ILKKA SUPPANEN
Ilkka Suppanen is one of the best known contemporary Finnish designers and architects. Born in 1968, he went on to study architecture at the Technical University of Helsinki and Interior and Furniture Design at the University of Art and Design Helsinki, completing his studies at the Rietveld Academy, Amsterdam in 1992.
In 1995, Suppanen founded his own design agency, Studio Suppanen, in Helsinki, which provides design services for clients from around the globe, among them Artek, Cappellini, Nokia, Saab, Ferlea, Leucos, Lucente, Zanotta, Marimekko and others. In 1996, Suppanen began teaching design at the University of Art and Design Helsinki, where he continues to teach to this day. He also served as Chairman of the board for the International Alvar Aalto Design Seminar in 2007 and as curator of “Hardcore, ” an exhibition of Finnish Design in New York City.
In 1997, Suppanen and a group of his colleagues founded Snowcrash (1997-2003), a design collective known for making international headlines and reframing the image of Finnish design for the world. Using high tech features and lightweight materials, the collective invented a new design language for office furniture. One of the most notable design groups of its time, the collective won the Young Designer of the Year Award in Germany the year it was founded.
Throughout his career, Suppanen has experimented with different production techniques and materials, and has become known for a style that is light and forward-looking, while still representative of a classically Scandinavian design tradition. With Suppanen Studio, he increasingly investigates sustainable techniques, from his Tikau Light Collection, to more responsible cotton growth methods, to creating circular material processes. Some of his most famous work includes the Twiggy table, the Rosebud Chair, and the Iittala Fireplace, for which he won the Finnish Fennia Prize in 2009.
Suppanen’s work has been exhibited around the world, from MoMA in New York City, to the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and the Museum of Applied Art in Cologne, as well as the Milan Furniture Fair and the Venice Biennale. He has been awarded numerous prestigious distinctions, in 2000, Design Forum Finland awarded Ilkka Suppanen and Harri Koskinen the Young Designer of the Year prize, Suppanen has also been celebrated with the Bruno Mathsson Award in 2006, Red Dot Best of the Best Award in 2012, the Söderberg Award in 2015, the Finnish Kaj Franck Award in 2020 and the Good Design Award in 2008, 2017 and 2018.
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