Alvar Aalto – Master Of Classic And Timeless Designs

Alvar Aalto – Master Of Classic And Timeless Designs

 

Alvar Aalto is one of the most celebrated Finnish architects and designer who specializes in designing furniture, glassware, textiles apart from begin a master of architecture. He was born as Hugo Alvar Henrik Aalto on the 3rd of February 1898 in Kuortane, Finland. He graduated from the architectural school in Helsinki in 1921 but his career did not take shape in Helsinki. So, he moved to a lesser known town in Finland called Jyvaskyla and established his architect’s office in this town. He started first by designing single family houses that had the classic touch to it. Apart from designing some manors and summer villas for his close friends, he also got the opportunity to design public buildings like Jyvaskyla Workers Club, the Jyvaskyla Defence Corps and the Seinajoki Defence Corp.   Alvar Aalto shifted from classic designing style to modernization is clearly evident in the Viipuri Library and it took him 8 years to complete the project due to financial problems. He hired Aino, a young woman to work for him to design furniture and glass. Later on he married this beautiful lady and they had two children. It was in the 1920’s to the early 1940’s that Aalto designed some of the well known landmarks like the Bell tower of Kauhajärvi Church, Paimio Sanatorium, Municipal Hospital in Alajarvi, Corso theatre, restaurant interior, Zürich, Villa Mairea, Noormarkku and so on.   Artek was the name of the company that Alvar Aalto, Nils-Gustav Hal and Maire Gullichsen started to design furniture.

There are a variety of table designs and lamps that have been designed by Alvar. Some of the classic Aalto furniture designed by Alvar included lounge chairs, tables, side chairs, desks, armchairs as well as children’s furniture. Alvar had the passion of designing furniture even before he had graduated. He was once assigned the job of designing furniture for six churches in Finland and along with designing the Paimio Sanatorium in 1929 he also designed the furniture as well as the lamps in this building. He designed a custom “Aalto table” for each structure he designed along with other furniture for the building. Aalto tables are quite popular even now.   Alvar Aalto was known as the "Father of Modernism" in the Nordic countries. He described his style being “Organic Functionalism” and his furniture designs are still inspiring a lot of furniture makers these days.

The bending of the wood and the degree of the bending is what makes the furniture designed by Alvar Aalto one of the renowned furniture designers of his times. Even though Paimio chair and Cantilevered armchairs designed by Alvar Alto was used for specific purposes, the timeless pieces have stood against the time and are now some of the most popular furniture designs of contemporary furniture that you would see today. The Paimio Chair in particular was designed by taking cues from the cured contours of the lakes in Finland. Most of the furniture designed by Aalto was designed to support a specific need and functionality to the user. So, the chairs are not just a wonderful piece of architecture to look at, but they will also provide a world of comfort for its users. Alvar Aalto Beehive lamp and Alvar Aalto Bell pendant lamp are now instock.