Yrjö Kukkapuro’s timelessly elegant Ateljee and Triennale lounge chairs are perfectly at home in the stunning, light-filled lobby spaces of a new hotel that opened its doors last autumn. The harmonious atmosphere of the interior enhances their appeal.
Modeo contributed to furnishing the new hotel by providing pieces for the meeting rooms, lobby lighting, bar stools for the restaurant, and bedside tables for the guest rooms.
The architecture of Solo Sokos Hotel Pier 4 was designed by Anttinen Oiva Architects, with interiors by Franz Design. Modeo had the pleasure of collaborating with top professionals in their field—and the result speaks for itself!
Yrjö Kukkapuro is one of Finland´s most internationally renowned and award-winning furniture designers and one of the most significant modernists in Scandinavian furniture design. The design work of Kukkapuro is based on both aesthetic and functional innovation, user experience and ergonomics.
Yrjö Kukkapuro has had a long and illustrious career in design, spanning from the mid-1950s to the present. Now Yrjö Kukkapuro turns 90 and it calls for a celebration.
We want to preserve the living legacy of Yrjö Kukkapuro’s design and will celebrate throughout his anniversary year. The year of celebration starts at the EMMA Espoo Museum of Modern Art.
Remmi, Ateljee and Triennale have already made the return to Finnish production and the reception has been warm. Now we are happy to announce that we will expand local production and launch more classics during the current year. The charming A-509 Rocking Chair will be one of these products.
Modeo and Yrjö Kukkapuro Collection had the honour of participating at the Finnish Design Embassy in Berlin. The event was organized in cooperation between the Nordic embassies and it took place in the common exhibition space of the embassies in the Nordische Botschaften Felleshus on September 15. At the event, the invited guests got to see Yrjö Kukkapuro’s production. Among those invited guests were architects, interior designers and retailers. Ambassador Anne Sipiläinen and Yrjö Kukkapuro’s representative Isa Kukkapuro-Enbom spoke at the event.
During the preparation phase of the event, the idea of upholstering Kukkapuro’s Triennale chairs with Haapaniemi fabrics was born in collaboration, and these two chairs were spectacularly displayed at the exhibition. At the event, there was also the opportunity to get to know the Kukkapuro novelties, including the YKH22 table, which will be put into production in October.
The fruitful and rewarding event brought a lot of new contacts, good discussions and visibility for the wonderful Yrjö Kukkapuro Collection. It was great to be part of the event and share information about the Yrjö Kukkapuro Collection to the Berlin audience!
Classic chair Remmi by Finnish design legend Yrjö Kukkapuro (born 1933) returns to its roots to Finland. Yrjö Kukkapuro Collection, which distributes Yrjö Kukkapuro furniture brand, has now started to produce Remmi chair in Finland. Returning the classic chair’s production to home after eight years, is a tribute to Yrjö Kukkapuro and to Yrjö Kukkapuro’s furniture and a significant cultural act for Finnish design.
Dense rows of fir trees punctured by frozen lakes and oxblood red cabins; children in snow boots navigating icy pavements; crystaltipped grass that crunches underfoot. The journey to the studio of Yrjö Kukkapuro on the outskirts of Helsinki is fittingly Finnish. But once inside, all Nordic clichés end. Rows of chairs with colourful legs and graffitisplattered backs are stacked in seemingly random groups; books, paintbrushes, sketches and models occupy every surface; sunlit walls are crowded with images and cuttings, and in the middle of it all sits 86-year-old Kukkapuro in his canary yellow cap.
Fifty years ago, Yrjö Kukkapuro read Tove Jansson’s “The Book about Moomin, Mymble and Little My” to her daughter Isa again and again. In the 80’s Isa read the same book to her daughter Ida, who now reads it to her son Oskar. The colors and exceptional illustration of the book impressed Kukkapuro family, but also resembled everyday life in the Kukkapuro atelier in Kauniainen.
Irmeli Kukkapuro (b. 1934) has made a long career as a visual artist. She started as a painter in 1950’s and changed first to mixed media, then to graphics.
She graduated from Craft College with major in decorative painting in 1957. Later in the 70’s she studied in the Free Art School with graphic designer Pentti Kaskipuro as her teacher, together with for example Outi Heiskanen and Kaarina Kaila, both well-known names in Finnish art.
From metal graphics, drypoint and aquatint techniques, in the 1980’s Irmeli Kukkapuro, as a student of printmaker Erkki Hervo, switched to woodcut graphics using Japanese wood tile and watercolour techniques.
In the 90’s, Irmeli Kukkapuro’s work grew into powerful compositions with dynamically powerful abstract colour surfaces. By combining constructivist forms with hand-engraved woodcut bases and mystical patterns, the art of Kukkapuro formed into a distinctive mix of traditional woodcuts and modern abstract art.
In the 2000’s Irmeli Kukkapuro has experimented again with mixed media, this time using rowan plank, leaf gold, drawing and watercolour painting as materials. After these monotypes a series of paintings followed with subjects flowing from the subconscious, reflecting early paintings from the beginning of the 60’s.
Irmeli Kukkapuro has always printed all her work herself in her own studio, where she works together with her husband Yrjö Kukkapuro. Studio Kukkapuro was open for public during the World Design Capital 2012 year, when over 1000 people visited it in just over a month. Irmeli’s works aroused great enthusiasm during the event.
Irmeli Kukkapuro and designer Yrjö Kukkapuro have worked together in the same working environment since 1957. Yrjö Kukkapuro recognizes Irmeli’s sense of colour and form, which for decades has provided inspiration for his own designs.
You can see Irmeli Kukkapuro’s graphics in Yrjö Kukkapuro pop-up in the Kämp Garden’s Garden Room, in the first floor of Kämp Galleria shopping centre. The exhibition displays Irmeli Kukkapuro’s watercolour graphics from 1982-1990. The exhibition is open until 28.9 on weekdays 11-19 and on Saturdays 10-17 at Pohjoisesplanadi 33.
Some of the works on display in the Irmeli Kukkapuro exhibition are for sale. Enquiries Isa Kukkapuro-Enbom, [email protected]
