Yrjö Kukkapuro, born in Viipuri in 1933, Yrjö Kukkapuro is one of the internationally most prestigious and successful Finnish designers. He graduated as interior architect from the Institute of Industrial Arts in Helsinki in 1958, and founded his own design office, Studio Kukkapuro, in 1959. A renowned award-winning designer, Kukkapuro worked as a teacher, professor and rector from the 1960s to the 1990s. He has work in the permanent collections of several museums, including the Museum of Modern Art MoMA in New York, Victoria & Albert in London, Röhsska Museum in Gothenburg, National Museum of Art in Stockholm, and the Vitra Design Museum in Germany. Kukkapuro has exhibited his work in dozens of solo and group shows across the world.