A Study of Alvar Aalto’s Wood doi:10.

1093/jdh/epy042
Journal of Design History

Reliefs for Furniture and Vol. 32 No. 2

Architectural Design

Mihoko Ando and Patrick H. Fleming

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This article presents a comprehensive overview of the wood reliefs designed by Finnish architect
Alvar Aalto to highlight their importance for both furniture and architecture. They are examined
from three main perspectives: first, as experimental models, gradually increasing in complexity
and related to different techniques for bending and forming wood for furniture design; second,
as formal or sculptural material studies that further complemented Aalto’s lectures and interest
in rationalism and elastic standardization for both architecture and furniture; and finally, as
straightforward exhibition pieces solely for promotional and advertising purposes, thereby
reflecting the original manifesto of the Artek design company. Far beyond playful models, the
reliefs were therefore critical to Aalto’s furniture, architecture, and promotion as a prominent
modern architect and designer.

Keywords: Aalto, Alvar—wood—architect-designer—architecture—furniture—Artek

Introduction: the wood reliefs as technical, formal, and

exhibition models
The wood reliefs by Finnish architect Alvar Aalto are commonly associated with the
design and development of the architect’s wood furniture. Many of the reliefs were
designed and made at the same time as some of Aalto’s most well-known furniture in
the late 1920s and early 1930s, such as the Paimio chair and three-legged stool (Stool
60). Since then they have also been quietly present in the background [1] of nearly
every significant Aalto exhibition.1 For example, at the 1933 ‘Wood Only’ Aalto furni-
ture exhibition in London, which received positive reviews and successfully established
a market for Aalto furniture in England, many wood reliefs were displayed alongside
new furniture models [1a].2 The pairing of Aalto furniture with wood reliefs has be-
come a common feature in exhibitions, and we can also still find Aalto’s wood reliefs
and furniture together in many of the architect’s buildings today.

Apart from sharing exhibition spaces, Aalto’s wood reliefs and furniture were fur-
ther connected through two important companies. First, through their shared place
of origin and production at the manufacturer Huonekalu-ja Rakennustyötehdas Oy in
Turku, Finland; secondly, with the founding of the Artek design company in 1935 to
sell Aalto furniture and promote modern living, one of the wood reliefs was also used
as the symbol and logo of the company on its original letterhead and promotional
materials.3 That symbolic status continues today, as Artek reproduced a limited edition
series of eighty numbered pieces of one of Aalto’s most recognizable wood reliefs to
mark the company’s eightieth anniversary.4 Aalto’s wood reliefs have gradually come to
© The Author(s) [2018]. Published
represent the architect’s design process for furniture, as tangible examples of his play- by Oxford University Press on
ful way with design, based on the theories of Finnish philosopher Yrjö Hirn.5 With an behalf of The Design History
experimental approach influenced by Bauhaus designers Marcel Breuer and especially Society. All rights reserved.

146
Fig 1. Photographs of three
Aalto exhibitions with wood

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reliefs from the 1930s: (a: top,
left) ‘Wood Only’ in London,
1933; (b, top, right) ‘Alvar
and Aino Aalto Architects’ in
Helsinki, 1934; and (c, bottom),
the Sixth Milano Triennale in
Milan, 1936. The Alvar Aalto
Museum, Finland.

László Moholy-Nagy, the reliefs are rooted in both technique and art. They are syn-
onymous with Aalto furniture design, so much so that they are commonly presented
in exhibitions and literature as Aalto’s wood ‘constructions’, ‘experiments’, or ‘material
studies’ for furniture.6

While we often associate Aalto’s wood reliefs with Artek and furniture, they were
also critical pieces in the development of Aalto’s architectural ideas, indicating a more
general approach to practice and design. Several references point to their import-
ance beyond furniture. For example, in the seminal essay from 1947, ‘Architettura
e arte concrete’, better known in English as ‘The Trout and the Stream’, only the the
Viipuri Library project (1933–35) and the wood reliefs were cited by Aalto to explain his
approach to designing:

At our London exhibition in 1933 (on the work of architect Aino Aalto and myself,
arranged by The Architectural Review), we displayed some wood constructions.
Some of these directly represented the structures we had used in our furniture;
others were experiments with the form and handling of wood without any prac-
tical value or even any rational bearing to practice. An art critic wrote in The Times
about these as expressions of abstract art . . . . But I would like to add as my per-
sonal, emotional view that architecture and its details are in some way all part of

Mihoko Ando and Patrick H. Fleming

147
 biology. Perhaps they are, for instance, like some big salmon or trout. They are not
born fully grown; they are not even born in the sea or water where they normally
live… Just as it takes time for a speck of fish spawn to mature into a fully-grown
fish, so we need time for everything that develops and crystallizes in our world
of ideas. Architecture demands even more of this time than other creative work.7

In more recent literature, Eeva-Liisa Pelkonen has emphasized the importance of the
wood reliefs as the decisive starting point of the curved or organic line in the architect’s
work.8 Aalto’s biographer and close friend Göran Schildt has also explained how the
reliefs were used to understand the properties of wood as an architectural material.9
Schildt has further described the wood reliefs as ‘symbols of the whole of Aalto’s work,

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the epitome of his love of classical balance, organic forms and the spontaneous har-
mony of nature’.10 This last description suggests a broader understanding of Aalto’s
wood reliefs in relation to both furniture and architectural design that has not yet
been fully elaborated or thoroughly investigated in literature about Aalto or recent
exhibitions.

The wood reliefs are examined in this article from three main perspectives to better
understand their importance for Aalto furniture and architecture. First, the wood reliefs
are discussed as straightforward technical models and material experiments, as noted
in the previous Aalto quotation, for different ways of working with wood for mass-
produced furniture. The techniques for realizing the wood reliefs and furniture are also
closely related to Aalto’s patents dating from the mid-1930s through to the mid-1950s,
including the key patent for Aalto’s bentwood technique and the so-called ‘L-Leg’ used
extensively in Aalto furniture.11 Secondly, many of the wood reliefs are considered as
formal and sculptural studies for both furniture and various architectural projects. As
more abstract, formal models, they have invited comparisons to other theories and
works of modern art, such as the painted wood reliefs of Jean Arp and the material
theories of Moholy-Nagy.12 These first two general perspectives are not mutually exclu-
sive, however, as several of Aalto’s wood reliefs engaged both technical and formal
issues simultaneously, as discussed later on.

Finally, it is crucial to realize the wood reliefs’ additional role as neither technical nor
formal studies, but as straightforward exhibition pieces for promotion and propa-
ganda purposes. This third area of examination, with some wood reliefs designed,
made, and used strictly as promotional objects, especially for exhibitions, has been
often overlooked or unacknowledged by referring to the reliefs simply as ‘experiments’
or ‘material studies’. In considering these three perspectives together, a better and
broader understanding of Aalto’s wood reliefs can be achieved than has been previ-
ously presented in literature and recent exhibitions.13 The purpose of this article is to
therefore bring to light and emphasize the importance of the wood reliefs and their
relevance to the design of Aalto’s furniture and architecture.

Approach: research scope, materials, and methods

This article offers the first comprehensive overview of Aalto’s wood reliefs as a body
of design work related to both furniture and architecture. While previous studies and
exhibitions have tended to include only a limited number of the reliefs, usually one
or two, and rarely more than a group of four or five as illustrative examples, Aalto’s
wood reliefs are presented here as a broader collection of sixteen works, spanning over
a period of two decades.14 The sixteen reliefs presented here represent a majority of

Alvar Aalto’s Wood Reliefs

148
 Aalto’s original collection of twenty small-scale wood reliefs, not including much later
and larger reliefs that were often designed with a non-wood backing, named, and
made for a specific exhibition or architectural project.15 Only sixteen of the twenty
wood reliefs are presented [2], however, as detailed historical photographs of the four
remaining reliefs cannot be found in the Alvar Aalto Museum archives. They can still be
seen, however, in the background of historical exhibition photographs in the archives
[1a, 1c].16 Compared to the sixteen reliefs present and examined here in detail, the
remaining four reliefs not included were relatively straightforward and simple exam-
ples. The discussion that follows is therefore also equally relevant to the four reliefs not
included with the sixteen shown in the main collection.

