Tapiovaara’s fellow students included Tapio Wirkkala, Lisa Johansson-Pape, Kaj Franck and Dora Jung, all of whom drew inspiration from the Bauhaus style named after the Bauhaus art school founded by the German Walter Gropius. Ilmari Tapiovaara studied interior design at the Central School of Applied Arts in Helsinki, where he was taught by Arttu Brummer, who had designed furniture for various developments, including the University’s Main Building. Ilmari’s (known to his family as Imma) best-known siblings were the film director Nyrki Tapiovaara, who died in the war at a young age, and the artist Tapio Tapiovaara.
All of the family’s 11 children were given names familiar from the Kalevala, a compilation of Finnish folk poetry. Ilmari Tapiovaara’s father Kaarlo was a Fennoman (a Finnish nationalist movement of the late 19th century) and, as a member, he had ‘Finnicised’ his original surname from Karlsson to Tapiovaara. His designs can be found in public spaces, homes and museums around the world. Interior architect Ilmari Tapiovaara (1914−1999) was one of the leading figures of Finnish design. Photo: Bonin von Volker / Helsinki City Museum. Korean representatives outside Domus in 1952. During the Helsinki Olympic Games of 1952, Domus served as accommodation for international athletes. The two first two Domus Academica buildings were completed in 1947, the third in 1952 and, after a pause, the fourth (Building D on Hietaniemenkatu street) in 1968. The buildings were designed by architect Pauli Salomaa, and the interiors by Ilmari and Annikki Tapiovaara. Donations poured in from all across Finland and the world, and the University of Helsinki also contributed. Poster and photo: Helsinki University Museum.įundraising for the construction project began with a prominent campaign. A poster for the fundraising campaign for student housing.
Finally, the Student Union of the University of Helsinki decided to improve student living conditions by constructing a housing complex on a plot in the Leppäsuo district of Helsinki, purchased from the city. To alleviate it, the government began to subsidise housing by guaranteeing developers’ loans. Students fell into debt due to the high price of housing and food, and cramped living conditions led to the spread of tuberculosis, for instance.Īfter the war, the general housing situation grew even more difficult. The idea of a major student housing project was initially conceived in the 1930s when the living conditions of, in particular, university students who had moved from a different part of the country became difficult. Photo: Helsinki University Museum / Maria Tukia.įinnish university students had traditionally lived in sublet rooms, housing provided by private individuals and associations, or rooms in buildings constructed for specific student associations.
An original chair from the Domus Academica building complex, now included in the collections of the Helsinki University Museum. The Helsinki University Museum has received items of Domus furniture designed by Tapiovaara as donations from the University of Helsinki’s Student Union. In any case, the bent plywood chair, originally designed for a student housing complex in Helsinki, gradually became a mass-produced international bestseller. The story of the Domus chair began during the housing shortage that followed the Second World War, although it is possible that the idea for the chair occurred to its designer, Ilmari Tapiovaara, as early as the 1930s. The object of the month in November is a Finnish design classic: a chair which is a familiar object to many Finns from a variety of spaces.
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