Born in Copenhagen in 1902, Arne Jacobsen was an apprentice mason before attending the Royal Danish Academy, graduating in 1927. Here, he studied under Kay Fisker and Kaj Gottlob, and was  influenced by modernist ideas of simplicity and functionalism, especially those promoted by Le Corbusier and the Bauhaus movement. In 1929, Jacobsen and Flemming Lassen collaborated for a ‘House of the Future’ competition held by the Danish Association of Architects. Their winning design, a spiral-planned pure white functionalist concept, was constructed for a building exhibition in 1929 and was instrumental in the spread of European modernism in Denmark. Jacobsen was an passionate advocate and practitioner of total design, extending his reach to every facet of the built environment, including furniture, industrial and product design, graphic design and landscape design. The SAS Royal Hotel (1956-1960) demonstrates this ethos - Jacobsen designed the building, the cutlery in the hotel restaurant and everything in between, including organic furniture designs that remain icons of mid-century design.

Robin Boyd met Arne Jacobsen in 1950, possibly following a recommendation from Boyd’s Melbourne University colleague Rae Featherstone. Jacobsen showed Boyd around Copenhagen, including a visit to Jacobsen’s just-completed home in the Søholm Row Houses development (1950). Writing home, Boyd mentioned Jacobsen’s Aarhus City Hall (1942) as an outstanding example of Scandinavian architecture.