Ilmari Tapiovaara designed Kiki in 1960. It was originally conceived as a chair whose stackability allowed it to be used to seat large groups, such as in auditoriums. In the Kiki series, Tapiovaara employed a more clean cut design idiom instead of the more organic style he had favored previously. Instead of wood, he chose oval steel tubing as the structural and unifying element of the whole Kiki collection.
