Finnish design
Large bookcase by Ilmari Tapiovaara
The use of ash – a solid, magnificent wood – brings a genuine warmth to the bookcase. It is considered to be an everyday wood, and as such it is one of the characteristics of the work of Ilmari Tapiovaara (1914 – 1999). During the Second World War, he designed a wide range of furniture and canoes for the Finnish army using local wood. Nails and screws were often in short supply, so he got round the issue by thinking up designs which required very few fastening elements.
This bookcase, with its simple, pared-down style, is also modular, and has sliding doors on all of the cupboards, with everything designed to make intelligent use of the available space. This theory is what saw Tapiovaara win the Secondo Premio ex æquo prize in the Living Environment Category competition for a very similar design.
The original design of this work dates back to the 1950s, and it is part of a long series of items of furniture designed after Tapiovaara opened his own office in 1951, at a time when he was beginning to enjoy an international reputation and yet still remaining closely linked to the land of his birth, working on regular occasions with Finnish schools and universities.
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