Forgotten objects

OBJECTS FORGOTTEN

There are quite a few things we would like to be taken into production again. Over the years many forgotten classics, such as Aarnios ball chair, have been rediscovered after the market created a demand for them. But we will list our selection here:

Olavi Hänninens chair for the Hotel Palace Café:

Olavi Hänninen, born 1920, studied industrial design and got work at the departement store Stockmann in 1948 where he drew interiors for the furniture section. Finland was to host the olympic games in 1952 and a hotel by the name of Palace was created in order to host the large amount of people that would arrive. In the hotel there was a café and for this café, Hänninen drew chairs. The chair consisted of a metal structure with an acrylic seat. And these chairs do not exist anymore. They have vanished. I do not know whether they were ever taken into larger production or if only the small batch for the café were made. The hotel was renovated on two occasions but the café still exists. As often happens with renovations, the interior gets thrown away and I believe this is what happened. If someone knows any more about it please inform me.

The chair is also listed here as an acrylic chair.

Merivaara functionality furniture and plywood stools

Merivaara is nowadays a hospital equipment manufacturing company but it used to be a forerunner in functional design of the 20’s and 30’s with the designs of Pauli Blomstedt. Later it also produced the 1950’s furniture of Ilmari Tapiovaara and Antti Nurmesniemi. In the 1960’s Ola Kettunen designed a series of chairs made out of bent plywood. There were armchairs, rocking chairs and stools. It is the stool that we especially like. Simplicity in action. A bent seat. Two cut out holes. Black legs. Exquisite.

You can see examples of their functionality furniture here and here as the Helsinki university has scanned some of the publications they have in stock. Nice to see that some of our tax-euros are well spent.

These are only two of many things we wish could exist again. We will add more later.

On a happy note: Arabia has taken Birger Kaipianen’s Apila into production again. Designed in 1971, it quickly disappeared from the shelves and it became a rarity on the second hand market. It is only sold to the end of this year, so hurry up!