Asko

Asko was one of Finland’s most important furniture manufacturers, founded in Lahti in 1918 by carpenter Aukusti Asko-Avonius. What began as a small workshop grew into a major industrial company with a nationwide retail network and, by the post-war period, the largest furniture manufacturer in the Nordic countries. By the 1960s, Asko had developed a substantial export business, particularly in Germany, and supplied furniture for homes as well as public and commercial interiors. Design became central to Asko’s identity from the 1930s onward. The company collaborated with leading Finnish designers including Ilmari Tapiovaara, Tapio Wirkkala, Ilmari Lappalainen, Eero Aarnio and Esko Pajamies, producing several iconic pieces of Finnish modern furniture, including Aarnio’s Ball Chair and Pastil chair and Pajamies’s Bonanza sofa group.