Folded timber lamp by Anton Mikkonen resembles "a butterfly pinned to the wall"

Emerging Finnish designer Anton Mikkonen has created a selection of sculptural lighting and furniture pieces to highlight "the beauty in making", which he presented as part of the Habitare fair at Helsinki Design Week.

Mikkonen was selected as one of four designers for Habitare Talents – an annual exhibition that spotlights creatives who have begun to make their mark on the industry but may not yet be widely known.

The designer showed seven handcrafted pieces made from a mixture of wood and steel, created to celebrate the design process and challenge conventional forms.

"I don't see that certain types of furniture should be a certain way," Mikkonen told Dezeen at Habitare.

"We have these ideas of what a chair is, what a table is. I like to at least try to see things differently."

Central to the collection is a sconce light made from a single piece of 0.4-millimetre-thick birch plywood, laser-cut and folded in half.

Loosely shaped like a butterfly, the timber can be positioned in a curved formation when attached to the wall, held in place by steam-bent solid birch sticks. Once the sticks are removed, the components can be flat-packed.

"I like to think of it as like a butterfly pinned to the wall," said Mikkonen, noting the way in which the lamp's lightbulb illuminates the thin timber shade from behind.

Another of the designer's wooden pieces is Volymmi, an angular but enveloping seat made of Finnish spruce wood. Half chair and half stool, the furniture was deliberately crafted to be ambiguous in purpose, true to Mikkonen's preferred way of working.

"I felt like it would be a good contrast here at Habitare, because there are lots of companies showing mass-produced pieces," said Mikkonen.

The designer also presented two more untitled timber pieces as part of the collection – a side table made from four pieces of interlocking, ink-accented pine and a bench-cum-table crafted from black-hued pine.

Mikkonen's steel furniture was made by pressing pieces of metal together and welding them by hand, in the hopes of showing the "raw process" of their manufacture.

Void is a brutalist-style, wall-mounted shelf made from a one-millimetre-thick sheet of holey steel. It was crafted to test the boundaries of creating a structure that is rigid but uses minimal material, said Mikkonen.

Silhouette is a glass-topped trestle table with striking steel legs made using the same pressing and welding technique, which was originally shown at last year's 3 Days of Design in Copenhagen.

Mikkonen's latest metal piece is a squat, untitled stool made from curved components laser-cut with pear-shaped holes.

Reflecting on his furniture, the designer stressed that the works are "all very much prototypes" produced with creative freedom.

"I think that's where the beauty in making is," said Mikkonen. "These are all works that I've done mainly for myself, from my own vision. I think that's when the work is somehow purest."

"And if that resonates with someone and they like it, then it's good," he added. "Because at that point, you can stand behind your work very strongly."

Mikkonen is a member of the Helsinki-based collective Minestrone Workshop, a "contemporary wood workshop" in the city's Vallila neighbourhood. The collective celebrated its first birthday during this year's Helsinki Design Week, where it debuted last year.

Habitare Talents has previously platformed a slew of rising stars in Finnish design, including the Dezeen Awards 2024 emerging designer of the year and Minestrone Workshop co-founder Didi Ng Wing Yin in 2023.

The photography is courtesy of Anton Mikkonen unless stated otherwise.

Helsinki Design Week 2025 took place from 5 to 14  September 2025 at various locations across Helsinki, Finland. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world. 

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