Timo Riekko//Alvar Aalto Foundation Alvar and Aino Aalto as Furniture Designers

Alvar and Aino Aalto worked as an architecture and designer couple from
1924 until Aino died in 1949. Although they are more known through Alvar Aalto ́s architecture they designed (both individually and together) a lot of furniture already in early 1920 ́s. But their design and manufacturing process of furniture really got started when they met Otto Korhonen, a master carpenter with his own furniture company, in late 1920 ́s. Together they started experimenting with bent wood furniture which developed into iconic Aalto furniture such as the Paimio chair or the Stool 60. All Aalto furniture are still made today in this same factory. In
1935 Artek was formed as the retailing and distribution company for the Aalto furniture. This was needed to coordinate the sales to outside of Finland, especially Great Britain.

Alvar Aalto Foundation maintains the material and intellectual legacy of the Aaltos, and acts to make his work and thinking more widely known. The Alvar Aalto Museum, founded

in 1966, is part of the Alvar Aalto Foundation and has and extensive collections of furniture, photographs and architecture and design drawings. A part of the museums collections is the Artek collection which includes design and interior drawings, patent documents and other historical material about the company.

The presentation will give a brief introduction to different eras of the Aaltos furniture design starting from the classical tradition period
in early 1920s. It will also cover the period of collaboration with Otto Korhonen and the founding of Artek. The main focus will be

in explaining the manufacturing process of some Aalto furniture such as Stool 60 and providing some example material from the furniture and design drawing collections of the Alvar Aalto Museum.

Introduce: Sofia Nannini, Università di Bologna

Talk: Timo Riekko, Chief curator – Alvar Aalto Foundation

Timo Riekko has worked in the Alvar Aalto Museum in various positions since 2003 and works now as the Chief Curator responsible of all collections. In addition to taking care of the collections he participates in providing contents to exhibitions and he coordinates the international collection loans and collaborations with other museums.

Info: sofia.nannini2@unibo.it