Aino + Alvar Aalto A Life Together

Heikki Aalto-Alanen

A visual biography of Aino and Alvar Aalto, who designed some of the most iconic objects of the twentieth century

Aino and Alvar Aalto together founded Artek and created some of the most celebrated objects and buildings of the twentieth century. Through letters, documents, drawings, and family photographs, Alvar and Aino’s grandson tells the stories of their life together, in Finland and abroad, drawing on many of the neverbefore-published letters they sent to each other and to family, friends, and colleagues, until Aino’s death in 1949.

Heikki Aalto-Alanen is the grandson of architects Aino and Alvar Aalto. He has previously served as vice chairman of the Alvar Aalto Foundation, been a member of Artek’s Board of Directors, member of the Alvar Aalto Academy Board, and held other positions maintaining Aino and Alvar Aalto’s artistic work and heritage. He is a lawyer by profession and has worked in the financial world.

A personal and intimate look at the unconventional lives of one of the most influential design couples of the twentieth century -

The first monograph to specifically examine and celebrate the life and work of Aino and Alvar as a shared endeavour -

Warmly and accessibly written by Aino and Alvar’s grandson, who has drawn on the family’s largely unpublished archive, including personal letters, snapshots, and sketches from top left to bottom right: Aino on the sun terrace at the Paimio Sanitorium, c.1933; Aino and Alvar in the early 1930s; Paimio chairs in the patients’ recreation room at the Sanitorium; Aino and Alvar in Norway in 1930; Letter from Alvar in Boston to Aino at home, 1945; Light study of the reading room at the Viipuri Library; Aino and Alvar in the garden of their new home in Helsinki in 1936; Aino and Alvar at the Artek-Pascoe store in New York in 1940

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