Born in Kuortane in the Finnish province of South Ostrobothnia in 1898, Alvar Aalto studied architecture in Helsinki between 1916 and 1921. The close proximity to nature engendered in his native Finland - even in the city of Helsinki one encounters large areas of forest - would become one of the most important influences on Aalto's work and makes Aalto's work particularly interesting in a contemporary context. Because Alvar Aalto and his wife Aino Aalto wanted to find a formal expression for the unity of man with his environment. This endeavour resulted in the curved lines, organic shapes and focus on natural materials and colours that are so typical of Aalto's buildings and designs. A closeness to nature, regionality and warmth that became characteristics of a Scandinavian functionalism shaped by Aalto, also in contrast to the rather cool, industrial charm of the German functionalism informed by the Bauhaus.
Designer Alvar Aalto
The Golden Bell in the Savoy Restaurant, Helsinki
Today Alvar Aalto is considered to be the pioneer of Scandinavian modernism. It is difficult to understand why his wife Aino Aalto, who was an equal partner in Alvar Aalto's architectural office from 1923 before her marriage, is not mentioned in the same way.
Born in 1894 Aino Maria Marsi, studied architecture in Helsinki and met Alvar Aalto when, at her invitation, he gave a lecture to a group of architecture students she had set up. When Alvar Aalto founded his own office in 1923, Aino became an equal employee and the two married a year later.
Aino Aalto was involved in many architecture and design projects until her untimely death 1949. Project including, for example, the famous Villa Mairea in Noormarkku, the Paimio Sanatorium and the Savoy Restaurant in Helsinki. Exactly what part she played in many of the works currently ascribed to Alvar Aalto can no longer be determined. In addition to the fact that architecture was an absolute male domain at the time, Aino Aalto probably also had personal reasons that made her take on the role behind the scenes, as managing director of Artek and host for the intellectual elite of Finland in her own house. The friend and architect Siegfried Gideon, at whose invitation the Aaltos took part in the congresses of the CIAM (Congrès Internationaux d'Architecture Moderne), once said of the Aaltos, "This marriage was unusual, but its real secret was probably a deep balance of human opposites. Aalto is restless, exuberant, unpredictable; Aino was intense, persistent and quiet."
Opposites attract: Aino and Alvar Aalto
The Aalto atelier
In 1929 the Aalto's design won the competition for a sanatorium in Paimio, which was completed in 1933. The building, originally designed as a tuberculosis hospital, was intended to help Alvar Aalto achieve his international breakthrough as an architect and can be described as the cornerstone of the organic construction that shaped his work. Thanks to the east-facing hospital rooms and large window fronts, the tuberculosis patients, who at that time were mainly prescribed rest, fresh air and sunlight, were able to wake up to the sun and were housed in the immediate vicinity of the pine forests surrounding the hospital.
Not only the building, but also the interior, furniture, lamps and fittings, all of which were designed by the Aaltos, were perfectly tailored to the needs of the patients. For example, the wave-shaped design of the Paimio armchair, which is made from one piece of birch veneer was designed specifically to enable a posture that is gentle on the lungs.
Some of these first major furniture designs, created at the time by Alvar Aalto and Aino Aalto for the hospital, are still produced by Artek today.
The terrace of the tuberculosis sanatorium in Paimio, which marks Aalto's breakthrough as an international architect
Aalto's legendary Paimio armchair, formed so as to enable tuberculosis patients to adopt a posture that is gentle on the lungs
Artek has been producing Aalto furniture since 1935
The furniture manufacturer Artek was founded in Helsinki in 1935 by the Aaltos together with the art collector and patron Maire Gullichsen and the art historian Nils Gustav Hahl. With the intention of creating innovative furniture and lighting designs for everyday life based on Alvar Aalto's conception of design, Artek developed into one of the most important protagonists in the field of modern design. Aino Aalto played a special role as managing director and artistic director: she shaped the special Artek aesthetic by combining clear, modern forms with simple ornamentation. To this day, Artek is internationally successful and, in addition to established design classics by the likes of Alvar Aalto or Ilmari Tapiovaara, also produces works by contemporary contemporary designs. Of particular relevance are Alvar Aalto lighting designs and the so-called L-leg furniture collection.
The Artek Stool from Aalto's L-leg collection...
... and the complimenting 81B table
The L-leg collection in particular shows how innovative and refined Alvar Aalto was as a designer and how he created objects that still impress today with their seemingly timeless aesthetics.
The L-leg collection comprises a series of around 50 furniture designs made of plywood, all of which are based on an invention by Alvar Aalto, the so-called L-leg, an L-shaped bent solid wood leg. As a pioneer of technology Alvar Aalto had already experimented with bending wood in the late 1920s and finally developed the L-shaped leg in collaboration with the master carpenter and furniture maker Otto Korhonen. As a standardized, individual component, this L-leg could be easily and stably connected to table tops or seats and thus enabled the versatile and coherent furniture collection, which impresses with its combination of warmth and elegance due to the rounded corners and the material. Designs like the Stool Stool 60 or the table 81B 82B/82 have gone down in history as prime examples of modern design.
The A110 lamp from Artek brings original charm
The Aaltos developed many of the Artek lighting designs themselves for their architectural projects. As lighting designs they are always based on the specific spatial conditions and exactly analysis of how the light scattering relates to the respective room. For the Paimio Sanatorium in particular a wide variety of lighting designs were created, from ceiling lamps to bedside lamps, but beyond that, they proved to be less commercially successful. The breakthrough came in 1937 with the Golden Bell pendant lamp for the Savoy Restaurant in Helsinki. Further lamp designs followed until the 1950s, such as the A110 pendant lamp in 1952, which is also known as the hand grenade due to its shape. Artek lights impress with their pleasantly scattered, diffuse and glare-free light, and as objects whose unmistakable dynamic design language appears simple, but never boring. Artek lights bequeath a wide variety of rooms an elegant, witty touch.
Timeless visual delight and a small masterpiece by Aalto, the Golden Bell lamp
Aalto's sculptural A201 pendant light never goes out of style
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