"We should work for simple, good, undecorated things...things which are in harmony with the human being and organically suited to the little man in the street." Alvar Aalto, speech in London, 1957.
Hugo Alvar Henrik Aalto was a Finnish architect and designer. The span of his career, from the 1920s to the 1970s, is reflected in the styles of his work, which ranges from Nordic Classicism of the early work to rational International Style Modernism during the 1930s to a more organic modernist style from the 1940s onwards.
What is typical for his entire career, however, is a concern for design as a Gesamtkunstwerk, a total work of art; whereby he – together with his first wife Aino Aalto – would design not just the building, but all within it, including the furniture, lighting, furnishings, and glassware. His furniture designs are considered Scandinavian Modern, in the sense of a concern for materials, especially wood, and simplification but also technical experimentation, which led to him receiving patents for various manufacturing processes, such as bentwood.
When one thinks of Alvar Aalto, birch plywood furniture is often the first image that springs to mind. As one of the most important designers of the twentieth century, Aalto’s invention of bent plywood furniture influenced makers internationally and helped to shape the mid-century modern aesthetic that remains highly coveted today. Considered as one of the key figures in establishing the Golden Age of Scandinavian design in the mid-twentieth century, Aalto’s aesthetic vision and innovative use of materials brought birch plywood to the forefront of modern design. Born in Kuortane, Finland, in 1898, Aalto was exposed to the arts at an early age and took drawing lessons from the Finnish artist Jonas Heiska. At the age of 18, he enrolled at the Helsinki University of Technology to study architecture and built his first piece: a house for his parents.
A prominent architect, Aalto received important early commissions to design the Vyborg Library in 1927 and the Paimio Sanatorium in 1929. As a key follower of the concept of Gesamtkunstwerk, where architecture, design, and art merge into one, these commissions involved his experimentations and technical innovations with the bending of wood as he designed the furniture too. Aalto’s work reflects an elegant sensibility that does not reject aesthetics while favouring functionality. His simplified, organic pieces show a passion for materials in their minimalism and a concern for his consumer in the natural forms that are suitable for mass production and comfortable functionality.
In 1929, Aalto won a commission to design a new tuberculosis sanatorium in Paimio, Southwest Finland. The building was completed in 1933, and soon after received international critical acclaim. It is now considered to be one of the most impressive buildings of the 20th century and has been nominated to become a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Aalto and his wife Aino designed the sanatorium's furniture and interiors, including the instantly recognisable Model 51 armchair.
His legacy endures today both due to the extensive list of significant buildings he designed as well as his innovative pieces of furniture and objects that furnished them. His work remains highly coveted in luxury interiors internationally and is held in numerous important public institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, and indeed in the four locations of the Alvar Aalto Museum across Finland.
