Ilmari Tapiovaara

ILMARI TAPIOVAARA (Finland, 1914-1999) for La Permanente Mobili Cantù.
Set of four chairs.
Dark beech wood and cognac leather.
In good condition with signs of use and age.
Measurements: 48 x 60 x 92 cm.

These sturdy chairs by Ilmari Tapiovaara feature markedly geometric structures for the seat and back. The joints are highly visible, which enhances their handcrafted character.

Ilmari Tapiovaara was a pioneer of the new design that emerged after World War II, which ceased to be a cultural luxury and spread to society as a whole.He studied at the Helsinki School of Applied Arts, where he came into contact with Functionalism, the furniture designs of Alvar Aalto and the Modern Movement. Later, his internship at Le Corbusier's studio completed his training. The close contact with nature that he enjoyed in his youth would also influence his orientation: "Nature is the best and closest manual for the industrial designer. Tapiovaara had to face the new pragmatic challenges posed by modern industrial design: assembly of serialized parts, rational packaging for transport and export, solidity, ergonomics and exploration of techniques and materials. The result was ironic and persuasive designs, which subtly alluded to tradition and at the same time were transgressive and timeless, seeking the poetics of form. Ilmari Tapiovaara died after laying the foundations for the development of incipient industrial design. A characteristic of Tapiovaara was the exploration of his work through multiplicity: of each important piece he created numerous versions and multiform re-editions. This was the case with pieces such as the Fanett-Mademoiselle chair (1957); the famous Domus chair (solid birch and lacquered plywood), created in 1946 to form part of the furniture of the Domus Académica student residence, later produced by Knoll as FinnChair and of which multiple versions were made over the decades, or the Trienna table (1954); the Lukki chair, made of curved tubular steel and plywood, stackable in different versions in 1954 and 1956; the Otto cutlery (1986), or the Maija Mehiläinen lamp for Asko (1957), later published by Santa & Cole.His interior design projects in Finland, the United States and Europe, such as the OKO Bank in Helsinki, the Olivetti showrooms, the Intercontinental Hotel, etc. Tapiovaara also devoted part of his professional career to teaching (in the USA and Finland). He believed that designers should be taught philosophy, for without ideas there is no design, and was of the opinion that "Leonardo was the most famous and perhaps the best product designer in history."