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Historical photographs and recent exhibitions further reveal how some of the original
reliefs were also subtly changed and varied, with one or two additional examples made

Fig 2. Collection of archival

photographs of Alvar
Aalto’s wood reliefs, shown
by approximate date and
scale. Original photographs
courtesy of The Alvar Aalto
Museum, Finland.

Mihoko Ando and Patrick H. Fleming

149
either at the time of their production or slightly later as reproductions. For example,
one variant of the 1934 relief [2i], mounted on plywood and also dated to 1934, has
been included in several exhibitions in recent years.17 Yet another variant of the same
1934 relief, but having a slightly different curvature, can also be seen in exhibition
photographs from 1935 [1b] and 1936 [1c]. Five of the original reliefs [2e, 2i, 2j, 2m,
and 2n] were further reproduced in 1979 as a limited series of ten replicas, and they
are sometimes confused with originals as they have been published and exhibited with
the date of the original work.18 This article, however, first focuses in detail on the ori-
ginal small-scale reliefs and then later offers a short discussion on the reproductions
and replicas.

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Original materials related to the design and making of the wood reliefs, such as design
sketches or memos, have unfortunately been lost. Despite the apparent shortage
of research material related to the wood reliefs, many of the original reliefs them-
selves have been saved, and important archival photographs and materials, literature,
and relevant people are still available in Finland today. For example, interviews with
now-retired Artek staff have already provided insight into their experience in working
directly with the Aaltos.19 In the early stages of preparing research materials for this
article, co-author Ando also interviewed former Artek Design Director Ville Kokkonen,
and Otto Korhonen’s grandson, Jukka Korhonen, to better understand the collabor-
ation between the Aalto studio, the Artek design company, and Korhonen’s factory.20
Since the time of these interviews, the connection between the Aalto Studio and Artek
was also explored in depth through the 2016 exhibition ‘Artek and the Aaltos’, and its
accompanying catalogue.21 With the interviews conducted for this article, the former
with Kokkonen took place in Helsinki at the Artek company headquarters, whereas
the latter with Korhonen was conducted in Turku, before seeing the original Korhonen
factory and the Aalto furniture production process firsthand.22

To build upon these preliminary interviews, as already noted, we have used archival
exhibition photographs and detailed historical photographs of the wood reliefs from
the Alvar Aalto Museum to bring together and roughly organize the sixteen works
presented in this article.23 For example, exhibition photographs from the Alvar Aalto
Museum archives date many of the earliest wood reliefs to 1933, with the ‘Wood
Only’ exhibition in London at the Fortnum and Mason Department Store. Although
the earliest reliefs could have been designed and made slightly earlier, the majority of
literature on Alvar Aalto indicates that the reliefs were first made from either 1929 or
in the earlier 1930s.

Background: collaboration, context, and realization in

Finnish birch
The wood reliefs are normally credited as the sole work of Alvar Aalto, but many of
the earlier reliefs were actually the products of a close collaboration between Alvar
Aalto, his first wife and design partner, Aino Marsio-Aalto, and Otto Korhonen. In
addition to being an architect and furniture designer, Aino Marsio-Aalto was also
the creative director of Artek, while Otto Korhonen was the director of Huonekalu-ja
Rakennustyötehdas Oy. Korhonen’s factory manufactured bespoke designs for the
Aaltos’ architectural projects and standard furniture models later sold and marketed by
Artek. In contrast to other well-documented collaborations between husband and wife
designers and their associates, the collaboration between the Aaltos and Korhonen
was informal to say the least, with initial sketches often made on napkins or cigarette

Alvar Aalto’s Wood Reliefs

150
 packets during a weekend.24 The following Monday, Korhonen would interpret the
sketches for his carpenters and they would begin working on the actual wood relief.25
Some of the reliefs may have had an even simpler genesis, however, as previous litera-
ture notes how during the process of experimenting with the possibilities of laminating
and bending wood, Aalto found many of the experimental wood blocks ‘handsome’,
and then simply decided to have them mounted on panels as reliefs.26 Even if primary
materials like informal sketches from the collaborative process had been saved, they
most likely would not have survived a later fire in Korhonen’s factory, which destroyed
most archival material.27

Aino Marsio-Aalto’s specific role in the general collaboration with Alvar Aalto and Otto

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Korhonen is another uncertainty to acknowledge in the design and production of the
wood reliefs. Like Korhonen and his carpenter Jaakko Koskinen, the latter of whom
was the person responsible for making many of Aalto’s wood reliefs, Marsio-Aalto’s
role concerning the reliefs has been generally undocumented and unaccredited in lit-
erature.28 For example, in Stritzer-Levine’s 2016 essay, entitled ‘Artek and the Aaltos’,
the wood reliefs are rarely mentioned and commented upon only in passing, with one
relief noted as the work of Alvar Aalto, made by him at the factory in Turku.29 This
casual treatment of the wood reliefs, as well as crediting them as being made by Aalto
himself is not uncommon in previous research literature and exhibitions. Even though
a significant number of publications have investigated Marsio-Aalto’s design activities
and addressed the general lack of credit given to her work, her contributions in design-
ing and making the wood reliefs still remain as an open issue to resolve in future stud-
ies.30 In the case of the present article, it is important to keep in mind that the earliest
wood reliefs, like Aalto furniture, were not the outcome of a single individual’s efforts,
but rather a collaborative process between designers and experienced craftsmen.
Before Korhonen and Marsio-Aalto’s untimely deaths in 1935 and 1949, respectively,
they likely played key roles in designing and making Aalto’s wood reliefs and furniture.

Marsio-Aalto’s background in working with wood and her training in carpentry and
joinery skills are also important to briefly consider.31 Artek designers Pirkko Stenros
and Marja-Liisa Parko have recounted in interviews and also written how a local fur-
niture store owner in Jyväskylä, where the Aaltos first established their practice, told
them ‘there was a mad architect couple boiling bits of wood in a saucepan in the back
of his store in the 1920s’.32 The story is somewhat anecdotal, but points to remark-
ably amateurish if not humble beginnings for the Aaltos’ first attempts to shape and
form wood for either furniture or architectural design. The account also implies that a
shared interest in designing and working with wood was established early on between
the Aaltos themselves, well before moving their family and practice from Jyväskylä to
Turku in 1927. It is only later in Turku where they would eventually meet Korhonen for
the first time. While working together with Alvar Aalto and Otto Korhonen later on,
Aino Marsio-Aalto therefore may well have played an important mediating role in the
general collaboration, having both design and carpentry experience.

The context of Turku in the late 1920s and early 1930s was also significant for the
Aaltos in their overall development as architects and designers. They won their first
major competition for the Southwestern Agricultural Cooperative building in Turku in
1927, and moved there to complete the project.33 Work for the Turun Sanomat build-
ing and Paimio Sanatorium would soon follow. Compared to the relatively isolated
cultural and intellectual situation of Jyväskylä in central Finland, Turku offered a con-
trasting environment on the southwest coast of the country. In Turku the population
and political groups were much more diverse, and modern influences from Sweden
and other European countries were common.34 The general interest in modernism was

Mihoko Ando and Patrick H. Fleming

151
no better represented than in Turku’s 700th Anniversary Exhibition in 1929, with plan-
ning and design work by Alvar Aalto and Erik Bryggman. Whereas Alvar Aalto was pre-
occupied in Jyväskylä with defining and improving Finnish culture and its new national
identity, in Turku his intellectual and design interests widened to not only search for
ways to enrich Finnish culture, but also how to present the country as an important
member of modern Europe.

