The "Villa Mairea" is one of Alvar Aalto's very first experimental villas. As early as 1937, it synthesizes his architectural designs, his approach to the relationship between construction and its environment, his conception of exchanges between the interior and the exterior. It is also the first villa-Galerie d'Art, the sponsors, great patrons, were very much involved in the world of contemporary creation.
The Villa Mairea was commissioned by a couple of collectors, Maire Ahlström, daughter of the architect and architect of the Villa Mairea. of Antti Walter Ahlström, founder of the company of the same name, and Harry Gullichsen, her husband, who runs the company. Together they will create an avant-garde gallery, a showcase of a new modernity in Helsinki. which later became the company Artek, famous for its editions of Alvar's furniture.
Several projects and different approaches have been explored for the realization of this house: typically Finnish rustic huts, modernism from the Bauhaus, the curves and sinuous lines that define the "Aalto" (wave in Finnish) style.
But it is above all Franck Lloyd Wright and his "waterfall house" that will durably inspire the architect for this project. This house, which seems to have been built around a waterfall, according to this one prefigures the recurring leitmotiv of the work of the two architects: the harmony of the construction and its environment, the consideration of space which becomes a key element of the project.
Alvar Aalto (1898-1976) & Aino Aalto (1894-1949)
Models 330 (table) and 310 (chairs),
Villa Mairea or Sunflower Table and four garden chairs
Painted birch, enamel and brass Jalo-Set Ky Edition
Creation date: 1938-1939
Estimation : 6000 / 9000 euros.
You don't change the land, you don't raze a hill, you don't create a refined garden at the French, but we're playing with nature. The interior, too, is designed to be very open and modular, revolving around the collection of paintings that become a real art gallery at receptions or dinners. thanks to its sliding partitions. Alvar Aalto also designs interior and exterior furniture, which are fast and easy to install. reference in the world of Design.
Aino Aalto (1894-1949)
Villa Mairea
Pair of chaises longues White lacquered wood
Edition Huonekalu-ja Rakennustyotehdas / Artek
Creation date: circa 1938
Estimation : 4000 / 6000 euros
The "Villa Mairea" remains the founding work of the builder's private architecture, its that he will seek throughout his career to develop, improve, create beyond a dwelling, a true concept, based on a social utopia, a conception of the progress in the service of man and nature.
