80th anniversary Stool 60

The 1930s marked a breakthrough for Alvar Aalto both as an architect and a designer. The simple, stackable and durable wooden stool represented a new approach to furniture design.

The important factor that has made the stool 60 famous is the way the legs are manufactured, which is based on Aalto’s invention for bending solid wood. The procedure is saw cuts are made in one end of the blank for the L-leg and thin pieces of veneer are dipped in glue and forced into the gaps in the resultant fan. Then the wood is bent to a 90-degree angle using heat and pressure. The finished leg is screwed directly to the underside of the seat. This method superseded complicated joints which called for a high degree of work by hand.

This was a major leap forward towards genuine series production of furniture, which is exactly what Aalto was aiming for in the early 1930s.

To celebrate Artek have produced a series of Anniversary special editions of the Stool 60. The Mike Meiré ones below are now in-store;

The three special editions by Rei Kawakubo, NaoTamura and Monocle are also available soon