Table Centrepiece AALTO steel dish IITTALA

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Alvar AALTO

Born in Kuortane in 1898, Hugo Alvar Henrik Aalto is Finland's most famous architect, town planner and designer, and one of the pioneers of organic design. After studying architecture at the Technical University of Helsinki, he organised exhibitions and travelled around Europe, from Italy to Scandinavia. In 1923, he opened his own architectural practice in Jyväskylä and married Aino Marsio, who soon became his closest collaborator. In 1935, the Aalto couple founded the Artek company. Plywood and glass are his materials of choice for a design that is both functional and seductive, with organic forms. A prolific and innovative designer, his creations are recognised the world over, from the Tea Trolley to the Pendant Lamp luminaires, not forgetting the chairs with their L-shaped legs, which allow the foot to be attached directly to the tabletop and which he called "the little column". Alvar Aalto drew inspiration from nature and abstraction to create his designs, using innovative techniques and natural materials. These products had to satisfy his demand for quality and durability, so that they would symbolise "the modern culture of the home". His studies enabled him to create buildings for which he designed the furniture himself. In 1952, he remarried the architect Elissa Mäkiniemi, with whom he worked until her death in 1976.