Seating Furniture Studio 2016-2026
Faculty of Architecture
Estonian Academy of Arts
Each year students of architecture and interior architecture learn to do less with more. They build a chair with limited wood material, one that carries their bodies and intentions. Lightness emerges through restraint, clarity, and responsibility. This exhibition brings together ten years of chairs, revealing lightness as a balance between gravity, material, and imagination.
The material needed to produce all the chairs in this exhibition is equivalent to a single trunk of birch, Ø 35 cm × 45–50 cm in length.
A single birch chair made in Estonia from locally sourced birch generates 0.5 – 0.9 kg CO2e.
A plastic chair manufactured in China and transported to Europe generates approximately 7 – 9 kg CO2e.
The carbon footprint of all the chairs in this exhibition is equal to one plastic chair.
The authors of the chairs are
Madli Bulgarin, Sander Haugas, Kadri Kallaste, Madis Keerd, Karolin Kull, Alis Mäesalu, Ra Puhkan, Kristofer Soop, Karl Robin Timm and Linda Marie Zimmer
The students were assisted by
Wood Workshop masters Oliver Kanniste and Avo Tragel
The course’s co-tutors are
Yrjö Wiherheimo and Martin Relander
The course is supervised by
Ilkka Suppanen, a designer from Finland working with lightness. The founder of Studio Suppanen is known for his work in product, industrial, and furniture design. The studio’s work has been exhibited at MoMA and the Venice Architecture Biennale, and is held in the permanent collections of institutions like the Centre Pompidou. Suppanen has supervised the Seating Furniture Studio at EKA for ten years.
The Estonian Academy of Arts is
the only public university in Estonia providing higher education in fine arts,
design, architecture, media, visual studies, art history, and conservation. Operating continuously since 1914, the university leverages a century of knowledge and craftsmanship to address the questions of tomorrow. The exhibition is brought to you by EKA’s Faculty of Architecture.