The Work of Illmari Tapiovarra
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In 1946, Tapiovaara and his wife, Annikki, were awarded the commission to design the interiors- both student rooms and public spaces- at the Domus Academica in Helsinki. From this project the design of Ilmari Tapiovaara’s most famous chair was born, the appropriately named "Domus" or, as it came to be known in America, the "Finnchair." This was the first piece of furniture to bring him extensive international recognition especially in America, and Knoll International selected it for distribution in 1951. The chair was perfect for an export market because it could be assembled using only a few screws and could be shipped ten chairs to a box. The design itself was innovative in the way the plywood seat curved three-dimensionally to give support without cushioning. Their designs for the project also included a sofa bed, the "Domus" easychair, storage units, desks, and even the wallpaper. Over the years Tapioavaara revisited the Domus chair design, producing the "Domus II" in 1950 and the "Domus Lux" in 1954.
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Another of Tapiovaara’s major interior projects was for the Marski Hotel in Helsinki which he worked on from 1958-61. Although the chairs from this project were never as prevalent in the market as the "Domus," Tapiovaara designed a restaurant chair with a shell of cast plastic and an upholstered cover that represents one of his few designs in this material. Unfortunately, this chair, "Lulu" was too labor intensive and expensive to mass-produce. In the following years, Tapiovaara tried to elaborate on his basic design for "Lulu," or a variation on a plastic chair but never got it to the production stage. He hoped that Herman Miller might take the chair up for production because no one else in Finland had the resources to do so, but this partnership never came about. The heavier "Marski" lounge chair from this project is a variation on the "Dumbo" chair from 1957. "Dumbo" was produced in fiberglass for the interiors of a pool, and Tapiovaara refined the organic shape for the "Marski" chair, adding upholstery and cast metal legs. There was one prototype designed with two sections, the addition of an upholstered neck rest, but they were too top-heavy and kept tipping over backwards, so few were actually produced. |
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