Aage Rafn


Aage Rafn was a Danish architect and designer. He headed Kunsthåndværkerskolen in Copenhagen from 1924.

Early life and education

Rafn was born on 21 April 1890 in Copenhagen, the son off Carl Hjalmar Rafn and Anna Elisabeth Albertine Kaper.His father served as headmaster of the Metropolitan School from 1902 to 1918. His paternal grandfather was the antiquaria,, writer and publisher Carl Christian Rafn. Rafn matriculated from Metropolitanskolen in 1908. He enrolled at the Royal [Danish Academy of Fine Arts] in 1909 and graduated from Kunstakademiets Arkitektskole in 1919. He won the academy's great gold medal in 1921.

Career

Already as students, Rafn and Kay Fisker won 2nd prize in am architectural competition to design the stations on a new railway on Bornholm. They were later commissioned to design the stations with significant changes. Their railway stations were influenced by Martin Nyrop's National Romantic style. Like the majority of his contemporaries, Rafn would later work within the idioms of first Nordic Classicism and then Functionalism. He operated his own architectural studio from 1916. He also worked for Hack Kampmann on the new Copenhagen Police Headquarters. Together with Holger Jacobsen and Kampmann's son Hans Jørgen Kampmann, he was responsible for completing the project after Kampmann's death.
In 1936, together with Hans Jørgen Kampmann, he was awarded the Rckersberg Medal for Vartov gl. Kloster on Lersø Park Allé in Copenhagen.
Rafn was also active as a designer of firniture, lamps and ceramics. He headed the Danish Museum of Arts and Crafts's Håndværkerskole in 1925–30 and the Danish Technical Society's Kunsthåndværkerskole in 1930–45.

Personal life

On 1 October 1927, Rafn married Lucie Hoel. She was the daughter of engineer Johan Hoel and Agnes Elisabeth Ohlsen.
Rafn died on 7 May 1953 and is buried at Mariebjerg Cemetery.

List of works