It is nothing unusual for staff to remain loyal to Vola for many years: Birthe Tofting, Director of International Sales, Marketing and HR, has been with the Danish manufacturer for 33 years now. — It is nothing unusual for staff to remain loyal to Vola for years: Birthe Tofting, Director of International Sales, Marketing and HR, has been with the manufacturer for 33 years now.
Photo: Vola

Vola celebrates 50 years of bridging past and present

For the family-run firm Vola, tradition and modern design go hand in hand: The minimalist bathroom fittings by Arne Jacobsen have superbly managed the seamless transition from innovation to ageless classic.

by Anna Moldenhauer and Robert Volhard | 3/15/2018

In actual fact, there ought to be 145 candles on the birthday cake – after all, the roots of Danish firm Vola A/S go back to the year 1873, when Lund Armaturen was founded. Lund formed the basis for the new firm Vola, short for Verner Overgaard Lund Armaturen, and was founded in 1968. The fact that Vola is happy to make do with 50 candles for the celebration is typical for the philosophy of the bathroom fittings manufacturer: It is not one for crowing. Instead it relies on elegant restraint both in its image and in its products. Decisive for the distinct design language was the development of the faucets “HV1,” “KV1” and “111.” All were created by designer and architect Arne Jacobsen. They also marked a quiet revolution of sorts: The firm’s owner at the time, Verner Overgaard, commissioned Jacobsen to design faucet “111” and had the pioneering idea of concealing all the mechanical elements in the wall. As a product that combined functionality with aesthetics, the sleek tap was ahead of its time. That same year “HV1” appeared: the first washbasin mixer faucet by Vola and a continuation of the iconographic design.

A good feel for design: company founder Verner Overgaard with a prototype of the "KV1" faucet by Arne Jacobsen.
Photo: Vola

To this day these classic taps undergo few design modifications; all modernizations and additions to the product range are made under the premise that the original idea should remain unaltered. “Every new product is an interpretation of the original classic design,” explains Birthe Tofting, Director of International Sales, Marketing and HR at Vola. Today, this mindset allows the designers of Link Arkitektur together with owner Poul Overgaard to bridge the gap between past and present. Their current additions to the range are subtle enough to not call into question Arne Jacobsen’s legacy, but also provide diverse possibilities for lending an individual touch to the classic products by Vola. The faucet handles and spouts can be combined in differing lengths and several different finishes are available. There is also a considerably greater choice of color. Whereas in the 1970s customers could only choose between orange and gray, today the entire Vola range offers a large spectrum in 14 shades.