Jasper Morrison + Wataru Kumano

The Finnish company Nikari, based in Fiskars, consists of a hydro-powered studio-workshop with 12 skilful craftsmen and a network of workshops and factories around Finland. In 2012 they set out to produce twelve products in a year, launching one each month as part of the 2012 Helsinki Design Capital initiative with some of the proceeds going to the World Wildlife Fund. We were the last and our initial intention was to design a do-it-yourself chair that could be sold in a small box and put together at home with a little glue, using the weight of the constructor to secure the joints.

Unfortunately, the precision of the joints and the variations of humidity around the world combined to defeat our plan and the chair is now sold preassembled. The chair’s slightly rustic character is something of an antistyle statement, but also perhaps our notion of the atmosphere of Finnish country life.
Extracted from A Book of Things by Jasper Morrison (Lars Müller Publishers, 2015)