Finnish designers Ilmari and Annikki Tapiovaara won a 1946 competition to furnish a student dormitory at the University of Helsinki, known as the Domus Academica competition. The furniture, including this armchair, was durable, functional, and made of Finnish birch, which was available in abundance, even in the hardscrabble years after World War II. Like Charles and Ray Eames’ plywood chairs developed slightly earlier, Tapiovaara’s plywood furniture was molded in three dimensions, allowing for a more comfortable and ergonomic seat.
The university commission led to mass production by the Finnish firm Keravan Puuteollisuus and the Domus chair was adopted throughout Finland for schools, cafeterias, and auditoriums. In 1951, the American modern furniture company Knoll Associates, Inc. began to import the side chair into the United States, marketed as the "Finnchair." The Tapiovaaras also designed the inventive packing and packaging. The chairs shipped disassembled, so that ten chairs could fit in one cardboard shipping box that measured a quarter of a square meter ( predating the IKEA flat-pack). The chairs were also designed to stack, giving them additional functionality. This example is the armchair model, sometimes known as the "Domus Deluxe." It came from Tapiovaara’s own studio and retains its original upholstery.
Bobbye Tigerman, Marilyn B. and Calvin B. Gross Curator, Decorative Arts and Design, 2017
