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Aalto Alvar (3.2.1898, Kuortane - 11.5.1976,Helsinki). Hugo Alvar Henrik Aalto established an architectural office in Jyväskylä in 1923. The office moved to Turku in 1927 and to Helsinki in 1933. In 1955 he was granted membership in the Finnish Academy and held its presidency in 1963 – 1968. From 1946 to 1948 he was visiting professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was awarded a considerable amount of honours and prizes around the world. Aalto made numerous journeys to Europe and beyond. His best loved destination was Italy. He had a remarkable contribution in the design of modern pieces of furniture, light fixtures and interiors, channeled through the Artek company established in 1935. The entire career of Alvar Aalto reflects his zeal to perform each task with an open mind, always creating something new. Aalto gained growing international fame with his functionalist designs, and he moved to Helsinki with his family in 1933. Aalto designed remarkable private houses – his own home in Helsinki (1936) and te Villa Mairea in Noormarkku (1939). These buildings reveal his desire to break the strict rules of modernist architecture and realise his own vision of harmony between man, nature and architecture. Alvar Aalto's architecture has been characterized as both Finnish and international. His large production can be seen to reflect inspiration from domestic nature and tradition but also from the long history of architecture. What this great creative talent did was combine these into a highly original synthesis.

- schlafsofa

- armchairs

- lounge chair

- armchairs

- stool

- chairs

- glass table

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Eero Aarnio (born 1932), is a Finnish interior designer, well known for his innovative furniture designs in the 1960s, notably his plastic and fiberglass chairs.Aarnio studied at the Institute of Industrial Arts in Helsinki, and started his own office in 1962. The following year he introduced his Ball Chair, a hollow sphere on a stand, open on one side to allow a person to sit within. Aarnio's designs were an important aspect of 1960s popular culture, and could often be seen as part of sets in period science-fiction films. Because his designs used very simple geometric forms, they were ideal for such productions. Aarnio is still active in creating new designs and, while he has also worked with more traditional materials like wood and steel during his long career, still mainly draws products that follow his distinct style of playful shapes and colors only manufacturable in plastic. Many of Aarnio's works are included in the world's most prestigious museums, including the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the MoMA in New York.

- ball chair

- bubble chair

- focus

- trioli kids chair

- mushroom stool

- screw table

- formula lounge chair

- tomato lounge chair

- pastil lounge chair

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Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (March 27, 1886 - August 17, 1969) was a German - American architect. Ludwig Mies, along with Walter Gropius and Le Corbusier is widely regarded as one of the pioneering masters of modern architecture. He created an influential Twentieth Century architectural style, stated with extreme clarity and simplicity. His mature buildings made use of modern materials such as industrial steel and plate glass to define austere but elegant spaces. Mies worked in his father's stone - carving shop and at several local design firms before he moved to Berlin joining the office of interior designer Bruno Paul. He began his architectural career as an apprentice at the studio of Peter Behrens from 1908 - 1912, where he was exposed to the current design theories and to progressive German culture. Mies renamed himself as part of his rapid transformation from a tradesman's son to an architect working with Berlin's cultural elite. He began his independent professional career designing upper class homes in traditional Germanic domestic styles. While continuing his traditional design practice, Mies began to work with the progressive design magazine G, started in July 1923. He designed modern furniture pieces using new industrial technologies that have become popular classics, such as the Barcelona chair and table, and the Brno chair. His furniture is known for fine craftsmanship, a mix of traditional luxurious fabrics like leather combined with modern chrome frames, and a distinct separation of the supporting structure and the supported surfaces, often employing cantilevers to enhance the feeling of lightness created by delicate structural frames. He collaborated closely with interior designer and companion Lilly Reich. Opportunities for commissions dwindled with the worldwide depression after 1929. In the early 1930s, Mies served briefly as the last Director of the faltering Bauhaus, at the request of his friend and competitor Walter Gropius. When the refugee from the heavy-handed and constricting order of the Nazi government arrived in the United States after 30 years of practice in Germany, his reputation as a pioneer of modern architecture was already established by American promoters of the international style.

BARCELONA COLLECTION