Artek Lukki Chair

Artek’s relaunch of Tapiovaara's Lukki series comprises three chairs and a stool from 1951–1956. A Finnish word meaning “daddy longlegs”, Lukki is an apt name for the light-weight pieces made of bent metal tubing and plywood. Tapiovaara designed several versions of the chair.

At the turn of the 1940s and 1950s, interior architect and designer Ilmari Tapiovaara participated in a competition for the design of furniture for student housing of the Helsinki University of Technology. He won the competition, which marked the beginning of the Lukki series. Designed as an all-purpose chair in the competition entry, Lukki is similar in construction to Tapiovaara’s iconic Domus chair, although the designer exceptionally chose to use metal for the frame. The Lukki series signalled the beginning of a long and intensive period when Tapiovaara designed many multi-purpose chairs. The post-war period of austerity was over and metal could now also be used in the furniture industry. Replacing solid wood, Tapiovaara used the new material in tandem with bent plywood. Around the time he created the Lukki chair, Tapiovaara was engaged in developing structural solutions for chairs in a factory owned by his relatives. Soon the factory, which had previously made beds, dedicated itself exclusively to the manufacture of Tapiovaara's metal-frame furniture, and even changed its name to Lukkiseppo (Lukki: name of the chair, seppo: maker of chairs) to reflect the fact.

MEASUREMENTS:

• Height: 74 cm / 29 inch
• Seat Height: 45 cm / 17 inch
• Width: 56 cm / 22 inch
• Depth: 51 cm / 20 inch

MATERIALS:

• Seat beech veneered form pressed birch plywood
• Frame steel tube, painted (matt)

HELPFUL NOTES:

• Stackable

Ilmari Tapiovaara

Finland, 1914 - 1999

Ilmari Tapiovaara graduated in 1937 as interior architect from the department of furniture design of the Central School of Applied Arts in Helsinki. He was one of the greatest interior architects and designers of his era. With the mind of anexplorer and a soul of a craftsman, Tapiovaara was always seeking for new solutions to improve everyday objects. During his long career Tapiovaara created dozens of iconic objects loved by the public.

Ilmari Tapiovaara was a great admirer of Alvar Aalto’s work, and he wanted to create products based on the same ideological premises. Tapiovaara embraced the principle of social equality of functionalism, and felt that architecture was the starting point of his design work. In addition to dozens of chairs and other furniture, mostly intended for public spaces, Tapiovaara also designed interiors for many banks, offices, hotels and showrooms starting in the 1940s.

Ilmari Tapiovaara was awarded a total of six gold medals at the Milan Triennials in 1951, 1954, 1957, 1960 and 1964. He was awarded the Good Design Award in Chicago in 1951, the Pro Finlandia medal in 1959, the Finnish State Design Prize in 1971 and the Furniture Prize of the SIO Interior Architects’ Association of Finland in 1990.

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