"Karuselli (Carousel)" Lounge Chair Designed by Yrjö Kukkapuro (Finnish 1933-2025)
Manufactured by Haimi, Finland

Designed in 1964, this example manufactured and acquired circa 1975, the moulded black fibreglass shell with stitched brown leather upholstery on chromed swivel and tilt mount to quadripartite base, bearing two Haimi Made in Finland Design by Yrjö Kukkapuro labels.

Dimensions: 80cm wide, 95cm deep, 90cm high

Purchased new by the current vendor circa 1975 during her career as an interior designer and kept by this single owner in their collection prior to being offered with Wilson55.

The inspiration for this supposedly came to the Finnish architect and designer Yrjö Kukkapuro when he fell asleep in the snow, waking up to find it perfectly moulded around him; there followed the development process which involved wrapping himself in chicken wire and making a mould of his reclining body in his quest to make a chair matching perfect ergonomics with innovative form.

Eventually in 1964 Kukkapuro had succeeded and the "Karuselli" chair was unveiled to the world, achieving instant and lasting success as a design classic of the twentieth century - Gio Ponti chose the chair for the cover of the influential Domus magazine in 1966, The New York Times nominated it as the world's most comfortable chair in 1974 and Sir Terence Conran proclaimed it as his favourite chair design of all time, famously saying 'It is the most comfortable chair in the world... I lie back in it with a glass of whisky and a cigar and immediately feel that life is worth living.'