Lygija Stapulionienė

Architect, interior designer

Elina Amann, last edited on 11.10.2022

Name:

Lygija (Marija) Kislauskaitė-Stapulionienė

Life Dates:

1928 – 2000

Country:

Employers:

Office for Experimental Design of the Ministry of Furniture and Wood Processing Industry of the Lithuanian SSR (1958 – 1990)

Field of expertise:

Architectural design, interior design

Education:

Awards:

Promotion prize for “The chaise lounge” at a Moscow Union furniture exhibition (1959)

Short Biography

Lygija Stapulionienė was born in 1928 and studied engineering and architecture at Kaunas Polytechnic Institute (now known as Vilnius Gediminas Technical University). She graduated in 1954, and from 1958 began a career that made her one of the most famous Lithuanian architects and furniture designers. She worked her way up to the position of team leader in the Office for Experimental Furniture Design and Construction of the Ministry of Furniture and Wood Processing Industry in Vilnius.

She participated in competitions and exhibitions with other furniture designers from the Furniture Design Department. First in the Lithuanian SSR and later in other parts of the Soviet Union. Her work also reached exhibitions in Germany, Poland and Yugoslavia. Her furniture designs were famous for the creativity and sense of functionality and adaptability. Her designs were mass-produced, but she was also arranged for special production.

She participated in projects of Soviet specialists for the development of the African country of Guinea. For the reconstruction of the Camayenne Hotel, she travelled to the capital Conakry to measure the rooms for the adaptation of the furniture made by her colleague Vytautas Beiga.

Work

The most famous piece of furniture is the lounge chair from one of her first designed furniture sets from 1959. The collection includes, among other things, open and high bookcases, a triangular table and a sofa bed with similarly shaped armrests as the famous chair. It represented the national style of furniture from Lithuania. At the same time, Stapulionienė focused only on the purpose of the seating furniture and achieved harmonious aesthetics with simple means. It was called “The chaise lounge” or “transformable lounge chair” because it has an adjustable reclining position. The design symbolises comfort and relaxation, which has been strived for since the post-war times. With this idea, she received an award for her first pieces of furniture at a Union furniture exhibition in Moscow in the same year.

When searching for Stapulionienė’s work, one finds it in many famous public buildings in Lithuania. She designed furniture together with her colleague Liucija Zaveckienė for the Lithuanian National Library Martynas Mažvydas in 1962. The Lithuanian furniture designer also designed other university interiors until 1979, including the Vilnius University Rector’s Office, the Great Auditorium, and the Sports Palace Hall. Six years later, she and Zaveckienė were commissioned to design the furniture for the bar of the Lithuanian Opera and Ballet Theatre. In 1988, she designed furniture for the hall of the Congress Palace.

Illustration credits

Main image:

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