Experimental home of designer Yrjö Kukkapuro set to open as museum

The distinctive 1960s self-designed home and studio of the late designers Yrjö and Irmeli Kukkapuro in Finland is being transformed into a museum.

The renovation project is being led by the couple's daughter and granddaughter, who told Dezeen what the unusual building means to them.

"I felt like it was a different planet," said producer Isa Kukkapuro-Enbom, considering the architecture of her parents' home in Kauniainen where she grew up.

"And I still feel the same way, after 57 years have passed."

Located on the outskirts of Helsinki, Studio Kukkapuro was built by the late interior architect and furniture maker Yrjö Kukkapuro and graphic artist Irmeli, between 1968 and 1969.

The building, which is topped with a roof shaped like a wave and does not include a single right angle, served as the pair's home and workplace until their deaths in 2022 and 2025.

For two years, Isa Kukkapuro-Enbom and her daughter, communications specialist Ida Kukkapuro, have been transforming the building into a public museum – a project they were working on closely with Yrjö Kukkapuro until he passed away on 8 February. The project is expected to be complete in 2026.

The duo explained that they are only carrying out minor technical renovations to preserve the home studio's legacy and offer visitors a glimpse into how the duo lived and created alongside each other.

Among their archive is the furniture maker's 1964 Karuselli lounge chair, hailed by the late British designer Terence Conran as "the most comfortable chair in the world". It also contains his 1980s Perhonen plexiglass floor lamps, which were originally made as a solution for the house that has no electrical points for lighting fixtures in the ceiling.

"The museum will showcase a lifetime of work from a furniture designer and a graphic artist and their way of living at the studio – they always said they brought home to work rather than work to home," said Ida Kukkapuro.

"The studio will welcome all guests. Designer and architect groups, locals, tourists, students, and the space will also work as a venue for education and small-scale workshops," she added.

Studio Kukkapuro was designed in collaboration with Finnish engineer Eero Paloheimo. The swooping self-supporting concrete roof is eight centimetres thick and was cast on a pre-stressed steel grid.

Unconventionally, the home studio's interior is made up of one 200-square-metre room, with private areas delineated only by bookcases and other furniture.

Isa Kukkapuro-Enbom joked about how when she became a teenager, her father constructed a temporary bedroom enclosed by new walls to accommodate his daughter's wishes, only to remove it once she moved out of the family home in later years.

"Living in a space that was entirely dedicated to creative work was exciting, yet also demanding," she reflected.

Two translucent fibreglass cylinders, custom-created by a company that made AIA silage tanks, house a shower and a toilet. The gridded floor-to-ceiling thermal glass windows have always been curtainless, with "light bursting in," explained Isa Kukkapuro-Enbom.

"From 1968, my father designed all his pieces in the studio," added the producer. "The space definitely affected his work. My mother, being an artist, loved the presence of nature. Green leaves in summer and white in the winter."

"The windows have been restored and there are still some minor repairs to do," said Ida Kukkapuro, who explained that fundraising for the museum project has included selling limited-edition posters of a 1993-designed chair. "The restoration is being completed very carefully to respect the building."

"While working with the building, we have already been piloting with small curated guided tours and educational events, and we even hosted a chamber music concert," she added.

"Personally, I love the idea of a dynamic space, which will inspire wild creativity in future generations and stand as a monument and museum for an extraordinary artist couple," said Isa Kukkapuro-Enbom.

"As a kid, I also lived in the house with my grandparents and mum, and in that sense it is a mundane space for me," added Ida Kukkapuro. "But it still leaves me in awe every time I enter. The organic shape and the views of the oak and hazelnut trees in the surrounding grove through the huge windows calm me down and help me to be more present."

"I can't help thinking that Irmeli and Yrjö were my age when they built a house in a way no one had ever built before," she continued.

"How come they had the courage to make something that few people can even imagine?" considered the communications specialist. "And what could be a bold thing that my peers and I could and should do now? Being able to share the space with others and hear about how it makes them think feels very meaningful."

Kauniainen is located to the west of Helsinki, where local architecture studio Arkkitehdit NRT recently renovated the Alvar Aalto-designed Finlandia Hall.

The photography is courtesy of Studio Kukkapuro.

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