Chair
1933 (designed), 1933-1939 (manufactured)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Between 1928 and 1932 Aalto was influenced by tubular-steel furniture. In 1928 he ordered many pieces of metal furniture designed by Marcel Breuer for his own house, and the following year he designed his first cantilevered chair, made from tubular-steel legs and a plywood seat. He designed other armchairs and armless chairs in the following few years, all of which were inspired by Breuer's and other European models. In 1931, though he was still working in tubular steel, Aalto began a move away from metal. Perhaps inspired by his thinking about the needs of patients at the Paimio sanatorium - an isolation hospital he designed for tuberculosis patients in the forest east of Turku - he began designing all-wood chairs. In an oft-cited lecture in 1935 Aalto specified the ways in which tubular-steel furniture was not 'rational':
. . . a piece of furniture that forms part of a person's daily habitat should not cause excessive glare from light reflection; ditto, it should not be disadvantageous in terms of sound, sound absorption, etc. A piece that comes into the most intimate contact with man, as a chair does, shouldn't be constructed of materials that are excessively good conductors of heat . . . These criticisms . . . when put together form the mystical concept of 'cozy'.
This chair might be termed a transitional design that marked the end of Aalto's attempts to create cantilevered chairs with tubular-steel bases, and his move to designing two-legged chairs entirely in wood. In its form, it was still a translation rather than the radical rethinking that his contemporary furniture for Paimio was. A child's version of this chair had been designed in 1931-2, but an adult-sized chair required relatively thick legs to support the sitter. As Aalto clearly wished the chair to be springy, the leg design needed considerable development. The legs were made from moulded, laminated Finnish birch and the seat from much thinner birch plywood. The nature of the material was emphasized by the choice, in this example, of birch with a curly figure or grain for the seat and back.
. . . a piece of furniture that forms part of a person's daily habitat should not cause excessive glare from light reflection; ditto, it should not be disadvantageous in terms of sound, sound absorption, etc. A piece that comes into the most intimate contact with man, as a chair does, shouldn't be constructed of materials that are excessively good conductors of heat . . . These criticisms . . . when put together form the mystical concept of 'cozy'.
This chair might be termed a transitional design that marked the end of Aalto's attempts to create cantilevered chairs with tubular-steel bases, and his move to designing two-legged chairs entirely in wood. In its form, it was still a translation rather than the radical rethinking that his contemporary furniture for Paimio was. A child's version of this chair had been designed in 1931-2, but an adult-sized chair required relatively thick legs to support the sitter. As Aalto clearly wished the chair to be springy, the leg design needed considerable development. The legs were made from moulded, laminated Finnish birch and the seat from much thinner birch plywood. The nature of the material was emphasized by the choice, in this example, of birch with a curly figure or grain for the seat and back.
Object details
| Category | |
| Object type | |
| Materials and techniques | Moulded laminated birch and moulded birch plywood |
| Brief description | Cantilevered chair made of moulded laminated birch and moulded birch plywood |
| Physical description | Cantilevered chair with legs extending up to create a support structure for a seat and back and down along the floor to create a base, each formed from a single piece of moulded birch plywood. The support structure consists of two U-shapes of laminated birch wood (8 layers) set with their open ends to the back. The bottom and middle part create the leg and the top supports the seat. The top end is slightly bent around the back edge where the seat meets the back; the laminate of the support is thinned (to about 5 layers) to allow a tight connection. At the front, the support is not thinned, creating a gap between support and seat element. The seat/back panel (7 layers of veneer) is moulded with a ca. 3 cm outwards curve on either end. The seat slightly overhangs the support structure at either side. The seat/back panel is screwed to the support structure from underneath with 4 recessed flat head metal screws set along either side of the seat and with two smaller rounded head screws at the top end of the support. Under the middle of the front of the seat is a white plastic label attached with two small nails. The text is in white on red background (text as in ‘Marks and Inscriptions’). Two more nails above the label suggest another label of which are no traces. |
| Dimensions |
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| Style | |
| Production type | Mass produced |
| Marks and inscriptions | FINMAR Ltd.
Design Reg. 787811-19
Patent No. 431563 [?]
Made in Finland (label on middle underside of seat close to outer edge) |
| Gallery label |
|
| Summary | Between 1928 and 1932 Aalto was influenced by tubular-steel furniture. In 1928 he ordered many pieces of metal furniture designed by Marcel Breuer for his own house, and the following year he designed his first cantilevered chair, made from tubular-steel legs and a plywood seat. He designed other armchairs and armless chairs in the following few years, all of which were inspired by Breuer's and other European models. In 1931, though he was still working in tubular steel, Aalto began a move away from metal. Perhaps inspired by his thinking about the needs of patients at the Paimio sanatorium - an isolation hospital he designed for tuberculosis patients in the forest east of Turku - he began designing all-wood chairs. In an oft-cited lecture in 1935 Aalto specified the ways in which tubular-steel furniture was not 'rational': . . . a piece of furniture that forms part of a person's daily habitat should not cause excessive glare from light reflection; ditto, it should not be disadvantageous in terms of sound, sound absorption, etc. A piece that comes into the most intimate contact with man, as a chair does, shouldn't be constructed of materials that are excessively good conductors of heat . . . These criticisms . . . when put together form the mystical concept of 'cozy'. This chair might be termed a transitional design that marked the end of Aalto's attempts to create cantilevered chairs with tubular-steel bases, and his move to designing two-legged chairs entirely in wood. In its form, it was still a translation rather than the radical rethinking that his contemporary furniture for Paimio was. A child's version of this chair had been designed in 1931-2, but an adult-sized chair required relatively thick legs to support the sitter. As Aalto clearly wished the chair to be springy, the leg design needed considerable development. The legs were made from moulded, laminated Finnish birch and the seat from much thinner birch plywood. The nature of the material was emphasized by the choice, in this example, of birch with a curly figure or grain for the seat and back. |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | W.39-1981 |
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| Record created | March 22, 2006 |
| Record URL |
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