Alvar, full name Hugo Alvar Henrik Aalto, designed buildings, furniture textile and glass, he also created paintings and sculptures. Despite his wide range of interests, he would not call himself an artist. Also, Alvar Aalto is considered as the invetor of bentwood plywood furniture, in this field he was heavily influenced by Gebrüder Thonet one of the founders of the eponymous factory of hand-bent furniture, aslo known as TON. Aalto’s life’s work lies in several directions and styles. Furniture designed by him found its home in the museum in his hometown of Jyväskylä, Finland. This building was even designed by Aalto himself.
Thanks to his resounding name, his philosophy and style become known beyond the borders of Finland as well. Although creating in Finland, his work, mainly architecture, is classified in Scandinavian modernism. But we must not exclude the furniture. Because of his well thought through designs, the demand is still high even till this day. Alvar’s designs are also labeled as monumentalism or functionalism. In the middle of his career, he became experimenting little more.
Together wit his first wife Aino, they designed most of the furniture and lightning for the well known Paimio sanatorium. Especially the Paimio chairs became very famous, they are a part of the permanent exhibition of the MoMA.
Very iconic piece, that is for example used in Apple stores, are the Stools 60, which are in a variant of a bar stool and chair also. Alvar was the first to use canteliever principle in the manufacture of wooden chairs. A recognizable piece is also the pendat Hand Grenade A110 made of white painted steel.
On DesignVille, you also find products from Alvar Aalto Collection created together with his wife Aino for Iittala. The Stools 60 from Aalto’s brand Artek can be also find on DesignVille.
