HAIMI
[Yrjö Kukkapuro]
Helsinki: Haimo Oy, 1969. Original edition. Oblong quarto. Text in Finnish with product specifications in Finnish and English. Two-ring clasp binder in paper covered decorated boards. Unpaginated. 26 pages. One three panel foldout. Fully illustrated in color and black and white featuring period correct design and typography throughout. Sales catalog featuring Yrjö Kukkapuro furniture designs for Haimo. Glossy board edges lightly rubbed. Former owners signature to front pastedown, otherwise a nearly fine copy.
10 x 8.675-inch two ring binder with 26 pages of Yrjö Kukkapuro’s furniture designs for Haimo, circa 1969. Features illustrated sections for Chairs, Sofas, Stoold, Tables and Modular seating, with complete curatorial information, including materials, diemnsions, finishes, et. in both Finnish and English.
Contents:
- Haimi Oy
- Six-panel fold out of Yrjö Kukkapuro’s furniture designs
- Karuselli 412
- Junior 413
- Haimi 201
- Haimi 414
- Haimi 415
- Haimi 416
- Haimi 417
- Haimi 418
- Haimi 419
- Haimi 430
- Saturnus [chairs]
- Saturnus [tables: 659, 660, 661, 663]
- Ateljee
- Variatio [chair and sofa models]
- Variatio [tables: 706, 707, 710, 711, 712]
Haimi was founded in 1943 by Gunnar Haimi and it was one of the leading furniture manufacturers in Finland it its time also licensing designs by Tobia Scarpa and Marcel Breuer. The Haimi family wanted to close shop in 1980 and the employees decided to take over the company, changing its name to Avarte in the process. The lead designer at both companies was Yrjö Kukkapuro, a man who has managed to reinvent himself several times over – recently as an ecological furniture evangelist. Avarte quietly went bankrupt in 2013. Artek now owns the licensing rights to Kukkapuro’s epically comfy Karuselli chair.
The furniture designer and interior architect Yrjö Kukkapuro (Viipuri, b. 1933) studied under Ilmari Tapiovaara in Helsinki and later trained several generations of Finnish design students as a full-fledged university professor. He graduated as interior architect from the Institute of Industrial Arts in Helsinki in 1958 and founded his own design office, Studio Kukkapuro, in 1959. In addition to producing renowned and award-winning design work, Kukkapuro was a teacher, professor, and rector from the 1960s to the 1990s. Kukkapuro's most famous model is the Karuselli Chair, named the most comfortable chair in the world by The New York Times in 1974. With work in the permanent collections of several museums – including the MoMA in New York, London’s Victoria & Albert Museum, and the National Museum of Art in Stockholm – Kukkapuro has exhibited his work in dozens of solo and group shows across the world. The Karuselli Lounge Chair, is the perfect example of Kukkapuro’s interest in achieving ultimate comfort for the sitter through a union of function, ergonomics and organic form.
The Karuselli Lounge Chair is the result of extensive experimentation. Kukkapuro began developing the breglass chair in the 1950s, arriving at the iconic form in 1964. Shaped to echo the form of the human body, the inspiration for the Karuselli reportedly came about when the designer was playing outside making snow chairs with his daughter. The ergonomics of sitting has always been a guiding principle in Kukkapuro’s work. Designing according to human anatomical functioning was essential when creating Karuselli.
The original prototype consisted of thin metal netting covered in sackcloth and dipped in plaster. Kukkapuro spent several years sculpting the chair and searching for the right dimensions. The resulting chair was exceptionally comfortable and had a distinct style. The Karuselli became an immediate international success – Gio Ponti chose it for the cover of Domus in 1966, and Kukkapuro found a permanent supporter in Sir Terence Conran, who has proclaimed it his favourite chair.