Asikainen Kari

Kari Asikainen graduated as an interior architect from the School of Art and Design in 1966. After graduation, Asikainen worked in various architecture agencies and has had his own office, Kari Design , since 1983. Asikainen’s versatile career has included interior design, furniture design and teaching. He has worked as a teacher of furniture design at the University of Art and Design, as a professor of industrial furniture design and as the director of the Western Finland Design Centre MUOVA. As an interior designer, Asikainen’s most notable works include the interior design of the Kannelmäki Church and the Tampere Workers’ Theatre.

However, Asikainen has always been more interested in furniture design than interior design, and he is one of Finland’s best-known furniture designers. Asikainen is best known for the Kari furniture for public spaces, of which the classic Kari 1 chair has been in production for over fifty years. Kari Asikainen’s design philosophy has been to strive for simple, timeless forms that fit both old and new architecture. In his design work, Asikainen has pursued structural strength and lightness, functionality in usage and good ergonomics without compromising aesthetics. He has also always been interested in structural and material experiments. Asikainen’s design work has been awarded the State Prize for Arts and Crafts in 1984 and in 1983 his Kari 3 chair received the Interior Architects SIO award for the best public furniture of the year.

In addition to paper documents, Asikainen’s archive contains a large number of chair prototypes, photographs, and drawings. Here you can see the catalogue of Kari Asikainen’s archive.

Read more about the design of Kari chairs in the Design Archive’s Design Success Stories online exhibition.

www.karidesign.fi