Peter Hiort-Lorenzen trained as a ship joiner from 1958 to -62 whereafter he began studying at The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts – The School of Design in Copenhagen until 1965 and later at The Royal Academy of Arts’ Furniture School until 1968.
After graduation, Hiort-Lorenzen worked at the Kilkenny Design Workshops on Ireland (1968-70) before returning to Denmark and the studio of Poul Cadovius (1970-73). Hiort-Lorenzen was an employee at Niels Fagerholts studio from 1971 to -72 and in 1975 he began working as a lecturer at Denmarks Design Skole, a position he held until 2000.
Together with designer Johannes Foersom, Hiort-Lorenzen founded a design studio in Copenhagen from where they have made designs for both national and international companies such as Hay, Marimekko and Brühl & Sippold. For Swedish manufacturer Lammhults, Foersom and Hiort-Lorenzen has made several well-known designs since the mid 1980’s, such as the stackable chair Campus from 1992 which became one of the best-selling chairs of the 1990’s and was rewarded the Forsnäs-Prize.
In 2005 the duo received a lot of attention for the chair Imprint, again for Lammhults. The reason for the attention wasn’t the design, or the uses of composite made of plant fiber and PET, but the combination of the two. When shown at the furniture fair NeoCon in Chicago the same year it was rewarded The Innovation Award. Foersom and Hiort-Lorenzen have received several major awards for their work such as the Finn Juhl Prisen in 2005, Excellent Swedish Design Award in 2002, and the Bruno Mathsson Prize in 1998.
They are represented at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, The Danish Museum of Decorative Arts in Copenhagen, the Modern Museum in Stockholm, die Neue Samlung at the International Design Museum in Munich, and at the Museum of Furniture Studies in Stockholm.
