Artek Anniversary Visit
Towards the end of last year, Catherine – a manager in our Trade department – visited Finland as a guest of Artek in its 90th anniversary year with a group of architects and design media. Over three days, the trip encompassed Artek’s flagship store and its pioneering ‘2nd Cycle’ warehouse in Helsinki, the Artek a-factory in Turku where Aalto designs have been manufactured since the 1920s, the Paimio Sanitorium and other projects from Alvar and Aino Aalto’s long career.
Located in the centre of Helsinki in a building designed by Eliel Saarinen (Eero Saarinen’s father), the Artek Store is a multi-brand showroom. They show a carefully curated selection of international brands alongside Finnish craft products. Attached is an academic bookstore in a space designed by Aino and Alvar Aalto, creating a silent and studious but warm and welcoming atmosphere. In the basement is a vast 500 sqm space housing the 2nd Cycle warehouse. Started in 2006 and first exhibited in Milan 2007, it has grown to be an extensive collection of Finnish designed products, art, lighting, furniture and accessories. Items are being bought and sold almost daily across the world. As Artek’s second-hand and archival arm, it quietly demonstrates a cornerstone of the brand’s approach: that good design should not only last but grow more meaningful with time. 60 stools number in their hundreds here, varying in price from €300 to €3,500 alongside limited editions, vases, art works and original chairs from spaces designed by the Aaltos.
An early start on day two in the pouring rain for a drive west to Finland’s old capital city, Turku and Artek’s a-factory. Photos were not allowed and the team kept most manufacturing details close to their chest – understandable considering Artek designs are widely copied across the globe. A core component, indeed a defining element, is the L-leg. An intricate patented technique pioneered by Alvar Aalto in the 1930s: a series of parallel cuts filled with birch veneer allow a plank to be bent at right-angles – this is then used for the 60 Stool, 69 Chair, 153 bench and the Aalto tables. It is a labour-intensive process, still carried out mainly by hand.
There was a competition in 1929 to design a sanatorium for patients with Tuberculosis. It was sheer luck that Alvar and Aino Aalto managed to submit a proposal because the competition had shut; for unknown reasons it was re-opened and it was only then that they managed to get their design submitted. The resulting Paimio Sanitorium was the highlight of the trip for Catherine.
The bedroom wing, designed to house 296 patients, is split between male and female floors from level one to six. All the bedrooms had a window facing south to make the most of the sunlight. Level seven was the terrace where all patients had to sit for over five hours each day to breathe the fresh pine air which was thought would heal them of TB, as there was no medicine at this time. Patients lived in the hospital from four months to two years, two to a room.
The nurses quarters and service block housed the kitchens, communal dining room and reading rooms. The railings and external paint work was meant to mimic the bark on the surrounding trees which at the time were only as tall as floor four; they now surpass the height of the building and provide a beautiful backdrop.
The internal colours were designed with Aalto and an artist, Eino Kauria. The stairs were yellow, the ceilings in the patients' rooms were green with much paler green walls and each level had a different corridor colour scheme. The staircase treads were very low so the patients could ascend and descend even with breathing issues. Patients were not allowed to use the lift which was saved for nursing staff and doctors.
The bedrooms each had a tiny wardrobe – Alvar didn't want wardrobes at all because they were unsightly but he was told it was necessary for the patients. So he designed them without handles: you open them with your foot, to try and make them disappear. Room door handles were set in a runner to avoid sleeves getting caught. The sinks were designed with a 45° angle on the inside so that when the taps were run the water didn't splash and ran silently into the sink to avoid disturbing their room-mate. Every element carefully considered.
Most surfaces were curved, the top of the wardrobes inclusive so that patients couldn't put things in places they didn't belong. Alvar and Aino had wanted the windows to be floor to ceiling but they couldn't achieve that so the floor was curved up to the window giving the illusion of this.
Lunch on day three was at the Savoy, opened in 1937, with all the interiors designed by Aino and Alvar Aalto. The fixtures and fittings are still original: the panels between rooms, the tables and chairs, the ceilings – due to age and nicotine staining from smoke, the birch has developed a rich, dark honey colour.
A short drive out of the city reaches the Aalto house. Designed by Alvar and Aino and completed in 1936 the house was originally surrounded by woodland - now it is in the middle of a housing estate, next to a school. Aino died in 1949 from cancer; Alvar then remarried Elissa who was the last member to live in the house until she died in 1994 when the house was turned over to the Aalto Foundation. Since then some minor changes have been made to return it to the original design but more or less the house stands as it was.
There were so many doors inside, leading from room to room – the idea being that it was open plan but you could enter the space from different angles and feel different depending on how you entered a room. In the library room there was a tiny door with a tiny ladder leading to it. It was said that if Alvar was having a tricky meeting with a client in the office space he would escape through that door onto the roof terrace to get away from angry clients.
Upstairs there were four modest sized bedrooms, however Elissa had changed the two children's rooms into one larger space for herself. This has been undone and returned to the original because the Foundation found out that Alvar and Aino's daughter still had all her original furniture so returned it to the house and Foundation.
The office area, set up three steps from the lounge area, was designed to allow eight architects to work there. At times there were up to twenty – it must have been unbelievably cramped; this was the reason they decided to look for a studio space and move the office out of their home.
A five minute walk from the Aalto House are the studios that were designed by Aino and Alvar but not completed before Aino died. There are many clever design features: windows at certain angles and heights so that employees couldn't see if Alvar was coming or going, and curved rooms to make the most of the light.
The windows in Alvar's office were curved to give a feeling of light and space. There was also a small balcony at one end so that you could have an elevated plan view of any plans or models they designed. This then later became a temporary space for them to test pendant lights of which some are still hanging - quite a few are not in production but were prototypes. There was enough room for around twenty architects to work here but at times there were more when deadlines approached.
The key take-away of this Artek trip: the Aaltos’ designs prove that their furniture is so much more than objects: they inform how we live and how they can improve the world around us – quietly, modestly and thoughtfully.
Artek a-factory maufacturing images courtesy of artek.fi
