Mid-Century Modern Birch 112B Wall Shelf by Alvar Aalto for Artek, 1950s

Architect-designer Alvar Aalto was born in Kuortane, Finland in 1898. He enrolled at the Helsinki Institute of Technology in 1916 and, although his studies were disrupted by the Finnish Civil War, he graduated with a degree in architecture in 1921. In 1923, he established an architectural studio in Jyväskylä, Finland, marrying fellow architect Aino Mandelin the following year. In 1927, the office moved to Turku. Aalto’s aesthetic evolved from a neo-classical style to a functionalist one during the late 1920s and, in the 1930s, moved towards a less rigid Rationalism with an eye for nature’s organic models, ultimately embracing modernism in the 1950s.

Aalto was committed to the concept of a Gesamtkunstwerk (total work of art), emphasizing fluidity between his projects’ surrounding environments and their interiors. He experimented with plywood in designs such as the Paimio Chair (1931–32), while the Paimio Sanatorium (1932) was driven by the idea that the building itself could contribute to the healing process. In 1935, Aalto met factory owners Maire and Harry Gullischsen, with whom he launched Artek. The furniture company manufactured and sold Aalto’s designs in Finland and abroad, and thanks in part to his relationship with the Gullischsens, Aalto received important large-scale Finnish industry planning and building commissions.

In 1937, Aalto designed the Finnish Pavilion at the International Expo of Arts and Technology in Modern Life in Paris. Its success led to a solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York the following year. In 1939, he designed the Finnish Pavilion at the World’s Fair in New York. During the 1940s, he taught architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge; his time there culminated in his design of the Baker House Dormitory (1947–49). Working on the postwar reconstruction of Finland’s towns and cities, he advocated flexible standardization of large-scale industrialized building, wherein the building elements could be combined in multiple ways to satisfy various environments and users’ needs.

During the 1950s and 1960s, Aalto was highly productive; notable projects include the Kansaneläkelatos (National Pensions Insurance Institute) in Helsinki as well as commissions outside Finland, ranging from a lavish residence near Paris for art dealer Louis Carré (1956) to a church in the mountain town of Riola, Italy (built 1975–80). Following Aino’s passing in 1949, Aalto married architect Elissa Mäkiniemi in 1952.

Aalto passed away in 1976 in Helsinki.

Finnish architects Alvar (1898-1976) and Aino Aalto (1894-1949), married in 1925, were early proponents of modernism in Scandinavia. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, they began to develop designs, from buildings and interiors to furniture and objects, characterized by innovative, streamlined forms and state-of-the-art materials and processes. The Aaltos’ work—as expressed, for example, in the curvilinear, bent plywood Paimio Chair, created for their Paimio Tuberculosis Sanatoriam (1928-1933)—quickly came to be seen among the international design cognoscenti as a humanistic antidote to the “cold” steel-and-glass designs associated with German, Bauhausian modernism. Following a series of successful exhibitions abroad, especially at Milan’s influential Triennale expo in 1933, the Aaltos and their furniture were in high demand. In 1935, with the help of art critic and future CEO Nils-Gustav Hahl (1904-1941) and art patron Maire Gullichsen (1907-1990), the Aaltos launched Artek in Helsinki, not only to sell and market their furniture, but also “to promote a modern culture of living by exhibitions and other educational means.”

Until the 1950s, the Aaltos designed most of Artek’s products—most notably their Stool 60 (1933), Screen 100 (1936), Tea Trolley 901 (1936), and Stool Y61 (1947). In the years after the war, however, the brand began collaborating with impressive Finnish designers like Ilmari Tapiovaara, whose Mademoiselle Chairs (1956) are still a best-seller today; and Tapio Wirkkala, whose ’60s-era glass pendants were put back into production in recent years. Artek’s collaborations in the 21st-century have included major international designers like Konstantin Grcic, Hella Jongerius, and the Bouroullec Brothers. In 2007, the company commissioned Japanese architect Shigeru Ban to design a pavilion; titled The Space of Silence, the project travelled to multiple destinations around the globe.

Since 2013, Artek has been owned by the German brand Vitra, with offices in Helsinki, Berlin, Stockholm, Tokyo, and New York. Artek’s designs are included in institutional collections around the world, including New York’s Museum of Modern Art, Weil am Rhein’s Vitra Design Museum, and London Design Museum, as well as The Alvar Aalto Museum in Jyväskylä and Helsinki.

* All images courtesy of Artek