Alvar Aalto was a Finnish architect, designer, sculptor and painter. He was considered one of the most influential architects of Nordic modernism and Finnish design in particular. 
Alvar Aalto: a biography
 Alvar Aalto was born on 3 February, 1898, in Kuortane, Finland. In 1921, he completed his architectural studies at the Technical University of Helsinki. By September of 1923, he had opened his first architectural office in Jyväskylä. It was only with the completion of his sanatorium in Paimio in 1932 that Aalto became internationally recognised. Later, buildings such as his library in Vyborg (1927–1935), his student residence in Cambridge, Massachusetts (1947–1949), the main building of the Helsinki University of Technology (1953), the Maison Carrée in Paris (1956–1958), the Cultural Centre in Wolfsburg (1958–1962) and the Essen Opera (1989) continued to build Aalto’s reputation for thoughtful modernist architectural designs.
 In 1935, Aalto and his wife Aino Aalto Marsio founded the furniture company Artek in Helsinki, together with Aalto’s patron, the industrialist's wife Mairea Gullichsen.From 1936, Aalto designed glassware for the company, including the now-iconic Aalto Vase. The Finnish manufacturer Iittala continues to produce the Aalto Vase to this day, while Artek continues to manufacture the Artek Stool and other Artek furniture. In the 1950s and 1960s, Aalto received numerous honours and awards for his achievements, including the Royal Gold Medal for Architecture, presented to him in 1957 by Queen Elizabeth II.
 The Savoy Vase by Alvar Aalto
 In 1936, Aalto created the Aalto Vase, together with the Finnish glass manufacturer Iittala. The Aalto vase became one of the most famous products of Finnish design. It was first designed for the luxurious Savoy Restaurant in Helsinki, from which it takes its other name, the Savoy Vase. With its asymmetrical shape and free-flowing curves, the design symbolises originality, straightforwardness and the high aesthetic standards that were innate to Finnish design. The vase is created from supple, wavy lines, which represent the Finnish landscape with its many lakes and forests. Aalto’s design for the vase was inspired by nature, much like his many architectural designs. The Aalto Vase was presented at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1937; and its simplicity has remained extremely popular, well into the 21st century. Smaller versions of the design are still produced in the Iittala glass factory in Finland. Recently, the vase has attained an iconic status.
 Alvar Aalto's Paimio Chair
 For his sanatorium project in Paimio, Alvar Aalto designed numerous pieces of furniture and lamps. The Paimio Chair was one of the Aalto furniture pieces designed for the interior of the building. Aalto worked with wood laminate to produce a warm, pliable material suitable for making furniture for patients who had to sit several hours at a time every day. The first drafts of the design for the Paimio Chair, or Paimio Armchair as it is sometimes called, were presented in 1929 in the city of Turku. Today, the Paimio Chair can be found in numerous museums, including in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. © by Architonic

Profile The Finnish designer Eero Aarnio (b.1932) is one of the great innovators of modern furniture design. In the 1960s, Eero Aarnio began experimenting with plastics, vivid colors and organic forms, breaking away from traditional design conventions. His now iconic plastic creations include the Ball (1963), the Pastil (1968), and the Bubble (1968) chairs which echo the pop culture and spirit of their time. Many of Aarnio’s works are included in the world’s most prestigious museums, including Victoria and Albert Museum in London, MoMA in New York and Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein. Biography Born 21.7.1932 in Helsinki, Finland School of Applied Arts, Helsinki 1954-57 Married Pirkko Attila 1956 Children Marja-Leena 1959 and Rea 1961 Designer, Asko Oy 1960-62 in Lahti, Finland Own design office 1962 Helsinki, Finland Eero Aarnio Design Studio GmbH 1978-82 in Cologne, Germany Design Studio in Tapiola, Finland 1982 Eero Aarnio T:mi, Veikkola, Finland 1992 Aarnio Design Ltd., Veikkola, Finland 2001 Awards