Alvar Aalto: The Father Of Modernism
Alvar Aalto was born in 1898 in Kuortane, Finland. He died in Helsinki in 1976. He was a famous architect and furniture designer. Aalto studied architecture in Helsinki and graduated in 1921. His career did not start well in the Finnish capital and he moved to a small town to found an office there.
His wife, Aino, was originally hired as his assistant. She was a young woman who designed glass and furniture. Later, they had two children. In the 1920's and 1930's, Alvar Aalto designed several well know landmarks in Finland. In the late 1940's, he taught at MIT. Some of his most well known furniture includes a variety of table designs and lamps.
Alvar Aalto, Aino Aalto, Maire Gullichsen and Nils-Gustav Hahl founded a company named Artek to design furniture. Alvar Aalto designed several classic Aalto furniture including tables, desks, side chairs, lounge chairs, stools, armchairs and children's furniture. Alvar Aalto designed his first lamps as a student in the university of technology in Helsinki where he won a lighting competition in 1920. The name Aalto is still highly regarded in the world of lighting and lamps as he designed several classic lamp models that are considered as modern today as when he designed them.
Before he even graduated, Alvar Aalto began designing his first furniture. Once in his new architecture office, he received a huge order to design furniture for six churches in Finland. He designed the well known Paimio Sanatorium in 1929. He also designed each piece of furniture in the structure, as well as the lamps. For each structure he designed, he also designed custom "Aalto tables (Aalto bord)" and other furniture for it.
At this time he started to patent his methods for bending wood and he was awarded several patents in many countries for this new form of laminated bent-plywood furniture. The Alvar Aalto 901 tea cart is famous for this bent wood construction along with various chairs and Aalto tables. Together with other famous designers such as Bruno Mathsson and Yngve Ekstrom, Aalto became renowned for this style of furniture design which contributed greatly to the concept of "Scandinavian Modern" design.
Alvar Aalto revolutionized the worlds of furniture design and architecture with the style he called "Organic Functionalism". He is known today as the Father of Modernism, and the Alvar Aalto Medal (created by the Museum of Finnish Architecture and the Finnish Association of Architects) is awarded today to those who are deemed to have made important and creative contributions to the field of architecture. He and his wife are remembered jointly for their glassware designs, perhaps the most famous of which today is the Aalto Vase (Aalto vas).
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Alvar Aalto's stamp on the world was not limited to furniture (möbler) design; he is remembered as much for his lamp models that have endured for over 80 years as for his classic tables, chairs, and children's furniture. Before he even graduated, Alvar Aalto began designing his first furniture. Once in his new architecture office, he received a huge order to design furniture for six churches in Finland. He also designed each piece of furniture in the structure, as well as an aalto lamp. For each structure he designed, he also designed custom tables and other furniture for the interior design (inredning).
Published November 19th, 2007
