Yrjö Kukkapuro

Yrjö Kukkapuro (born 1933) is a Finnish designer, who graduated as interior architect from the Institute of Industrial Arts in Helsinki in 1958 and founded his own design office Studio Kukkapuro in 1959. He is known, among other things, for Ateljee collection and for Karuselli armchair, whose prototype was built in 1961, modeled after his body and launched in 1964. From 1974-1980 he held a professorship at the University of Art and Design in Helsinki. His works are part of the permanent collections of several museums, including the Museum of Modern Art MoMA in New York, Victoria & Albert in London, Röhsska Museum in Gothenburg, National Museum of Art in Stockholm, and the Vitra Design Museum in Germany. Yrjö Kukkapuro has received many awards for his works, e.g. the ProFinlandia in 1982 or the Kaj Franck Prize in 1995.