Niels Jørgen Haugesen finishes his training as a cabinetmaker in 1956 and studied furniture design at Konsthåndvaerskskolen (today the Royal Danish Academy) until 1961. After graduation Haugesen worked with Danish architects such as Peter Hvidt & Orla Mølgaard Nilesen and Arne Jacobsen.
In 1971 Haugesen set up his own design studio (from 1980 to 1995 together with Gunvor Haugesen) while also teaching at the Royal Danish Academy – School of Design in Copenhagen.
Haugesen is best known for the stackable X-Line chair that he designed in 1977 for Hybodan/Bent Krogh. The chair, that was given its name due to the x-shaped carrying construction, is a part of the collection at Museum of Furniture Studies in Stockholm.
In 1996 Haugesen was awarded the Danish Møbelprisen and twice earlier he was the recipient of the ID Design Award for the Haugesen table in 1986 and the X-Line chair in 1987. Haugesen also designed the Fleur chair in 1998 and the sofa Distance in 2002.
He is represented at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Lousiana Museum in Denmark, Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, the Louvre Museum in Paris, and The Neue Samlung in Munich. Haugesen died in 2013 at the age of 77.
