Mikko Laakkonen was first trained as a musical instrument maker before eventually changing his career into product, lighting and furniture designing in the latter part of the 1990s. After several years of working for various interior design offices in Finland, Mikko founded his own design studio, Studio Mikko Laakkonen in Helsinki in 2004. Mikko is known for his excellent woodworking skills which he originally acquired during his years as a student of musical instrument making.
Mikko is also a member in the design collective Rehti, a group of young designers who share a studio and showroom in downtown Helsinki. The word ”rehti” is Finnish and means ’an honest and fair way of working and acting’. The Rehti group is linked together by a desire to create simple and honest objects.
For Laakkonen each design project is unique and every project also requires unique solutions. He is interested in creating objects that surround people in their everyday life, objects that allow him to combine the client’s needs with the studio’s strong vision and high guality of design.
Laakkonen has participated in several international and local exhibitions including Promosedia, International Chair Exhibition, Udine, Italy in 2007, Rehti exhibitions at the Milan furniture fair in 2005, 2006 and 2007 and Helsinki Design Week 2005, 2006 and 2007. His work was also presented in New York at the Future Perfect Gallery and Store during New York Design Week 2006.
The project that perhaps best describes the Finnish mentality of Laakkonen’s designs is the Operation Saunabus, a design exhibition. In this internationally touring exhibition, a group of eight young designers from Finland deconstructed and customized an old bus turning it into a uniquely Finnish version of a mobile home, outfitted with a sauna, of course. The designers themselves then drove the bus around Europe participating in several European furniture and design fairs in 2003.
Laakkonen’s designs are manufactured by such Finnish and international companies as Bosa Ceramiche, Covo, Inno Interior, Isku Interior and Selki-Asema.
http://www.mikkolaakkonen.com/
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