Yrjö Kukkapuro, visionary Finnish designer of Postmodern chairs, dies at 91
Yrjö Kukkapuro, a renowned Finnish interior architect and furniture designer whose postmodern style of chairs graced waiting rooms, offices and living rooms across Finland as well as collections across the globe, has died, aged 91.
His daughter, Isa Kukkapuro-Enbom, confirmed his passing on Saturday at his home near Helsinki. The cause was not disclosed.
“Almost every Finn has sat on a chair he designed — at a metro station, in a bank, at school, or in a library,” Studio Kukkapuro said in a news release.
“Yrjö Kukkapuro never stopped designing and coming up with new ideas. Until the very end, he pondered a concept of his new chair, the plan of which was clear in his mind. His assistant didn’t have time to make drawings of the chair.”
Chairs that shaped everyday life
In a career spanning more than 70 years, Kukkapuro’s chairs were lauded for their comfort, functionalism and ergonomics as well as their design, and featured names like Ateljee, Karuselli-chair, Long Chair and, his most famous, the Experiment.
Designed in 1982, the Experiment chair was considered avant-garde but ultimately became commercially successful and was seen as a key turning point for the postmodern style of furniture.
The Experiment includes decorative, wavy armrests in bright colours, an upholstered back and bottom, and its signature angled seat despite the frame being flat on the ground.
Although initial production ceased in the 1990s, European furniture design brand Hem sought permission from Kukkapuro in 2021 to reproduce it with minor adjustments to the scale and construction.
“We are saddened by the news of Yrjö’s passing, and our thoughts are with his family,” Hem founder and chief executive Petrus Palmér said in an email to AP. “He was a furniture design trailblazer, and showed us that a non-conformist approach is the only way to achieve a lasting legacy.”
The Experiment chair retailed for up to 2,399 euros ($2,479) on Hem’s website Sunday, where a description called it “timeless, bold, and as compelling today as the day it was created.”
“In the Experiment Chair, Kukkapuro sought to add arka to Functionalism, to satisfy romantic tastes alongside meeting essential needs,” the description reads. “The result is startling, authentic, a hero of twentieth-century design.”
Kukkapuro designed his family’s studio and home to feature a wave-shaped roof and floor-to-ceiling glass windows. Built in the late 1960s for him and his wife, artist Irmeli Kukkapuro, who died in 2022, it’s scheduled to become a museum next year.
Arguably his most comfortable creation, the Karuselli (“Carousel”) chair, designed in 1964, has earned its spot in the permanent collections of many esteemed institutions around the world such as New York’s Museum of Çağdaş Arka and London’s Victoria and Albert Museum.
In 1974, The New York Times even nominated it as one of the most comfortable chairs in the world and fellow designer Sir Terence Conran has called it his “favourite place to sit because it is so comfortable”.
