About Aalto

I arrive in Helsinki on a biting November afternoon. It’s barely 3.30pm and as the light fails, the city bursts into neon – a visual manifestation of the Finnish spirit. Despite winter’s freezing temperatures and fleeting daylight hours, the country consistently ranks as the happiest in the world.

I’m here to follow the story of Alvar and Aino Aalto, the pioneering Finnish architects and designers who shaped 20th-century Scandinavian functionalism, through one of their most famous designs, the Aalto (Savoy) vase, a 1936 modernist icon that is 90-years old. In homage, Iittala, the company that still produces the glass design, has released a new version in bubble glass – an iteration celebrating the artisanal mouth-blown process used to create the piece.

The Aalto vase was originally conceived for a competition held by Finland’s Karhula-Iittala glassworks, and introduced to the public at the Paris World's Fair in 1937. Its shape: a fluid, organic swirl, alive with movement, was named "Eskimåkvinnan skinnbyxa", referencing the leather breeches of Norway's indigenous Sámi women, which Aalto interpreted in sketches as a series of wavy bowls and vases. Not all were captivated. The design was deemed provocative, “the shock of the new”. 

The vase gained the moniker the "Savoy" when it was installed in the luxury Savoy restaurant in Helsinki that same year. Alvar and Aino’s interior featured signature elements of birch, mahogany, pine and leather-bound club chairs complemented by Dora Jung textiles, and the design has remained largely intact over the years (although it was renovated by Ilse Crawford between 2019 and 2020), representing a masterpiece of 1930s functionalism. It is also an exceptional dining destination currently helmed by chef Helena Puolakka.

The Aaltos’ have left an indelible mark on the city. Their functionalism weaves into an urbanscape of white-stone – Nordic architectural rigour puncturing 19th-century Neoclassical and Art Nouveau. And within these walls one expects to chance upon an Aalto design. My first encounter is at the arts-focussed Hotel St. George, where a special olive green version of Alvar’s "Angel Wing” A805 floor lamp was produced for its opening in 2018 by Artek, the Aaltos’ furniture brand established in 1935 with the mission of merging industrial production with artistic design. That mission continues to this day.

But to return to the story of the Savoy vase, one must leave the city and head south to the Karhula-Iittala glassworks. The site, resting beside a lake and employing 140 people (including 45 master glass blowers), has resided in the surprisingly verdant village of Iittala since 1881. Inside, the heat of the furnaces hit like the Sirocco, as its glassblowers work on a stage built around the fire to the melodic hum of flame and clanking metal, their labour a mesmerising performance akin to theatre. 

Glowing balls of molten glass (heated to over 1,100°C) are retrieved from the furnace on long blowpipes and turned to shape and cool, while, at the front of the stage, a master artisan, red-faced and cheeks puffed, blows a piece of molten glass. He steadily turns the rod as the glass inflates, before it is plunged into a wooden mould below the stage – a steady, rhythmic artistry, which continues when the vase is cut and polished. “It is the dance of the glass blowers,” says creative director Janni Vepsäläinen, who took the helm in spring 2023, having previously worked in fashion as head of knitwear for JW Anderson (she helped to create the famous cardigan worn by Harry Styles, which is now part of the Victoria and Albert Museum's collection). “The moving furnaces, the molten glass, the energy, this is what compelled me to work here,” she continues. “Glass is a moving, living, breathing material. The moment it stops moving it becomes something very beautiful, very fragile. It’s a metamorphosis.”  

Vepsäläinen spends time at the factory every week, working closely with master glass blower Tero Välimaa, who has honed his craft for almost 30 years. They are focussed on developing new designs that will propel the brand into the future – the glassworks also employs its own chemist who can adapt glass recipes to keep pace with change. But all here fiercely guard its centuries-old techniques. It takes five years to learn how to make an Aalto vase, and seven artisans working in unison to create one piece. The traditional alder wood moulds that are used in the process are crafted from logs that are submerged in the lake next to the factory and left there to soak-in the water for over a year – a practice that has continued here since the 19th-century (although metal versions are also part of the arsenal). When the logs are retrieved from the water, skilled artisans take three-to-four days to shape the moulds, which are then stored in water vats inside the glassworks, and can only be used a certain number of times before they are discarded. “It is such a precious, delicate and beautiful process,” says Vepsäläinen. “The tight relationship between the creative and the maker is fundamental to the design process.”

She is carrying on a tradition of collaboration. “What we do here is the perfect harmony between creativity, nature and modern technology. For the new Bubble vase, the process is to blow the glass in the mould and then dip it in soda water, which causes a chemical reaction, As a new layer of glass is added, the soda releases gas, forming air bubbles trapped between the layers. It can’t be controlled, so the bubbles are unique,” says Vepsäläinen, “which is wonderful because this kind of vase was very common in the ‘30s and ‘40s, it harks back to that era.” Alongside the bubble glass, there is also a collection of City vases: one for Amsterdam, Tokyo, Helsinki, Stockholm, Copenhagen and New York. “Why New York?” Vepsäläinen says later over dinner. “Because the Museum of Modern Art is very important in the story of the vase. They held an Alvar Aalto retrospective in the 1980s, which helped to seal it in the imagination of the public. Finally, after 50 years, they fell in love with the Aalto vase.” The reaction of journalists in the ‘30s had not been so favourable. One story tells of them throwing the vase from the windows of the train following the presentation. Vepsäläinen smiles. “Of course, the Aalto vase was just waiting for its moment. It was ground breaking, a shock wave, and I feel we are still riding those waves. We want to make more waves.”

In this spirit, they have invited artists and creatives to interpret the vase through their own lens, the results of which will be introduced in the coming year. Iittala is also planning an immersive experience at Copenhagen’s 3daysofdesign festival in June. “I want to blur the lines between art, design and fashion,” she says.