Artek was founded in 1935 by four young idealists Alvar Aalto and his wife Aino, with Maire Gullichsen, daughter of an important Finnish wood magnate and her husband Nils-Gustav Haha, a rich businessman and cultured collector; his name founds the 2 essential elements together according to its founders: art and technology.
The company’s business strategy is very clear from the start: “selling furniture and promoting a culture of modern life with the help of exhibitions and other educational means.” The founders hope for a new type of environment for the life of all days, firmly believing in a great synthesis of the arts and wanting to make a difference in architecture and design, as well as in urban planning.
Thanks to this sophisticated company, Alvar Aalto was able to avoid the inflation and the massification of his projects, which he considered precious as lithographs: his works had to be not too numerous, to contain the effects, and not too limited, not to enhance them in a sense too artistic. All Aalto’s works were carried out by Artek, often following actual needs, or the fact of having to furnish his architectural projects, as in the case of the Paimio armchair, created for the Sanatorium of the same name or the Viipuri stool for the library of the same name. For his projects, Aalto always starts from the construction techniques of snow skis, a product widely used in Finland, coming to exploit in addition to the folding of wood with steam, a technique already used by Thonet, also the natural humidity of Finnish birch wood .
Particularly famous are its stools, which have undergone a significant variation with the passage of time: in the 1940s the model consisted of 4 legs and a seat opposite them, joined with screws, in the 1950s instead the supports in plywood were designed to open up like a fan to form the top of the seat (or table), as happens in nature for some organic and vegetable conformations, without the aid of screws.
Alvar Aalto’s wife, Aino Marsio Aalto, has been the company’s artistic director for many years, designing herself some very elegant objects such as glasses, vases and small accessories, but also graphic fabrics and absolute colors black and white.
Today Artek is renowned for being one of the most innovative and avant-garde for modern design, with the creation of new paths between design, architecture and art. The collection includes furniture, lighting and accessories from the Nordic masters Alvar Aalto, Ilmari Tapiovaara, Tapio Wirkkala, Eero Aarnio and Yrjö Kukkapuro, but also contemporary collections such as the projects of the Bouroullec brothers.
Artek was founded in 1935 by four young idealists: Alvar and Aino Aalto, Maire Gullichsen, and Nils-Gustav Hahl. The business strategy of the company was “to sell furniture and to promote a modern culture of living by exhibitions and other educational means. The founders advocated a new kind of environment for everyday life. They believed in a grand synthesis of the arts and wanted to make a difference in architecture and design as well as in town planning.
Today Artek is renowned as being one of the most innovative contributors to modern design, creating new paths at the intersection of design, architecture and art. The Artek collection comprises furniture, lighting and accessories by the Nordic masters Alvar Aalto, Ilmari Tapiovaara, Tapio Wirkkala, Eero Aarnio and Yrj Kukkapuro. Artek also works with leading international architects, designers and artists, such as Shigeru Ban, Konstantin Grcic, Hella Jongerius, Harri Koskinen, Enzo Mari and Tobias Rehberger.
Artek’s collection is based on the original idea of standards and systems, initiated by Alvar Aalto’s bent wood experiments that resulted in the L-leg system. The L-leg, a solid wood leg with a laminated part bent at 90°, was patented in 1933 and quickly became a standard component of Aalto’s furniture designs. The standard and system thinking makes the furniture range versatile and allows it to be customised for individual projects. It’s furniture can be found in various types of spaces: public areas, private homes, museums, schools, restaurants, hotels and offices.
Artek’s headquarter is in Helsinki, Finland, where Artek also has a flagship store in middle of the town. International offices are located in New York, Tokyo, Stockholm and Berlin, where the international marketing team is based.