The chair looks like a flat panel sitting on a serpent finished with a mysterious, luminous glint. The surface, inspired by the Apollo landing, is a scaled representation of the moon. The vision for this ethereal object was first formed in the small town of Kolho, Finland, and then cast onto four colors of Formica.

The Kolho chair made an appearance at Milan Design Week this year. It can be considered both a considerate collaboration and a series of coincidences between artist Matthew Day Jackson, Finnish contemporary design company Made by Choice, and the inventors of high-pressure laminate, Formica Group.
Milan Design Week installation
The chair, Kolho, is a product of serendipity. For starters, it takes the name of the Finnish town near the Serlachius Museum where Matthew was preparing for an upcoming exhibition. As Matthew later learnt, Kolho was also the birthplace of James Vehko, who emigrated to the United States and was the designer for the first Ford Motor Company all-metal automobile body. Vehko?s son, also a Kolho native, was head of Chrysler?s Space division. Kolho is also the headquarters of Formica Group?s manufacturing plant: this is the same company responsible for Formica® laminate, which has featured heavily in Matthew?s work for two decades. When in Kolho, Matthew toured the nearby Formica factory and met Niclas, Sebastian and Lasse of Made by Choice, which led to him cold-calling Phil Wise of Formica. He then met Eva and Virginie of Formica. All of the...