One of the 20th century’s great International Style architects, Alvar Aalto (1898–1976) is renowned for synthesizing the precepts of modernism with expressionist organic forms and natural materials. He is known for his contributions in architecture, furniture, glassware, and textiles. As Aalto is especially revered in his native Finland, one can dine, browse book titles, and see a symphony in spaces of his design—not to mention visit the architect’s former home and studio in Helsinki, Finland.

Architect Aino Marsio met Alvar Aalto in 1924 while working for his office in Jyväskylä, Finland, and the two were soon off on an Italian honeymoon. With a visual artist and art historian they established Artek (art plus technology) in 1935 to produce their bent-wood furniture. Although her work largely went unaccredited, Aino is most famous for her colorful glassware, still in production by Iittala.

Pasi Aalto is an architecutral photographer.

Artek was founded in 1935 by four young idealists, Alvar and Aino Aalto, Maire Gullichsen, and Nils-Gustav Hahl. The business idea of the company was "to sell furniture and to promote a modern culture of habitation by exhibitions and other educational means." The founders of Artek 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 town planning, as well as architecture and design. Today, Artek is renowned as being one of the most innovative contributors to modern design, building on the heritage of Alvar Aalto. Functionality and timeless aesthetics are the essential elements in the creation of every product that bears the Artek name. Artek's comprehensive furniture system is based on the original idea of standards and systems, which has its origin from Alvar Aalto's L-system. The standard and system thinking makes the furniture range versatile and allows it to be customized for individual projects. Artek's furniture can be found in various types of spaces; from public spaces to homes, museums to schools, and hotels to offices.

Furniture and home decor that transform a whole room; statement pieces; pieces with history; furniture with a name - you'll find countless of these unique products at connox.com, by internationally renowned creative minds such as Alvar Aalto, Verner Panton and Arne Jacobsen, as well as promising new pieces from emerging designers. Many of our products have won design awards and over 400 brands have put their names to the quality and production of our products. Close contact with designers and brands all over the world allows us to curate our assortment and ensure that only the best designs of all varieties are on the website. Find your personal jewel here.

Lesser known than contemporary Julius Shulman, Ezra Stoller was one of the great American photographers who captured the buildings and essence of modernism in the mid-20th century. Stoller was born in Chicago in 1915 and studied architecture at New York University before finding his passion in photography. He developed a special knack for capturing modern design in the perfect light from the perfect angles and though he did some work with color film, he became known for his black-and-white images. During his illustrative career, he photographed the works of Frank Lloyd Wright, Eero Saarinen, Louis Kahn, Mies van der Rohe, Alvar Aalto, Marcel Breuer, Richard Meier, and more. Stoller died at his home in Williamstown, Massachusetts, in 2004.

Finland's llmari Tapiovaara (1914-1999) was one of the greatest interior architects and designers of his era. Tapiovaara sought new solutions to improve everyday objects. During his long career Tapiovaara created dozens of iconic objects, many of which are still produced today by Artek. Tapiovaara is especially revered for capturing the essence of Finnish identity. Today the contemporary Tapiovaara Family Collection maintains the timeless heritage of a master of Finnish design. Ilmari Tapiovaara graduated in 1937 as interior architect from the department of furniture design of the Central School of Applied Arts in Helsinki. After graduation he obtained the position of assistant for six months at Le Corbusier’s office in Paris. In 1938 Tapiovaara began work as artistic director and designer at Asko Oy, the largest furniture manufacturer in Finland, and in 1941 he was hired as artistic and commercial director for the furniture company Keravan Puuteollisuus Oy. In 1946–47 Tapiovaara designed, together with his wife, Annikki Tapiovaara, furniture for Domus Academica, the new student housing facility in Helsinki. It was in that project the famous Domus Stacking Chair was designed. Ilmari Tapiovaara was a great admirer of Alvar Aalto’s work, and he wanted to create products based on the same ideological premises. Tapiovaara embraced the principle of social equality of functionalism, and felt that architecture was the starting point of his design work. In addition to dozens of chairs and other furniture—mostly intended for public spaces—Tapiovaara also designed interiors for banks, offices, hotels and showrooms.

Marianne Strengell (1909–1998) was one of the twentieth century’s most influential textile designers, executing many commissions for Hammarstrom, Breuer, and Eero Saarinen & Associates, including all of the textiles for the General Motors Technical Center. She led the textile design department at Cranbrook Academy in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan in the 1940s. Her students included Jack Lenor Larsen and Ray Eames, among many others. In 1949 she married Olav Hammarström, a Finnish architect who worked with Alvar Aalto and Eero Saarinen.

Marc Goodwin is an architectural photographer and Doctoral Student at Aalto University, Helsinki. Marc photographs, researches, lectures and writes on the intersection between photography and architecture, with a particular focus on atmosphere as a means of understanding that intersection. Working between Finland, Barcelona, and the United Kingdom, Marc specializes in architecture and interiors, with a focus on the variety of atmospheres the world offers at different times of day and year. Marc prefers to include the lived experience in the built environment, where possible--people, their things and stuff going on at the time of shooting. Marc believes buildings are even more beautiful when filled with life.