Although broader in ambition and scale, Alvar Aalto’s interests at that time were
well aligned with those of Otto Korhonen and his forward-thinking furniture factory.
Huonekalu-ja Rakennustyötehdas Oy was still a relatively young company in the late
1920s, starting only in 1910, but it was also relatively successful and especially focused

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on innovation.35 For the Aaltos, the factory offered significant opportunities for innov-
ation, not just in terms of being an equipped facility and testing ground for new ideas
and methods, but also as a rich environment of skilled furniture makers and work-
ers interested in craftsmanship and engaged in industrial production [3]. The Aaltos’
experience of dealing with skilled workers in the factory was most likely similar to
that on a construction site, where problems with architectural details and construc-
tion issues commonly arise and need to be resolved immediately.36 Like many of Alvar
Aalto’s later collaborators, Otto Korhonen’s experience and proficiency with a specific
material in a specific field was a key component in the realisation of the Aaltos’ design
efforts.

As the local setting of Turku offered the Aaltos an invigorating place for designing, the
broader cultural, economic, and political situation of Finland still played a major role in
the choice of wood as a material for the reliefs, Aalto furniture, and architecture. Both
Korhonen’s factory and the Aaltos’ architecture practice were subjected to the overall
poor economic climate in Finland in the early 1930s. They were forced to shorten their
working week and reduce staff.37 Their collaboration may have been further grounded
in the shared experience of weathering this trying economic period. While the Finnish
economy would eventually start to grow after 1933, before this time furniture sales
were supposedly the Aaltos’ sole source of income.38 The use of large amounts of local
wood in comparison to imported foreign species, or even steel, therefore offered a key
economic benefit. Using Finnish-grown birch essentially avoided protectionist policies
and strict quotas for imported materials.39 Furthermore, against this challenging eco-
nomic background, the small scale and experimental nature of the earliest wood reliefs
can be seen as an immense advantage. They required relatively few material resources
for developing and testing new design ideas, thereby capitalizing on the potential of
skilled craftsmen working with local materials in an industrial setting.

Today, Aalto furniture and the wood reliefs are strongly associated with Finnish-grown
birch, but it was actually beech that was a more preferable type of wood for furni-
ture at that time. For example, much of the furniture and interior details produced by
Korhonen’s factory for the Paimio Sanatorium project (1928–1933) were made with
beech.40 Although beech was often imported, Korhonen had served as a guarantor for
a separate wooden bicycle part manufacturer that went bankrupt and closed in the late
1920s. As a result of the bankruptcy, Korhonen received a large quantity of high-quality
beech that could also be used for furniture and interior details.41 Compared to beech,
however, Finnish birch was not as well suited for furniture or conventional bending
techniques involving steaming.42 For instance, in the Thonet-Mundus furniture com-
petition in 1929, every one of Aalto’s six furniture entries were drawn and designed
with beech dowels.43 A long series of complaints regarding the inconsistent quality of
early Aalto furniture from the England-based distributor Finmar Ltd., and several early

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Fig 3. Photographs illustrating
the techniques for making the
wood reliefs and Aalto furniture:
(a, top) forming a laminated
wood chair frame, (b, bottom,
left) moulding and bending
plywood for a Paimio chair seat
and back, (c, bottom, right)
bending an L-Leg according
to Aalto’s patented bentwood
technique. The Alvar Aalto
Museum, Finland.

production failures point to the challenges of using birch;44 perhaps the most notable
failure involved the often-photographed spiralling stack of three-legged stools [1a,b].
Early on, such a stack was placed in the Korhonen factory display window, but gradually
with subsequent drying, the bent legs of the stools warped, locking them all together
and thus making the stack of stools inseparable.45 This early lesson taught the Aaltos
and Korhonen that their bend angles could not be made exactly at ninety degrees, and
that the use of wood even in a relatively controlled workshop environment demanded a
certain flexibility and imprecision with a simple and accommodating design.

Despite these initial setbacks, the use of birch still made good economic sense, not only in
terms of its availability as an abundant raw material in Finland, but also as a value-added

Mihoko Ando and Patrick H. Fleming

153
export product. After all, the majority of Aalto furniture was sold outside of the country.46
In England, which accounted for roughly half of Artek’s furniture sales in the 1930s
following the successful ‘Wood Only’ exhibition, Finnish birch was seen as inexpensive
and practical but also pure and exotic at the same time.47 The design challenge in using
birch for furniture was therefore to enhance a familiar but undervalued material, partly
through original forms and partly through the use of new bending techniques. In terms
of both form and technique, the experimental nature of some of the earliest wood reliefs
therefore had a central role to play in the first instance for Aalto furniture.

Forming, moulding, and bending: the wood reliefs as technical

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models for furniture
The wood reliefs and Aalto furniture are commonly described by general terms such
as laminated wood, moulded or bent plywood, and bentwood. These terms and their
corresponding techniques can be seen both individually and in different combinations
in the wood reliefs, so it is worthwhile to define and briefly discuss them for clarity.
The most general of the terms is laminated wood, which describes the straightforward
process of bringing laminates or layers of wood together to make larger or longer
elements, either in parallel or cross-grained configurations.48 Two of the earlier wood
reliefs from 1929–1933 and one of the most recognizable reliefs from 1934 show a
wide range of possibilities with basic laminated wood: straight lengths, closed curves,
and sharp bends defined by small radii [4a], or gradual curves with varying [4b] or
constant thickness [4c] can all be realized. These curves in laminated wood are simply
made by applying glue and either forming or moulding laminates such as veneers into
shape. The formed or moulded laminates are then held in place until the glue sets, ei-
ther with simple clamps against a former [3a] or in a mould [3b], respectively.

Various types of laminated wood products were already well known in the early 1930s,
including plywood, and glue- and nail-laminated timber.49 For designers like the Aaltos,
general lamination techniques could offer new possibilities for designing modern furni-
ture with wood as an alternative to modern furniture designed with tubular steel.50 At
the same time, Korhonen was familiar with lamination techniques and their compati-
bility with industrial production. Thus, he was able to design relatively simple but mul-
tipurpose forms and moulds, where one mould could be used for producing different
variants.51 In the case of Aalto’s Paimio chair, the side frames are examples of laminated
wood, formed with the grain of each laminate parallel with one another. The Pamio
chair’s continuous seat and back is an example of moulded and bent plywood.52 The
Paimio chair was also one of two examples given in Alvar Aalto’s 1935 patent for a new
method for making furniture.53 Even though laminated wood and moulded plywood
were relatively common in Finland and Germany at that time, the patent was chal-
lenged but later granted for the novel idea of combining the two general techniques
to create flexible wooden furniture.

