; color: rgb(83, 101, 124); font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Until the end of the 1960s Struer Station served as the headquarters for the central West Jutland administration of DSB, Danske Statsbaner ("Danish State Railways"). More than 300 DSB employees still work in Struer today.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0px 20px; color: rgb(83, 101, 124); font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><strong>Fact - Bang & Olufsen, Denmark's only radio/TV manufacturer today, is the city's most important business, and they employ almost a third of the town's population</strong></p> | History | |||
The First 25 Years<p style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0px 20px; color: rgb(83, 101, 124); font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">It all started in 1925, when two engineers, Peter Bang and Svend Olufsen, began a modest production of radios in the attic of the Olufsen family home, 'Quistrup'. The company of 'Bang & Olufsen' was founded on 17 November that same year by the two young engineers who shared a passion for radio transmissions. Their first product was developed in the attic of the Olufsen's manor house in Denmark where the family still lives today.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0px 20px; color: rgb(83, 101, 124); font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">The first commercially viable product to bear the Bang & Olufsen name was the B&O Eliminator in 1927. The Eliminator enabled a radio to be connected directly to the mains rather than being battery-operated which had been previously the norm. That same year, production moved to a new, purpose-built factory just outside the town of <span style="color: rgb(51, 153, 204); outline: none;">Struer</span>.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0px 20px; color: rgb(83, 101, 124); font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">It was the sturdy '5 lamper' (5 tubes) radio from 1929 that firmly established Bang & Olufsen as a reputable radio manufacturer. In 1930 Bang & Olufsen introduced its first radiogramophone. The following year the company manufactured a tone-film public address system for use in cinemas. This rapidly came in such a demand that a subsidiary was formed to handle this one product.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0px 20px; color: rgb(83, 101, 124); font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">In 1938 Bang & Olufsen introduced the first mains radio with push-button operation: the 'Master 38CH'. The 'Master de Luxe 39' introduced the following year had no less then 16 permanent stations. This was the first time that strict attention was deliberately paid to user convenience.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0px 20px; color: rgb(83, 101, 124); font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">From the outset Peter Bang and Svend Olufsen concentrated on quality materials and the application of new technology. Following the move to the new factory a new idea developed, a pre-set tuning button, which was one of the many innovations that earned the company the Danish Hallmark of Quality.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0px 20px; color: rgb(83, 101, 124); font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">In 1939 they launched the 'Beolit', the first radio with a bakelite cabinet. The Beolit was the start of the famous 'Beo' prefix being used on all major new products.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0px 20px; color: rgb(83, 101, 124); font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">In 1940 Bang & Olufsen introduced dealer campaigns which included eye-catching window decorations and shop fitting ideas. Thus began the now international network of authorised Bang & Olufsen dealers.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0px 20px; color: rgb(83, 101, 124); font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Despite the German occupation of Denmark during WWII, 1941 saw great optimism at Bang & Olufsen. The Grand Prix 41 introduced a tuning scale that could fold away out of sight, when not in use.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0px 20px; color: rgb(83, 101, 124); font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">On 14 January 1945, the occupation forces totally destroyed the Bang & Olufsen factories. Rebuilding started shortly afterwards and the new premises were operational by 1946, incorporating the newest technological facilities. The year after, the company launched Beocord 84U, Europe's first wire-recorder and which was a forerunner of the open-reel tape recorders.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0px 20px; color: rgb(83, 101, 124); font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">1948's Grand Prix 48CH was the first Bang & Olufsen 'high-fidelity' radio.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0px 20px; color: rgb(83, 101, 124); font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">During their time together Peter Bang and Svend Olufsen were considered unorthodox in their approach - conventional wisdom held that products of the twentieth century should display their technicalities and little or no attention needed to be paid to their physical appearance. Their innovative ideas were to form the basis of the success of the company in the years to come. Bang & Olufsen is - and has always been - a visionary enterprise.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0px 20px; color: rgb(83, 101, 124); font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><i>"Making radio receivers in large numbers is something quite apart" wrote the novelist Johannes Buchholtz in 1937. "Although highly developed, radio technology is still in its infancy. The radio set which is state-of-the-art in 1936 seems a bit old-fashioned in 1937. Something has happened in the meanwhile: Bright brains have penetrated the dark and have found out how to improve on the product. All over the world engineers are sitting at their desks, bent over new models. This is what they call competition. Tough competition. The engineers always keep their pencils and erasers close at hand. Never be satisfied. Better – better – better! This is what making radios is like"</i>. The demand for change and renewal has hardly decreased since 1937, when Buchholtz wrote these lines.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0px 20px; color: rgb(83, 101, 124); font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Within the company there has been an unbroken link with family members still taking part in the company's vision. Peter Bang's son, Jens Bang, has been an active member both of the development team and of the B&O Board for many years. Svend Olufsen's family, too, has continued to play an active role within the company.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0px 20px; color: rgb(83, 101, 124); font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Since 1989 the Board has been chaired by Peter Skak Olufsen, Svend Olufsen's nephew and owner of the manor of Quistrup, where the two young engineers in 1925 took up 'the new radio cult'.</p><div><br></div> | History |