Modern Master: Alvar Aalto ~ archiemcm: Mid-Century Modern Architecture

Alvar Aalto is thought of “the father of modernism” within his native country, and is more widely considered as one of the great architects of the 20^th century. He created a distinctly Finnish brand of modernism, designing furniture from 1930s and continued to remain popular on both sides of the Atlantic as well as the atomic era. During his heyday, Finnair would delay flights until he had boarded. Not one for excessive modesty, it has been said that Aalto would order his driver to tour around the airport to delay his flights. When you qualify for currency portraiture, you have apparently earned the right to be fashionably late.

It was not always like that for Aalto. Born and raised in central Finland, he grew up in a solidly middle-class home. His father was a land surveyor and his mother ran a post office but she died when Aalto was a child. After graduating from high school, Aalto moved to the city to pursue his education, graduating from the Helsinki University of Technology with a degree in Architecture in 1921. After a short stint in Sweden, he returned to his hometown and he met and married another young architect named Aino Marsio. The couple opened their own architectural practice and worked together until Aino’s untimely death in 1949.

The young Aalto was in the right place and time. Finland had declared independence from Russia only a few years before he graduated from college. The decades that followed presented many opportunities for bright, young architects to take on commissions that would help the country build its national identity. During the 1920s, Aalto took advantage and participated in a number of architectural competitions. These contests led to prominent commissions in Finland and later in America.

The Aaltos moved to Turku, on the coast of south Finland, where they maintained close ties to the new international style of architecture practiced by Bauhaus and Le Corbusier. Among Aalto’s early modernist projects was the Paimio Sanatorium for tuberculosis patients. He wanted to design a building that would help patients recover from their illness. His innovation was a cheery building with features conducive to recovery and health. These included sinks designed for silent and splash-less usage, and the birch Paimio armchair, which he hoped would help patients to breathe more easily during the hours of rest. It was made using the wood bending techniques that Aalto invented and even patented.

In addition to commercial buildings, he also designed influential residences. His most famous house, the Villa Mairea, was done for industrialists Harry and Maire Gullichsen, who were friends and supporters. Among its furnishings was the Tea Trolley 900, which Aalto had first exhibited at the 1937 Paris World’s Fair. With a practical tile top, wicker basket and oversized wheels, it used Aalto’s characteristic bentwood technology to achieve a modernist take on modern design. The same might be said of the Armchair 400, which reinvented the upholstered lounge chair by cantilevering the seat and back on two bent birch wood arms.

Aalto’s image may have passed from usage in European currency, but his furniture and decorative accessories have left a lasting legacy and are more popular than ever. The company he founded to manufacture his furniture, Artek, still faithfully handcrafts Aalto’s designs, and his glassware is widely available through Iittala.