Aalto’s bentwood technique is a much more distinct alternative to forming or moulding

laminated wood or plywood. Many of the earliest reliefs from around 1929–1933 are
related to and produced using Aalto’s bentwood technique. While lamination and glu-
ing is still partially involved in Aalto’s bentwood, regular and less expensive solid wood
is used as a starting material instead of a stack of wood veneers as in plywood. With
solid sections of wood that are relatively stiff and difficult to bend to the relatively sharp
radii required, such as in Aalto’s typical L-Leg, Aalto’s bentwood technique offered a
practical alternative compared to conventional bending involving thoroughly steamed

Alvar Aalto’s Wood Reliefs

154

Fig 4. Laminated wood reliefs,
shown approximately to scale (a,
top, left; b, bottom, left; and c,
right). The Alvar Aalto Museum,
Finland.
Mihoko Ando and Patrick H. Fleming
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and plasticized wood.54 Aalto’s bentwood technique involved first sawing slots along
the grain in one end of the wood [5]. The intermediate result was what carpenters
would generally call a ‘featherboard’, with thin individual ‘feathers’ or fingers that
could then be easily curved or formed, as shown in one of the wood reliefs [6d]. The
second major step is inserting veneers with glue between these fingers; thereby replac-
ing the wood material that had been taken away from the previous sawing process [5].
After attaching a metal bending strap and bending the piece into shape [3c], and then
allowing the glue to set, the bend is held more or less in place due to the glue’s resist-
ance against shear or sliding between the layers.
Another Aalto bentwood relief [6c] further shows how the initial sawing process could
be adapted for use in the middle region of a solid length of wood, instead of just at the
end. The relief [6b] used extensively on early Artek letterhead, catalogues, and post-
ers also shows how a curved section of basic laminated wood, formed using layers of
veneers throughout, could be easily combined and attached to an elaborate example
of Aalto’s bentwood.55 The two pieces display the same overall curvature, with the
formed laminated wood piece attached to the left of the Aalto bentwood piece. In
one of the simplest wood reliefs [6a], Aalto’s bentwood technique leads directly to
the L-Leg [7], which established a standard element for Aalto and Artek furniture. As
technical studies and experimental materials, the wood reliefs were directly involved in
developing Aalto’s patented bentwood technique, the L-Leg, and Aalto furniture.
155
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Fig 5. Illustration
accompanying Alvar Aalto's
patent for ‘A bending method
for wood, and the articles
produced by this method’,
1934. The Alvar Aalto Museum,
Finland.

Aalto’s bentwood technique was initially developed and demonstrated through the
reliefs already discussed [6], but more reliefs were also made later on to vary and
develop the technique further. The wood relief made around 1936 [8], most likely
for the sixth Milano Triennale where it was displayed [1c] and gathered considerable
attention, illustrates how Aalto’s bentwood technique could be extended for bending
in two directions.56 Here a relatively large section of wood was first sawn and then
bent in one direction, following Aalto’s typical bentwood technique and process al-
ready described. After the glue for this first initial bend had set, the piece was then
most likely sawn again, and a second bend was made in a perpendicular direction.
Although not shown in any wood reliefs, Aalto also later developed a subtle tech-
nical variant of the L-Leg, where veneers were completely omitted after sawing, and
only glue was used between the individual fingers after the initial sawing process.
The wood relief from 1936 and the technical variant of the L-Leg together formed
the basis for Aalto’s so-called ‘Y-Leg’, which in turn then lead to a new line of Artek
and Aalto furniture products in the late 1940s. Although the 1936 wood relief dem-
onstrated the technical possibility to effectively bend one piece of solid wood in two
different directions, a much simpler configuration was adopted later in the 1940s for
Aalto furniture based on the Y-Leg. Two L-Legs, bent with or without veneers, could
be simply sawn longitudinally at forty-five degrees and then glued to each other to
make a corner Y-Leg [7] for a chair, table, or stool. The resultant Y-Leg effectively

Alvar Aalto’s Wood Reliefs

156

Fig 6. Aalto’s bentwood reliefs
from approximately 1929–1933
(a, left; b, top, centre; c, bottom,
centre; and d, right). The Alvar
Aalto Museum, Finland.
Mihoko Ando and Patrick H. Fleming
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showed how a design approach based on adapting and modifying the earlier L-Leg
could be simpler and more effective than the more advanced technique demonstrated
in the original wood relief from 1936.
Just as the 1936 wood relief related to the Y-Leg focused on extending Aalto’s bent-
wood technique from one to two directions, the thinking behind much later reliefs
was preoccupied with even more complex three-dimensional forms. Returning
to basic wood lamination principles, but starting with relatively long and small-
diameter wood dowels in a complex mould could result in much more sculptural
and organic forms [9]. To achieve such difficult forms, according to Schildt and
Sigfried Giedion, these reliefs were made using a special mould subjected to vacuum
pressure.57 Pallasmaa described these works as ‘macaroni bends’, while Schildt used
the term ‘spaghetti’ in referring to their long, thin dowels.58 We can see the formal
potential of this technique in one of Aalto’s more well known reliefs, with a relatively
complex laminated form juxtaposed with a small twisted piece of natural wood [9c].
In the mid 1950s Aalto would attempt to design furniture based on these complex
three-dimensional forms, but with limited success compared to earlier models. If
Aalto’s basic bentwood technique and L-Leg inherently combined aspects of art
and industry in simple harmony, this later three-dimensional moulding technique
showed promising results but was lacking in its compatibility with mass-production
and manufacturing.
Following a simpler design approach and again starting with a regular L-Leg yielded
a viable compromise between formal complexity and ease of production for later
Artek furniture in the 1950s. Sawing regular L-Legs longitudinally into wedge-shaped
sections and then gluing them together in a radial or fan-shaped pattern resulted in
Aalto’s so-called ‘X-Leg’ in 1954. One of the last wood reliefs from 1955 was a simple
composition of two X-Legs, showing the legs’ geometry from different angles [2p].
At the same time as exhibiting this X-Leg wood relief in the mid 1950s, Aalto also
designed a similar freestanding wood sculpture set upon a brass base [10]. The sculp-
ture was also made with two X-Legs, alongside a small three-dimensional lamination
just like one from the 1937 wood relief [9a]. This small freestanding wood sculpture
from 1955, as a composition with a more complex, organic laminated model and
157
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Fig 7. Exhibition models in the
Alvar Aalto Studio showing the
Y-Leg (left), X-Leg (centre), and
four intermediate manufacturing
stages of the basic L-Leg (right).
Photograph by co-author Ando.

the practical forms of the X-Legs, marked the end of Aalto’s work with small-scale Fig 8. Bentwood relief from
bent and laminated wood. Although variants of the sculpture exist, an original was 1936 for bending in two
directions, as seen from the
kept in the living room of the Aalto House, where it still stands today, highlighting its
front and above, respectively.
importance to Aalto as the conclusion of the architect’s bentwood experiments and The Alvar Aalto Museum,
small-scale wood reliefs. Finland.

Alvar Aalto’s Wood Reliefs

158

Fig 9. Three-dimensional
wood reliefs, shown
approximately to scale (a, left; b,
centre; and c, right). The Alvar
Aalto Museum, Finland.
Mihoko Ando and Patrick H. Fleming
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Beyond scale, and material: the wood reliefs’ extended
influence on architecture
In parallel to the technical issues already explored, an engagement with formal issues
was also present in many if not most of the wood reliefs. But as Aalto’s later wood
reliefs gradually increased in their complexity, as already noted, they could not be dir-
ectly applied to furniture design. They still served as formal experiments that could be
of service to Aalto’s architecture. Previous literature by Schildt, Miller, and Pelkonen
have emphasized a connection between the curving or organic lines in Aalto’s archi-
tecture and the original wood reliefs.59 In terms of built work, we can see two straight-
forward examples of how the Aaltos’ earlier experience with the wood reliefs and
furniture could be formally applied to architecture and interior design. Firstly, in the
Viipuri Library project from 1935, with its wooden lecture hall ceiling; and secondly,
in the undulating interior wood panels of the Finnish Pavilion at the 1939 New York
World’s Fair.60 These examples help to illustrate Aalto’s earlier explanation of a devel-
oped architectural idea as a big salmon or trout, but not being born in the sea or water
where it normally lives. The wood reliefs were originally made in relation to furniture in
Korhonen’s factory, but their forms were also influential on some of the Aaltos’ most
well-known interior details and architectural designs in wood.
As the majority of the wood reliefs were made throughout the 1930s, they also coin-
cided with Aalto’s theoretical agendas concerning the broadening of rationalism and
‘elastic’ or flexible standardization in architecture. The wood reliefs exemplified Aalto’s
repeated references to the cellular structure of wood and wood cells in his lectures at
that time. For example, in the often quoted lecture entitled ‘Rationalism and Man’ from
1935, Aalto concluded with the following sentences:
Nature, biology, has rich and luxurious forms; with the same construction, the same
tissues, and the same principles of cellular organization, it can create billions of
combinations, each of which represents a definitive, highly-developed form. Man’s
life belongs to the same category. The things that surround him are hardly fetishes
or allegories with mystical eternal value; more than anything else, they are cells and
tissues, living beings like himself, building components that make up human life.61
159
 Fig 10. Freestanding
wood sculpture with a three-
dimensional lamination and two
X-Legs, as seen from the front
and above, respectively. The
Alvar Aalto Museum, Finland.

