Alvar Aalto

Alvar Aalto was the first designer that conducted new experiments with wood. In 1924 he married the designer, Aino Mariso and for five years they experimented together into the bending of wood. He discovered that the laminated wood and plywood are his materials of choice in 1929. These experiments resulted in Aalto’s most original chairs, the No 41(Paimio) and the No 31 (cantilevered). By these experiments and ground breaking products of the bending of wood, Aalto had solved one of the problems in design where not everything had to be straight lines or stiff.

No 41 Paimio

The Paimio was a very successful chair, it was one of his famous works. "This chair is made out of laminated and solid birch frame. Brich is a very flexible and springy material. The seat is made from bent plywood. The scrolls at the back of the chair have been bent into such a shape by removing several layers of plywood." (  Charlotte and Peter Fiell. Design of the 20^th Century). Aalto got inspired by a designer from the Bauhaus, Marcel Breuer who did experimentation on the bending of the steel tubing which from this experiments the Wassily Chair was produced. It is very similar to what Aalto did with the Paimio instead the bending of steel, bending of wood.

 Wassily Chair

Alvar Aalto did also the Model 31. the Cantilevered he build it the same period of the Paimio. It is very similar to what he already produced this is more of a classic chair than a lounge chair. It is made in a curve plywood attached to two bending wood. With this help of bending it also have arm rests. In my opinion both of these chairs are amazing of how the wood is bend with no technology it was just steam. The shapes are in a flowing movement and not having a corner anywhere. I would prefer the Paimio better than the Wassily Chair.

No 31 Cantilevered

Reference: Bernard Polster, Claudia Neumann, Markus Schuler  and Fredrick Leven, 2004. The AZ of Modern design

:Charlotte and Peter Fiell. Design of the 20^th Century