Simo Heikkilä
He is known as a designer, teacher and collaborator with a concern for dying craft skills. Heikkilä established his own studio in 1971. He began his career designing shops and exhibitions for Marimekko and then moved into designing furniture.
Simo Heikkilä
Teija Isohauta · CC BY 3.0
- Born
- 1943
- Nationality
- Finland
- Occupation
- designer · teacher
- Honours
- Kaj Franck Design Prize · Pro Finlandia Medal of the Order of the Lion of Finland
- Languages
- Finnish
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He is known as a designer, teacher and collaborator with a concern for dying craft skills. Heikkilä established his own studio in 1971. He began his career designing shops and exhibitions for Marimekko and then moved into designing furniture.
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wikidata · Q11893525 · wikipedia · Simo Heikkilä
In this article
Biography
Biography
Heikkilä has acted as the Director of Aalto University's Wood Studio and is an honorary fellow of Aalto University. Simo Heikkilä was born in Helsinki, Heikkilä has received numerous design awards including the Pro Finlandia medal in 2003 and the Kaj Franck Design Prize in 2011. The prize jury for the Kaj Franck Design Prize noted that "with his humorous touch, Heikkilä has guided young people towards an ecological and practical use of material." In 2009 Heikkilä invited a group of 21 international designer, including Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, Konstantin Grcic and Jasper Morrison, to reinterpret the Sami knife or leuku. Each designer was sent an original knife made by a Sami craftsman and given the simple brief to make it better. At the time Simo Heikkilä said of the project, "The leuku is a beautiful and functional object, pure in shape, well balanced and simply composed. Locally developed objects like this are vanishing all over the world." The results of the collaboration were exhibited in Finland and the Saint-Étienne Design Biennial in France, and published as a book.
The recorded working language is Finnish. Work by Simo Heikkilä is recorded in the collections of Finnish National Gallery and Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. Distinctions recorded are Kaj Franck Design Prize and Pro Finlandia Medal of the Order of the Lion of Finland.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
Explore 1943–2020
The full dated record · 3 entries
1943
Simo Heikkilä born.
2020
Simo Heikkilä (2020) is digitised and catalogued by Open Library.
2020
Simo Heikkilä digitised by Open Library.
Primary material
Digitised editions and texts
Simo Heikkilä (2020) — Open Library
Recognition and collections
Where the work is held
Recognition and collections
Simo Heikkilä received Kaj Franck Design Prize and Pro Finlandia Medal of the Order of the Lion of Finland.
Documents and archives
Primary material
Documents and archives
authority record
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q11893525: Simo Heikkilä
General reference · Wikidata
reference work
- “Simo Heikkilä”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1."Simo Heikkila." Almanac of Famous People. Gale, 2011. Biography in Context. Web. 6 Sept. 2016.
- 2.Houseley, Laura and Ahtisaari, Marko editors (2014). Out of the Blue: the Essence and Ambition of Finnish Design, p. 113. Gestalten, Berlin. .
- 3."Aalto University: Kunniajäsenet Honorary Fellowships". Retrieved on 17 May 2014.
- 4."Kaj Franck Design Prize 2011: Interior architect, professor Simo Heikkilä". Retrieved on 17 May 2014.
- 5.Rawsthorn, Alice. "Blade Runners", The New York Times, New York, 6 September 2010. Retrieved on 17 May 2014.
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Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 16 August 2026.
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