Before becoming a leading figure in Finnish design and architecture, Alvar Aalto - whose real name is Hugo Alvar Henrik - began his training at the Helsinki Technical University. After graduating five years later, he founded his own firm in 1923 in Jyväskylä, the city where she was born. The following year, he met Aino Mandelin, who became his wife and with whom he worked closely.
Even if during the first years of his career Alvar Aalto multiplied the number of design pieces, it was above all as an architect that he made himself known to the general public.
In 1933, he completed his first major work, the Sanatorium of Paimio. He will furnish the entire interior with furniture of his own design. Embodying in the eyes of Finnish and then international critics the essence of the functionalist, the building retains traces of the influence that Le Corbusier may have had on the young architect. As an indication of his position on the eve of the outbreak of the Second World War, he was entrusted with the construction of the Finnish pavilion at the Universal Exhibition in Paris in 1937.
Alvar Aalto (1898-1976)
Bibliothèque basse
Result : 9750 €
Contrary to a rationalism that he sometimes considers too rigid, the architecture he proposes is a more humanistic vision and closer to nature. He played a decisive role in the country's urbanization in the context of post-war reconstruction. Through examples of furniture, lighting and historical glassware, his research restores a thought and a work that places man and his perceptions at the heart of the creative process.
Alvar Aalto (1898-1976)
Banc d'église
Result : 5850 €
Among the wide variety of pieces regularly offered for sale by PIASA, the Birch Bass Library was built around 1935. It reflects the designer's proximity to this light wood, characteristic of Scandinavian production, which can be also found in the Church Bench.
But Alvar Aalto is also known for its large production of lighting fixtures (wall lights, hanging fixtures, lamps, etc.). Made of brass, leather and lacquered metal, the pair of "Model A 805" street lamps were published around 1970 by Valaisinpaja. It is easy to see the attention that the architect paid during his career to the geometry of forms in space.
Alvar Aalto (1898-1976)
Modèle A 805
Result : 9750 €
In 2018, Jochen Eisenbrand and Eeva-Liisa Pelkonen organized an ambitious exhibition at the Cité de l'Architecture in Paris, which allowed the public to appreciate Alvar Aalto's virtuosity.
