Hugo Alvar Henrik Aalto

The movie about the guy who had all these people design furniture for him, his name escapes me right now, made me curious to look up some other furniture designers. I found this man interesting although he was known for his buildings more than his furniture. Hugo Alvar Henrik Aalto, who is sometimes known as the father or Nordic modernism, was an architect and designer that was born in Finland. He was an architecture student at the Helsinki Polytechnic Institute and graduated from there in 1921. His major debut as an architect came when he designed the Municipal Library at Viipuri, Russia. This building showcased his ideals in the humanitarian approach to architecture with involved using a lot of natural materials that were displayed inside the building as well as a large use of warm colors. In 1932 he created his very first chair which was made of a combination of metal and wood. Shortly after this he started producing furniture that was made up entirely of wood. Aalto’s designs were very well done and also they were very easy to mass produce which is always something companies are looking for. Aalto also designed Finland’s pavilion at the 1939 World’s Fair. This brought him a lot of new attention from people outside of Finland and Frank Lloyd Wright even called it “A work of genius.” It doesn’t surprise me that Frank Lloyd Wright would love Aalto’s work as he always incorporated the landscape into his designs for buildings which Wright did himself at times. In an effort to enhance his buildings, Aalto often designed even the furniture that went inside his buildings to give a better feel to the building and a better flow to the space. He was always very concerned with how well each component worked with each other as well as how it worked as its individual function.