Acton Bjørn (1910-1992) was a Danish architect and designer.
Bjørn went to the Technical Society’s School 1926-30 and graduated as a carpenter in 1931 and graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts’ School of Architecture in 1933. He then participated in the construction of the residential building Blidah Park in Hellerup together with Ivar Bentsen and Jørgen Berg. He was also employed in surveying work for the Royal Danish Garden Society and as an employee of architect Vilhelm Lauritzen.
During World War II, he began to draw i.a. furniture and wallpaper. In 1947, he was employed for six months at Vattenbyggnadsbyrån (VBB) in Stockholm with a view to controlling the installation of Malene Bjørn’s fitting of two Boeing aircraft for SAS in the United States.
Later, together with Sigvard Bernadotte, he established (1950) the first Scandinavian design studio dedicated to industrial design. Berndotte & Bjørn became known for products in metal and plastic in many areas, but they became especially known for the Margrethe bowl, produced by Rosti from 1955 and exported to most of the world. Internationally, Bernadotte & Bjørn also became known for the design of typewriters and calculators for the manufacturers Facit, Original-Odhner and Contex. From 1966 to 1990, Acton Bjørn ran the design studio alone.
He received numerous awards: Gold Medal at the California State Fair for Design; honorary award from the 2nd Allgemeine Produktschau, Vienna 1966; gold medal at the 2nd Biennial for Industrial Design, Ljubljana, Yugoslavia 1966, Eurostar 1961 Denmark (2 times), 1963 Germany, 1968 France and packaging-Oskar 1968 France and packaging-World Star 1970 France.