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Aalto’s 1938 lecture entitled ‘The Influence of Structure and Material on Modern
Architecture’ further reflected the striving for greater formal flexibility seen in the wood
reliefs, especially those from 1937 onwards [2m—p] involving small (standardized)
dowels to yield complex, three-dimensional forms:

I have said before that nature herself is the best standardization committee in the
world, but in nature, standardization is almost exclusively applied to the smallest
possible unit, the cell. This results in millions of flexible combinations that never
become schematic. It also results in unlimited riches and perpetual variation in
organically growing forms. We must follow the same path in architectural stand-
ardization, too.62

The previous quotes frequently appear in literature on Aalto, as the concept of flexible
standardization was applied in much of Aalto furniture; standard components like the L-Leg
were used repeatedly in Artek’s ‘standard’ Aalto stools, chairs, tables, and case pieces [11].
The same concept also established the main principle for Aalto’s prefabricated A and AA
type housing systems.63 The A and AA housing systems were similarly based on standard-
ized wall and building elements in wood that could be prefabricated and mass-produced,
but combined in different ways to maximize variation and also grow over time.64 The con-
cern to increase variation through design and the concept of flexible standardization was
therefore present in Aalto’s wood reliefs, lectures, furniture, and architectural work.

Beyond architecture and interior details in wood, the reliefs had an extended impact on
the Aaltos’ architecture and design work in other materials. Moravánszky has discussed
the connection between Aalto’s theoretical arguments concerning flexible standardiza-
tion and his built work, citing important projects executed with brick such as the House
of Culture (1952–58) in Helsinki and the Baker House (1946–49) at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (MIT).65 Following Moravánszky, a single brick is likened to a
cell, which can be combined in a variety of ways to yield varying forms.66 Such exam-
ples suggest how Aalto’s concept of flexible standardization could be developed and
formally tested in the wood reliefs, and then later applied in other materials. What is
more crucial to realize though is how these different areas of activities, namely theor-
etical lectures, experimental small-scale wood reliefs, furniture and architectural design
formed a mutual interaction in service of Aalto’s broad design activities and thinking.
The wood reliefs were intimately related to and synergistic in supporting new design
endeavours in both furniture and architecture, in both formal and conceptual terms.

Alvar Aalto’s Wood Reliefs

160

Fig 11. Diagrams illustrating
the concept of flexible and
elastic standardization in (left)
Aalto’s AA housing system and
(right) Artek standard furniture.
The Alvar Aalto Museum,
Finland, and Artek, respectively.
Mihoko Ando and Patrick H. Fleming
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Considering Aalto’s design sketches for later projects can offer more direct evidence
to show how the wood reliefs’ influence on architectural design could be extended to
different materials and scales. While designing Vuoksenniska Church in 1955, Aalto
sketched the wood sculpture previously discussed [10], side-by-side with an early plan
and section of the church [12]. In the sketch, the scale and proportions of the fan-shaped
cross-section of the X-Leg from the sculpture closely corresponded to the fan-shaped
form repeated three times in the church plan.67 These design sketches, made together
and side-by-side on the same page provide an example of the mutual interaction noted
previously. In this example, architectural thinking, experiences from the wood reliefs, and
elements from furniture design could inform and influence one another in Aalto’ design
process, with the sculpture and church sketched and designed roughly in parallel.
Menin and Samuel have also discussed this specific design sketch, and argued how the curva-
ture of the rear-wall of the church, behind the altar, was most likely conceived as an extrapola-
tion of the three-dimensional form of the wood sculpture and later reliefs.68 In an early design
sketch of the altar area in Wolfsburg Church (1958–1961) [12], the same basic extrapolation
is also present. For Wolfsburg Church, Aalto appears to have sketched, quite early on, a mas-
sive sculptural wood form rising up from behind the altar. This design sketch shows again that
the wood reliefs could be reprised to inspire the design and spatial experience of an architec-
tural interior [10].69 Both Vuoksenniska and Wolfsburg Church, however, were not realized in
brick, but like most of Aalto’s buildings, in reinforced concrete. In Aalto’s design sketches, the
architect's experiences and forms from the wood reliefs, furniture, and final wood sculpture
could transcend both material and scale; from wood to brick, to concrete, and from a relief
to a furniture leg, and finally to a wall and building, respectively. The wood reliefs were influ-
ential in other areas besides Aalto furniture design, and could play an explicit and direct role
in later architectural projects through Aalto’s design sketches.
Exhibiting and promoting: the wood reliefs as propaganda and
symbols of Artek
The remaining wood reliefs from the overall collection [2f, 2h, and 2l] apparently
offered no innovative technical or formal insights linked to developments in furniture
161
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or architecture, but were most likely made as exhibition pieces. For example, one relief Fig 12. Alvar Aalto’s design
[2l] from 1936 was made with simple and small lengths of dowels to achieve a map- sketches of the wood sculpture
and a large-scale, three-
like result. Two of the earliest wood reliefs [2f and 2h] from 1929–1933 were also
dimensional lamination for
made with standard parts from earlier models of Aalto furniture, highlighting the sim- (left) Vuoksenniska and (right)
plicity and modular nature of the furniture. Moreover, the specific relief with sections Wolfsburg Church, respectively.
of the Paimio chair seat is not a material study or experiment, but rather demonstrates The Alvar Aalto Museum,
the flexibility and effective softness of the chair by visually exaggerating its ability to Finland.
gently bend [2h]. As accompanying exhibition pieces, the reliefs could act as a com-
munication aid for advertising and essentially drawing attention to the most valuable
design features of Aalto furniture.

Among the overall collection of wood reliefs, the model from 1935 [2j] is unique in
that it was made with pine rather than birch. A comparison with two earlier bentwood
reliefs from 1929–33 [13] shows how this later pine relief was basically a reiteration in
both technical and formal terms. As an exhibition piece, the 1935 relief was much more
carefully made, displaying a high quality of craftsmanship compared to the rather rough
and experimental character of the earlier works. For example, a striking feature of this
1935 relief is not the main Aalto bentwood and laminated wood in the foreground of
the relief itself, but the background relief surface that essentially surrounds and frames
the main piece of work. As much or more effort probably went into producing this intri-
cate background surface compared to the main wood piece attached in the foreground.
This 1935 wood relief is not a material study or experiment, but essentially a smoother
and more carefully executed representation of the earlier technical and formal models.

