Illums Bolighus was founded in 1925 under the name of BO. The man behind the venture was Danish entrepreneur Kaj Dessau, who was blessed with a strong aesthetic sense as well as a flair for business. Working with his artistic consultant, Brita Drewsen, he created a concept that had never been seen before: a store with furnished interiors, where textiles and furniture interacted with art. Drewsen and Dessau’s exceptional foresight and feeling for quality during the 1930s has since played an important role in the status achieved by Danish interior design internationally. After the store was taken over in 1941 by the Illum, Berg and Trock-Jansen families, who also owned the A.C. Illum A/S department store, it was renamed Illums Bolighus A/S. The present building, which with underplayed extravagance stands out on busy Amagertorv as an extremely stylish and classical edifice, was designed in 1961 by Kay Kørbing, architect and Member of the Architects’ Association in Denmark. Illums Bolighus no longer has links of any sort with the Illum department store.