Biography
He is considered to be one of the most important Finnish designers and architects of modern times: Hugo Alvar Hendrik Aalto.
From 1916 to 1921, Alvar Aalto studied architecture at the Helsinki University of Technology. In 1923 he opened his own architectural office in Jyväskylä. There he hired the architect Aino Marsio (1894-1949). Alvar Aalto and Marsio married in 1924 and worked closely together ever since.
Aalto celebrated his breakthrough as a furniture designer with curved plywood chairs. Together with Otto Korhonen, the technical director of the furniture company Oy Huonekalu-ja Rakennustyötehdas, he investigated gluing techniques as well as new ways of shaping wood. Among Aalto's most significant inventions was the L-shaped chair- or table leg bent from laminated wood, which he called "the little sister of the column" (Lahti 2009, p. 29). The curved timbers made it easy to connect horizontal and vertical elements. When attaching the chair legs, frames or supports were no longer needed; they were attached directly to the bottom of the seat. This can be seen, among other designs, in the stackable three-legged stool '60'.
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