In interviews with former Aalto Studio staff by Charrington and Nava, there are some
additional accounts of Aalto commissioning various replicas of the original reliefs
around 1965 for exhibition purposes.70 Although unconfirmed, such stories would fur-
ther highlight the promotional rather than experimental nature of the wood reliefs.
Additionally, their promotional function can be seen much more clearly later on in
1979, with the limited series of ten replicas of five original wood reliefs that was noted
briefly in the introduction of this article. These replicas are still found throughout sev-
eral notable Aalto buildings today, and are too easily misunderstood and mistaken for
originals, even though the smooth and crafted quality of their surfaces are not faith-
ful to the original rougher works [14]. Schildt’s tendency to present and discuss these
1979 reproductions in publications, but with image captions and dates referring to the
original wood reliefs, has most likely contributed to further misunderstanding.71 With
Alvar Aalto’s Wood Reliefs
162
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Fig 13. Bentwood reliefs seen
primarily as (top) technical,
(bottom, left) formal, and
(bottom, right) exhibition
models. The Alvar Aalto
Museum, Finland.

an aesthetically smooth and careful craftsmanship, these replicas essentially blur the
rough-and-ready experimental quality of the earlier reliefs and Aalto furniture. These
perfected replicas and reproductions make it easier to forget the many initial produc-
tion failures and inconsistent quality problems previously noted in early models of Aalto
furniture.

Realizing that the wood reliefs simultaneously engage the broad fields of art and de-
sign through form, industry through technique, and propaganda through exhibition,
reaffirms these small and unassuming works as true symbols of Artek. Far more than
a sales and distribution company for Aalto furniture, the original Artek manifesto was
composed of activities in the same three areas noted above: modern art, industry and
interior design, and propaganda.72 Specifically, the Artek manifesto aimed to encourage
modern culture and modern living through the use of art exhibitions, temporary and
permanent exhibitions involving experiments and standard types, and interior design
and mass-produced furniture.73 Although they were only marginally addressed in the
otherwise extensive 2016 exhibition, ‘Artek and the Aaltos’, the wood reliefs were

Mihoko Ando and Patrick H. Fleming

163
 Fig 14. Photographs showing
the roughness of the original
1937 wood relief in comparison
to one of its 1979 limited
edition replicas. The Alvar Aalto
Museum, Finland.

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highly relevant to Artek and could encompass all three main areas of the company’s
guiding manifesto. A more critical understanding of the wood reliefs and their multi-
faceted role in the fields of art, industry, and propaganda clarifies their importance in
representing Artek and why a wood relief was chosen as the first definitive symbol of
the company.

Discussion
Connections between Aalto’s wood reliefs and those of Arp and the material theories
of Moholy-Nagy were noted earlier in the opening section of this article, but without
further elaboration. Readers interested in Moholy-Nagy’s influence are recommended
to consult Pelkonen’s discussion, which summarizes key ideas in Moholy-Nagy’s book
Von Material zu Architektur and its impact on the wood reliefs and the Aaltos’ work.74
The discussion here will focus instead on the similarities and differences between Aalto
and Arp’s reliefs. It is important to address the connection with Arp in more detail,
as Pelkonen and Eisenbrand have also further emphasized Arp’s wood reliefs as an
important influence for Aalto and highlighted their similarities, respectively.75 Recent
exhibitions on Aalto at the Vitra Design Museum in Germany and the Ateneum Art
Museum in Finland have intended to develop this narrative further.76

While the curving and organic forms of Arp’s wood reliefs certainly bear a resemblance
with those of Aalto’s and may have been an important inspiration, there are also sev-
eral critical differences that have been either overlooked or ignored in the previous
literature already noted. For instance, Arp’s use of paint and especially color to create
contrast between different shapes and forms differs significantly from the consistent
presentation of natural, plain wood surfaces in Aalto’s reliefs [2]. Although also exe-
cuted in wood and plywood, Arp’s reliefs are relatively flat in their actual depth, and
could be easily made in a variety of different materials to achieve the same formal and
artistic results. The same cannot be said when considering many of Aalto’s wood reliefs
as experimental models in the context of furniture and architectural design, as the
resultant forms must be made in wood and entail a functional dimension. Furthermore,
as abstract works of art, without an indication of materiality, Arp’s reliefs do not convey

Alvar Aalto’s Wood Reliefs

164
 a specific sense of scale. Aalto’s reliefs and their curved forms, however, are firstly and
firmly rooted in technique, demonstrating an informed designer’s respect and under-
standing for the natural grain and materiality of wood. This key difference in materiality
is perhaps best emphasized by Aalto himself, in an interview with Karl Fleig entitled
‘The Relationship Between Architecture, Painting, and Sculpture’:

For me, wood is not a neutral substance, it is more: it is a living material, produced
by growing fibers, something like the human muscular system. It is therefore im-
possible for me to carve figures out of wood as though it were cheese. In my wood
forms, I therefore always follow – or at least try to follow – the structure of the
wood as it has grown.77

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So while Aalto was familiar with the biomorphic forms of Arp’s wood reliefs, most likely
through experiences with Giedion in Zurich, Aalto’s intentions as a designer towards
material and making modern furniture for everyday life set his wood reliefs firmly
apart.78 Arp’s reliefs were formal and aesthetic works belonging to art, but Aalto’s
reliefs were technical, formal, and exhibition models that were relevant to architecture
and design, in addition to art and sculpture.

Conclusion
An examination of Aalto’s wood reliefs as technical, formal, and exhibition models
emphasizes their relatively complex, multifaceted nature and relationship to architec-
ture, furniture design, and Artek. Aalto once described the connection between archi-
tecture and furniture design as the former simply providing a context for designing the
latter, with suitable and well-designed furniture contributing to an architectural whole-
ness.79 The present article adds to this general understanding by showing how the
reliefs could engage with aspects related to technique, form, and promotion, but also
exert an extended influence in the fields of architecture, furniture and interior design.
The experimental nature of many wood reliefs in the 1930s further complemented
some of Aalto’s most important lectures, thereby supporting the development and mu-
tual interaction of new ideas, concepts, and forms in furniture and architectural design.
As exhibition pieces and symbols of Artek, however, the wood reliefs additional role
in terms of propaganda should not be underestimated. Far more than simple material
studies or experiments, the wood reliefs were therefore critical to Aalto’s furniture,
architecture, and promotion as a prominent modern architect and designer.

Mihoko Ando
PhD Candidate
Dept. of Architecture and Architectural Engineering
Graduate School of Engineering, Kyoto University, Japan
E-mail: ando.mihoko.48v@st.kyoto-u.ac.jp

Patrick H. Fleming
Engineer
Conzett Bronzini Partner AG, Chur, Switzerland

Mihoko Ando is an architect and PhD candidate at Kyoto University, in Japan. Her
doctoral studies have concentrated on Alvar Aalto’s design process for furniture
and architecture, with a particular focus on the architect’s churches in the 1950s.
Throughout her studies, she has visited and photographed over fifty Aalto buildings
in Europe. During 2011–12, she was a visiting researcher at the Alvar Aalto Academy,

Mihoko Ando and Patrick H. Fleming

165
and at Aalto University from 2011–16. She has presented and published her work on
Aalto in both Japan and Europe.

Patrick H. Fleming studied engineering in Canada and completed his doctoral studies
with a focus on wood construction and architecture at the University of Cambridge,
UK. He currently works as an engineer in Switzerland, and has published and
presented work in Europe and Canada on both historical and contemporary wood
buildings.

If you have any comments to make in relation to this article, please go to the journal website on

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http://jdh.oxfordjournals.org and access this article. There is a facility on the site for sending e-mail
responses to the editorial board and other readers.

Acknowledgements: Co-author Ando would like to thank Ville Kokkonen and Jukka Korhonen for
their helpful discussions. The historical photographs of the wood reliefs presented in this article were
generously provided by the Alvar Aalto Museum, Finland, with the much-appreciated help of Curator
Timo Riekko. This work was supported by the Kyoto University Foundation, the Lixil JS Foundation
(formerly the Tostem Building Material Industry Promotion Foundation), and the Finnish Government
and Centre for International Mobility.