Valmet Trade Mark Competition, Helsinki, Finland 1958, First Prize International Furniture Competition, Cantu, Italy 1959, Third Prize Export Furniture Competition, Helsinki, Finland 1963, Third Prize International Competition on Furniture Design, Cantu, Italy 1964, First Prize Scandinavian Park and Street Competition 1965, Stockholm, Sweden, First Prize Steel Furniture Competition, Helsinki, Finland 1967, Second Prize International Design Award of the A.I.D. (American Institute of Interior Designers) for Pastil Chair (Gyro) 1968, New York, USA Honorary member of SIO (Finnish Association of Interior Designers) 1999 The Finland Prize 2005, The Ministry of Education, Finland Interior Innovation Award Cologne 2006, Germany The ADI Compasso d’Oro Award 2008, for Trioli chair, Italy Kaj Franck Design Prize of 2008, Finland Red Dot Design Award 2010, for Kubo bright light, Germany Pro Finlandia Medal 2010, Finland Green GOOD DESIGN 2010, for The Tree, USA Red Dot Design Award 2012, for Ghost lamp, Germany Solo Exhibitions That´s it, Art Gallery Árvore, Porto, Portugal 2001 Eero Aarnio, Kunsthalle, Helsinki, Finland 2003 Eero Aarnio – popfantasier og sittende dagdrømmer, Kunstindustrimuseet, Oslo, Norway 2004 Forestil dig en rund stol, Danish Design Center, Kopenhagen, Denmark 2005 Pop Fantasies: Furniture Design by Eero Aarnio, The Embassy of Finland, Washington DC, USA 2005 Fantasías del Pop. El diseño de Eero Aarnio, Museo Franz Mayer, Mexico City 2007 Eero Aarnio – Retropop, Phantasie und Tagträume, The Embassy of Finland, Berlin, Germany 2007 The Kaj Franck Design Prize of 2008 – Eero Aarnio, Design Forum Finland, Helsinki 2008 Kaj Frank Design Prize Exhibition at the exhibition center of the visual arts TR1, Tampere 2009 Eero Aarnio Life in Design, AXIS Gallery, Tokyo and Design Museum de sign de, Osaka, Japan 2014 Eero Aarnio, Design Museum, Helsinki, Finland 2016 Group Exhibitions Rattan Stools, Asko Oy, Helsinki 1961 7+7 Arkitekter, Stockholm, Sweden 1964 Triennale XIV, Milan, Italy 1964 Eurodomus, Genova, Italy 1966 and Milan, Italy 1970 Fiberglass Furniture, Asko Oy, Helsinki 1968 Plastic as Plastic, New York, USA 1970 Design aus Finnland, Asko GmbH, Cologne, Germany 1979 Masters of Modern Design, IBM Gallery, New York, USA 1991 Plastic Fantastic, Trapholt Museum of Modern Art, Denmark 2005 Pop Art Design, EMMA (Espoo Museum of Modern Art), Finland 2015 Golden Generations. Modernism in Finnish Architecture and Design, State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia 2015 Represented in Museums Museum of Modern Art, MoMA, New York, USA Victoria and Albert Museum, London, Great Britain Design Museum, Helsinki, Finland Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein, Germany Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France Musée des arts décoratifs de Montreal, Canada Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands Die Neue Sammlung, München, Germany Galerie für Avantgarde Kunst, Cologne, Germany Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst, Leipzig, Germany Kunsthal Rotterdam, Netherlands Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf im Ehrenhof, Germany Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg, Germany Brooklyn Museum, New York, USA Liliane and David M. Stewart Collection, Le Musée du Chateau Dufresne, Montreal, Canada Los Angeles County Museum of Art, USA Toledo Museum of Art, USA Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, USA Baltimore Museum of Art, USA Bauhaus Museum, Sydney, Australia San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMoMa), San Francisco, USA Veletrzni Palace (Prague Museum of Modern Art), Prague, Czech Republic Books of Eero Aarnio That´s it. Vestígio, Consultores de Design, Portugal 2001 Eero Aarnio. Fang Hai. China Architecture & Building Press 2002 Assume a round chair–Eero Aarnio and the 60´s. Kunsthalle Helsinki, University of Art and Design, Helsinki 2003 Eero Aarnio. Fang Hai. Southeast University Press, China 2003 Eero Aarnio, Kaj Frank Design Prize. Design Forum Finland 2008 I Protagonisti del Design/Eero Aarnio. Hachette, Italy 2011 A = 4 π r2 Eero Aarnio. Design Forum, Finland 2014 Eero Aarnio-Värin ja ilon muotoilija. (Eero Aarnio-Designer of Colour and Joy). WSOY, Finland 2016.