Olav Haug

Haug worked as a manager at Olav Haug Mobelfabrikk AS until his death in 1985. The company was sold in 1987 and continued producing Haug’s furniture under the new name Odin Mobler AS.

In 1970 after 28 years working for Elverum Mobel & Trevarefabrikk as a designer and later a sales manager, Haug left to start his own furniture factory with three former employees. By that time the Norwegian furniture production business was undergoing a rapid transformation. Material and labor costs had pushed up production and sales prices and the new found wealth of Norwegian buyers meant that many households bought as much imported goods as they bought ‘made in Norway’, a substantial change from only 15 years earlier.

By the late 1950s and into the early 1960s Elverum Mobel & Trevarefabrikk was well known within the Norwegian furniture community. As a result of these close connections they manufactured for a number of prominent Norwegian furniture designers. Haug, who was known for keeping his machine park constantly up-to date with the latest technological innovations, had made them a trusted manufacturer for designers as Arne Halvorsen, Sigurd Resell, and Arne Jon Jutrem. Halvorsen had his easy-chair 'Glomma' produced at Elverum Mobel & Trevarefabrikk, while Sigurd Resell made his dining table and teak chairs and Resell had the lounge chair 'Ekko' produced there.

In the early 1950s the a new technology called compresin was available for furniture manufacturers. The technique consisted of making sheets of wood by pressing glued wood veneer under extremely high pressure. This technique was the predecessor to the more famous respatex board making.

In 1942, Olav Haug was employed at Elverum Mobel & Trevarefabrikk in Elverum as a master craftsman in charge of design and prototype development. From the early 1930s and until late in the decade, the company had produced doors and windows for private homes and offices. But as the Norwegian private economy grew, a new market for household furniture developed. It was ten that Haug designed and developed his characteristic chairs and living room furniture. During the 1950s when Scandinavian mid-century design grew onto the international prominence, Haug designed the '36' dining chair, the '46' lounge chair, the 'Fabian' rocking chair and the 'Bastian' series that became his hallmark designs at the company.

Haug began his apprenticeship working at Nils Myhren carpentry workshop in Lismarka, his local district. Receiving excellent feedback from Myhren himself, Haug moved on to work for Alf Skaarer carpentry workshop in Gan. A year later he was employed by Romerike Furniture, a furniture company in Lillestrom outside Oslo. After that, Haug was employed as a master carpenter at Haakon Fjeld from 1941 to 1942. In 1942, Olav Haug began working for Elverum Mobel & Trevarefabrikk AS. It was there that he created his most recognisable signature pieces.

Olav Haug (20 July 1916 – 3 November 1985) was a Norwegian furniture designer and master craftsman whose furniture designs demonstrated a deep understanding of woodwork and quality craftsmanship. His designs won him awards and production orders from numerous governmental and publics institutions, yet he remains a relatively unknown figure in the Norwegian mid-century design landscape.