Notes and Geopolitics (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009),

1 Writing in 1980, Schildt provided the following list of
Aalto exhibitions that featured wood reliefs, in add-
ition to the 1933 ‘Wood Only’ exhibition in London:
‘New York, 1938; Zurich, 1948 and 1964, Paris, 1950
and 1966, Florence, 1965, and Stockholm, 1969’. The
list could be easily expanded to include exhibitions in
recent years, for example, Weil am Rhein (Vitra Design
Museum), 2014; New York (Bard Graduate Center),
2016; and Helsinki (Ateneum), 2017. See Göran
Schildt, ‘Alvar Aalto’s Wood Reliefs’, Mobilia 296/297
(1980): 30.
2 Alvar Aalto, ‘Standard Wooden Furniture at the Finnish
Exhibition’, The Architectural Review 445 (1933): 220–21.
3 Nina Stritzler-Levine and Timo Riekko, eds., Artek and the
Aaltos, (New York: The Bard Graduate Center, 2016), 78.
4 Artek Celebrates Its 80th Anniversary at Salone
Internazionale Del Mobile , 2015, www.artek.fi/news/
pressreleases/561 accessed 18 March 2016.
5 Aalto later credited Hirn as a key influence on his de-
sign process and the importance of play without practical
purposes. See Göran Schildt, Modern Finnish Sculpture
(London: George Weidenfeld and Nicolson Ltd, 1970), 15.
6 Among many examples, see Malcolm Quantrill, Alvar
Aalto: a Critical Study (London: Secker & Warburg, 1983),
252; Juhani Pallasmaa, ed., The Language of Wood, 2nd
ed. (Helsinki: Museum of Finnish Architecture, 1994), 208;
Eeva-Liisa Pelkonen, Alvar Aalto: Architecture, Modernity,
144–51; Kazuki Takizawa and Masayuki Irie, ‘Alvar Aalto’s
View of Nature—From His Experimental Bending of Wood
Sculpture’, Summaries of Technical Papers of Annual
Meeting 2012 (Architectural Institute of Japan, 2012),
399–400.
7 Alvar Aalto, Alvar Aalto in His Own Words, ed. Göran
Schildt, (New York: Rizzoli, 1998), 108.
8 Pelkonen, op.cit., 143.
9 Göran Schildt, Alvar Aalto - the Decisive Years, (New York:
Rizzoli, 1986), 78–80, 257.
10 Schildt, ‘Alvar Aalto’s Wood Reliefs’: 30.
11 Marianna Heikinheimo, ‘Alvar Aalto’s Patents’ Ptah 2
(2004): 9–16.
12 Pelkonen, op.cit., 148–53.
13 For example, see the three recent exhibitions from note 1:
Weil am Rhein (Vitra Design Museum), 2014; New York (Bard
Graduate Center), 2016; and Helsinki (Ateneum), 2017.
14 One exception was the 2007 exhibition ‘Puun Ulottuvuuksia:
Some Dimensions on Wood’ at the Alvar Aalto Museum
in Jyväskylä, Finland, which included at least eight of the
wood reliefs presented in Figure 2, and several large-scale
reliefs designed by Aalto in the 1960s and 1970s. For an ex-
ample of the latter, see the 1965 wood relief entitled ‘Blue
Bord’ on the cover of Aila Kolehmainen, ed., Alvar Aalto
Puu Taipuu Det Formbara Träet. Helsinki: Alvar Aalto Säätiö,
2010.

