Yrjö Kukkapuro in memoriam

Yrjö Kukkapuro in memoriam

‍

Finnish designer Yrjö Kukkapuro has passed away at 91, leaving a lasting impact on Nordic furniture design. From the fiberglass Karuselli chair in the 1960s to the bold Experiment series in the 1980s, his work combined function and artistic expression. With recent reissues, his designs continue to inspire.

‍

The internationally well-known Finnish designer Yrjö Kukkapuro has passed away at the age of 91. For over six decades, he was one of the most important architects of modern Nordic furniture design. In the mid-1960s, he had his international breakthrough when the company Haimi launched his powerful fiberglass lounge chair, Karuselli. This was followed by a number of plastic armchairs in the same context, which were regarded as the new design approach from Finland.

In the 1970s, Kukkapuro began shifting his designs from fiberglass to tubular steel and laminated wood, where the chair series Fysio, Skaala, and Sirkus manufactured by the company Avarte became a great success.

In the 1980s, Kukkapuro, inspired by Italian postmodern design, released a series called Experiment. In this series, he added expressive and colorful elements to his modernistic and functional chairs, a bold combination that can be considered postmodern modernism.

Recently, Kukkapuro’s design received renewed international attention after being relaunched by both Finnish Artek and Swedish Hem.

Personally, I met Kukkapuro once in Stockholm when he came to present his Experiment Chair series. I remember him as strongly charismatic despite his humble and low-key appearance. Above all, I am grateful for his aesthetic and ergonomic accuracy, as I have used his task chair, Sirkus, daily for over 40 years without ever thinking of switching.

Read more about Yrjö Kukkapuro here.
Article written by Lars Bülow