Cool Dozen+

Assembled by Design Forum Finland, an organization promoting Finnish design, Cool Dozen+ is an exhibition presenting the evolution of Finnish chair and textile design - its recent history, icons and the new ideas of young rising stars in the field. Cool Dozen+ displays the works of a total of 22 designers/designer teams. The fourteen pairs of chairs and fabrics include both classics and works by the most interesting names among contemporary designers.

The classics include chairs by Alvar Aalto, Yrjö Kukkapuro, Antti Nurmesniemi and Ilmari Tapiovaara. Newer designers are represented by Teemu Jarvi, Harri Koskinen, Antti Kotilainen, Hannu Kahönen, Samuli Naamanka and Mikko Paakkanen. The chairs have been thematically matched with textiles from Marimekko and Artek, including works by Iiro A. Ahokas, Hennamari Asunta, Nora Fleming, Maija and Kristina Isola, Harri Koskinen, Maija Louekari, Teresa Moorhouse, Vuokko Nurmesniemi, Ilkka Suppanen, Oiva Toikka, Miina Äkkijyrkka (Marimekko) and Alvar Aalto (Artek). The Finnish furniture companies participating in the exhibition are AERO Design Furniture, Artek, Avarte, Martela, Mobel Original Design, Piiroinen and Woodnotes. An example of the exhibition's choices of products is the Option chair by Antti Kotilainen (Furniture Designer of the Year 2007) which is paired with Frekvenssi, awarded the prize for the best fabric of 2007 in Elle Deco International Awards.

"The idea for Cool Dozen started from a request to design a kind of interior space alongside exterior space. In the original exhibition, exterior space was represented by photographs of contemporary Finnish architecture by Jussi Tiainen. The bared minimalist interior space of Cool Dozen is created by the combination of furniture and textiles. The fabric creates the surface while furniture introduces the dimension of depth," says design editor Aila Kolehmainen, Design Forum Finland's PR and Communications Manager.

"The chairs and textiles of Cool Dozen+ engage in an inspiring discourse of form. A detail of the leg of Ilmari Tapiovaara's Pirkka chair can surprisingly be perceived in the patterns of Ilkka Suppanen's modern Marhaba textile. The rotating movement of Nora Fleming's Hevoskastanja design is carried on in the construction of Yrjö Kukkapuro's Karuselli chair. The urban angularity of Mikko Paakkanen's Taitos chair combines with the dynamic world of patterns of the Dadel fabric by Maija Louekari. Hannu Kahönen's F2 chair combined with the Metsanvaki textile by Kristina Isola suggests associations with trees and stumps. The organic and plastic language of form of Samuli Naamanka's Clash chair is related to the Latvassa korkealla pattern by Teresa Moorhouse," notes Kolehmainen.

The original Cool Dozen toured Canada and China in 2006-2007. New products have been added for the tour in France (Rouen & Paris 2008), raising the number of chair and textile pairs to fourteen. "Cool Dozen+ is above all about the joy of discovery. Viewers can pause for a moment before the exhibits to create their own associations of organic forms and changing patters. Although many of these pairs of chairs and textiles are from different periods, they express the shared factor of timeless Finnish language of form and way of thought," notes Aila Kolehmainen.