Alvar Aalto’s Wood Reliefs

166
15 While it is possible that more than twenty small-scale wood
reliefs were made, the authors could find no evidence or
photographs in the Alvar Aalto Museum archives of add-
itional reliefs to support such a claim when visiting the
archive in February, 2015. Regarding Aalto’s later reliefs,
for example, the large wood relief entitled ‘Tekniikan sym-
boli’ (Symbol of Technology) was designed in 1966 specif-
ically for the main lecture hall of the Helsinki University of
Technology in Otaniemi (now Aalto University). See Jaakko
Penttilä, ‘Building Alma Mater’, in Alvar Aalto Architect:
University of Technology, Otaniemi 1949–74, ed. Mia
Hipeli, vol. 13 (Helsinki: Alvar Aalto Academy, 2008),
32–33.
16 In Figure 1a, we can see a simple relief composed of four
repeated sections of the curved seat of Aalto’s stackable
‘Hybrid Chair’. Additional historical photographs of the
1933 ‘Wood Only’ London exhibition further show another
two reliefs not included in Figure 2: one demonstrating the
intermediate stages for making an ‘L-Leg’, and another made
with a single thin meandering strip of wood. In Figure 1c, the
relief on the far right is composed as a group of 13 ‘L-Legs’.
17 For example, the three exhibitions from Note 1: Weil
am Rhein (Vitra Design Museum), 2014; New York (Bard
Graduate Center), 2016; and Helsinki (Ateneum), 2017.
18 According to Schildt, the same person from Korhnonen’s
factory who made the original reliefs also made these lim-
ited edition replicas in 1979. This person was most likely
Jaakko Koskinen. Each replica was numbered and signed
by Alvar Aalto’s second wife, Elissa Aalto, and they were
made for an international ‘memorial exhibition’ following
Alvar Aalto’s death in 1976. They were then later sold to
raise funds to allow the Alvar Aalto Foundation to pur-
chase the Aalto Studio building. See Schildt, ‘Alvar Aalto’s
Wood Reliefs’, 30–36.
19 Harry Charrington and Vezia Nava, eds., Alvar Aalto: the
Mark of the Hand. Helsinki: Rakennustieto, 2011.
20 Ville Kokkonen (Artek Design Director) in discussion
with co-author Ando in Helsinki, May 2013, and Jukka
Korhonen (Director of HKT Korhonen) in discussion with
co-author Ando in Turku, October 2012.
21 Stritzler-Levine and Riekko, Artek and the Aaltos.
22 Although photographs of the production processes were
not allowed while visiting the Korhonen factory, seeing the
production of Aalto furniture was relevant for gaining a
better understanding of technical issues related to both
the wood reliefs and furniture.
23 Digital images of the wood reliefs in the Alvar Aalto
Museum archives are grouped together in a digital folder
and can be found using a straightforward digital search of
the archive catalogues.
Mihoko Ando and Patrick H. Fleming
24 For example, the Eames’ collaboration and working prac-
tices have been discussed in detail by Pat Kirkham, Charles
and Ray Eames: Designers of the Twentieth Century.
Cambridge: MIT Press, 1995. Regarding the Aaltos’ in-
formal collaboration with Korhonen, see Rauno Lahtinen,
The Birth of the Finnish Modern: Aalto, Korhonen, and
Modern Turku (Hämeenlinna: Huonekalutehdas Korhonen,
2011), 68.
25 ibid.
26 J. Stewart Johnson, Alvar Aalto: Furniture and Glass, ed.
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Susan Weiley, (New York: The Museum of Modern Art,
1984), 4.
27 Jukka Korhonen (Director of HKT Korhnen) in discussion
with co-author Ando in Turku, October 2012.
28 Koskinen is specifically named by Marja-Liisa Parko,
‘Workshop Recollections’, in Alvar Aalto Furniture, ed.
Juhani Pallasmaa, 2nd ed. (Helsinki: Museum of Finnish
Architecture, 1984), 96.
29 Nina Stritzler-Levine, ‘Artek and the Aaltos’, in Artek and
the Aaltos, op.cit., 69.
30 See for example, Ulla Kinnunen, ed., Aino Aalto, trans.
Jüri Kokkonen. Jyväskylä: Alvar Aalto Säätio, 2004; Renja
Suominen-Kokkonen, Aino and Alvar Aalto: a Shared
Journey: Interpretations of an Everyday Modernism.
Jyväskylä: Alvar Aalto Museum, 2007; and Stritzler-Levine
and Riekko, Artek and the Aaltos.
31 Charrington notes how Aino Marsio-Aalto was brought
up and worked with master carpenters at the Alku flats
in Helsinki. See Harry Charrington, ‘The Makings of a
Surrounding World: the Public Spaces of the Aalto Atelier’
(The London School of Economics and Political Science,
2008), 75.
32 Parko, ‘Workshop Recollections’, 94.
33 Arne Hästesko, Alvar Aalto - What and When? Helsinki:
Rakennustieto, 2015.
34 Pelkonen, op.cit., 51.
35 Lahtinen, op.cit., 17, 52.
36 Alvar Aalto’s reputation for spontaneously solving prob-
lems and proposing creative solutions is also noted in pre-
vious literature. See, for example, Marianna Heikinheimo,
‘Prototype of the Undulating Wooden Ceiling in Viipuri
Library’, Docomomo 4 (2000): 54–60.
37 Lahtinen, op.cit., 80.
38 Louna Lahti, Alvar Aalto - Ex Intimo: Alvar Aalto Through the
Eyes of Family, Friends & Colleagues, trans. Roger Connah
and Tomi Snellman, (Helsinki: Building Information, 2001),
158.
39 Pelkonen, op.cit., 114.
40 Lahtinen, op.cit. 78.
167
41 Ibid.
42 For a thorough overview of conventional wood bending
practices, techniques, and mechanics, see Edward C. Peck,
‘Bending Solid Wood to Form’. Madison: U.S. Department of
Agriculture, Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory, 1957.
43 Pirkko Tuukkanen, Alvar Aalto: Designer, 3rd ed., (Helsinki:
Alvar Aalto Museum, 2002), 59–64.
44 Harry Charrington, “Retailing Aalto in London,” in Artek
and the Aaltos, 127.
45 Parko, ‘Workshop Recollections’, 94.
46 Kevin Davies, ‘Finmar and the Furniture of the Future: the
Sale of Alvar Aalto’s Plywood Furniture in the UK, 1934–
1939’, Journal of Design History 11, no. 2 (1998): 147.
47 Lahti, op.cit., 160.
48 Laminated wood is a common term in the fields of design,
architecture, engineering, and construction. A relatively
broad definition is used here for consistency across these
various areas. See J. M. Dinwoodie, Timber: Its Nature
and Behaviour, 2nd ed., (London: Spon, 2000), 234–35;
USDA Forest Service Forest Products Laboratory, ‘Wood
Handbook, Wood as an Engineering Material’, ed. Robert
J. Ross, (Madison: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest
Service, Forest Products Laboratory, 2010), 11–12; and for
an overview of cross-lamination or cross-grained wood
lamination such as in plywood, see Christopher Wilk, ed.,
Plywood, (London: Thames & Hudson, 2017), 7–15, and
148–49.
49 Christian Müller, Holzleimbau Laminated Timber
Construction (Basel: Birkhäuser, 2000), 16–27.
50 Aalto’s critique of tubular steel furniture as practical but
also cold and uncomfortable was outlined in his 1935 lec-
ture ‘Rationalism and Man’. See Aalto, Alvar Aalto in His
Own Words, 90.
51 Pelkonen, op.cit., 113.
52 In practice, the main angle between the seat and back
of the Paimio chair is made through a simple moulding
process. Due to their relatively complex geometry, the
end loops of the seat and back, however, are bent using
metal bending sheets and a separate lever that can be
attached to the mould. See Figure 3b for a historical
photograph taken during the subsequent bending pro-
cess of an end loop for a Paimio chair seat and back.
The use of a metal bending sheet or bending strap is
taken here as the key difference between bending on
the one hand, and forming or moulding on the other.
53 Heikinheimo, op.cit., 11.
54 Peck, op.cit., 8–11.
55 Stritzler-Levine and Riekko, op.cit., 78.
168
56 Following the Milan exhibition in 1936, Aino wrote a letter
to Alvar explaining how she received many enquiries on
the price of the reliefs. Kinnunen, op.cit., 11.
57 See Schildt, Modern Finnish Sculpture, 16, and Sigfried
Giedion, Space, Time and Architecture, 3rd ed.,
(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1954), 602–603.
58 See Juhani Pallasmaa, ed., Alvar Aalto Furniture, 2nd ed.,
(Helsinki: Museum of Finnish Architecture, 1984), 129, and
Schildt, Modern Finnish Sculpture, 16.
59 See Schildt, ‘Alvar Aalto’s Wood Reliefs’, 30; William
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C. Miller, ‘Furniture, Painting, and Applied Designs:
Alvar Aalto’s Search for Architectural Form’, The Journal
of Decorative and Propaganda Arts 6 (1987): 24; and
Pelkonen, op.cit., 143.
60 Additional examples can also be found in Isohauta’s
study of Aalto’s various uses of wood in architecture. See
Teija Isohauta, ‘The Diversity of Timber in Alvar Aalto’s
Architecture: Forests, Shelter and Safety’, Architectural
Research Quarterly 17, no. 3 (December 2013): 269–80,
doi:10.1017/S1359135514000086.
61 Aalto, Alvar Aalto in His Own Words, 93.
62 Ibid., 100.
63 Juhani Pallasmaa, ‘Aalto Standards’, in Artek and the
Aaltos, ed. N. Stritzler-Levine and T. Riekko, (New York: The
Bard Graduate Center, 2016), 191.
64 Pekka Korvenmaa, ‘A Bridge of Wood: Aalto, American
House Production, and Finland’, in Aalto and America, ed.
Stanford Anderson, Gail Fenske, and David Fixler, (New
Haven: Yale University Press, 2012), 107.
65 Ákos Moravánszky, ’Baker House and Brick: Aalto’s
Construction of a Building Material’, in Aalto and America,
op.cit., 213–14.
66 Ibid., 213–14.
67 Mihoko Ando, ‘Retracing Alvar Aalto’s Design Process
Through the Sketches and Drawings of Vuoksenniska
Church (1955–8) Architectural Research Quarterly 20,
no. 4 (2016): 333–44, doi:10.1017/S1359135516000567.
68 Sarah Menin and Flora Samuel, Nature and Space: Aalto
and Le Corbusier, (London; New York: Routledge, 2003),
114.
69 Mihoko Ando, ‘Reprise and Continuity in Alvar Aalto’s
Design Process for Three Churches’, Journal of Asian
Architecture and Building Engineering 17, no. 2 (2018):
237–44, doi:10.3130/jaabe.17.237.
70 Charrington and Nava, op.cit., 151–53, 357–59,
71 Schildt, ‘Alvar Aalto’s Wood Reliefs’, 30.
72 Stritzler-Levine and Riekko, 74.
Alvar Aalto’s Wood Reliefs
73 Ibid., 72–75.
74 Pelkonen, op.cit., 144–50.
75 See Pelkonen, op.cit., 150–52; and Eeva-Liisa Pelkonen,
‘Symbolic Imageries: Alvar Aalto’s Encounters with Modern
Art’, in Alvar Aalto: Second Nature, ed. Mateo Kries and Jochen
Eisenbrand, (Vitra Design Museum GmbH, 2014), 124–27, and
487.
Mihoko Ando and Patrick H. Fleming
76 See M. Kries and J. Eisenbrand, eds., op.cit., 487–91, and
Sointu Fritze, ed., Alvar Aalto—Art and the Modern Form
(Helsinki: Ateneum Finnish National Gallery, 2017), 71–74.
77 Aalto, Alvar Aalto in His Own Words, 268.
78 For a brief discussion on Aalto and Arp and their mutual
acquaintances, see Fritze, op.cit., 74.
79 Pallasmaa, Alvar Aalto Furniture, 9.
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