Tuomas Uusheimo is a Helsinki based architectural photographer with a master's degree in architecture from Aalto University.

“I have been interested in textiles ever since my mother and grandmother taught me to sew and knit when I was small,” says breakout textile designer Aoi Yoshizawa. Born and raised in Japan, Yoshizawa has studied her craft in Sweden, Norway, and Finland, where she is currently finishing her master’s degree at Helsinki’s Aalto University. “For pattern design, I like to work with simple elements and overlay them on top of each other, which gives depth to the textile,” she says. This is especially apparent in her Tokyo pattern, produced by Svensson, that manages to be very graphic and very organic at once. Next from Yoshizawa will be a new series of jacquard upholstery fabrics.

Selki-asema is a small design firm based in Finlands that is known for their fresh, innovate and fearless approach to design. They work closely with several well known Finnish designers and design companies to create their products, including Klaus Aalto, Jesse Pietilä, Elina Järvinen, and Mikko Laakkonen. Their products include lighting pieces, furniture, coat racks, and portable grills. They are named after the 1890's era former railway station that acts as their headquarters.

My name is Elena Kihlman. I design and produce home textiles, interiors items and handmade bags. I was born in Saint Petersburg in Russia. Since the early 90's, I moved to Finland where I graduated from the Aalto University of Art and Industrial design in Helsinki. In 2006 I moved to Italy, in Rome, where late I was open my design studio and Concept shop of the Nordic design. • Having had the experience of living in various countries my creative work is based and enriched by these three cultures: Russian, Scandinavian and Italian. • Since everyone has different preferences, needs and requirements, I made a point to design and produce a product that can be tailored to meet specific needs. • Other important think, I give big attention to the development of new high quality materials for our products. Often I create my own materials.

Mari Isopahkala is a Helsinki-based freelance designer who was born in 1978. She studied furniture and interior design at the Lahti Institute of Design and graduated with a Master of Arts from the University of Art and Design Helsinki (present-day Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture). She works widely between product, jewelry, furniture, light, exhibition, and interior design. She has won the Nova Nordic Designer of the year 2012 award. Isopahkala belongs to a several design collectives, for example Imu Design and Design Migration. With these collectives and other contemporary design groups Isopahkala has been exhibited with various projects in all over the Europe and United States.

Tuomas Siitonen is an architect and graphic designer based in Helsinki, Finland. He is formally educated in architecture and graphic design, with experience ranging from concepts to hands-on crafting. Tomas Siitonen Ltd. was founded in 2010. Before launching his own company Tuomas has been working on design projects for institutions, cities, companies and private persons in various companies. He has been a partner at Part., an office specialized in public space and participation (2008-2010), and M41LH2, a workgroup/think-tank (2001-2006). He has also been a proud member of Anteeksi design collective since 2002. Besides these collaborations he has experience of working as an employee: as a project architect for Tuomo Siitonen architects on Studio Widnäs among other projects, as a project architect for Heikkinen-Komonen architects on Villa Frida and as an intern at MetaDesign in Berlin. Tuomas honors smallness, collaboration and flexibility over bigness. To strengthen his own competencies he has a network of collaborators in urban design, landscape design, graphic design and lighting design. In addition to running his company he lectures at the Faculty of Architecture of Aalto University. He has also been invited to give talks and host workshops in Finland and abroad. One of his personal passions and object of love – and sometimes frustration – is the city of Helsinki. Tuomas has been arranging events and parties, planning temporary uses and urban interventions, researching the city on a theoretical level and writing articles in order to make Helsinki more open and enjoyable.

Richard Hutten (1967 Zwollerkerspel) graduated at the Academy Industrial Design Eindhoven in 1991. That same year he started his own designstudio, working on a variety of projects such as: furniture-, product-, interior- and exhibition design.He developed his 'No sign of design' and 'Table upon table' concepts. He is one of the most internationally successful Dutch designers; a key exponent of "Droog Design", in which he has been involved since it's inception in 1993. His work is part of the permanent collections of, among others, Centraal Museum Utrecht, Stedelijk Museum of Modern Art Amsterdam, Vitra Museum Weil am Rhein, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.Philippe Starck used some of Huttens designs for the interiors of the Delano Hotel Miami and the Mondrian Hotel Los Angeles. His clients include Hidden, Harvink, DMD, Planet, Sawaya & Moroni , REEEL, E&Y Tokyo, IDÉE Tokyo, Englender UK, S.M.A.K. Iceland, Pure-design Toronto, Centraal Museum Utrecht, MOSS New York, Donna Karan New York, Maxfield Los Angeles, Karl Lagerveld, KPN telecom and HRH Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands. His work has been exhibited inMilan, Köln, Paris, London, Berlin, Weimar, Toronto, Gent, Verona (Abitare il Tempo), Amsterdam (Stedelijk Museum), Rotterdam (Kunsthal and Museum Boymans van Beuningen), Utrecht (Centraal Museum), Den Bosch (Museum het Kruithuis), Breda (Museum De Beyerd), New York (Museum of Modern art), Kopenhagen (Louisiana Museum), Helsinki (Industry Museum & Alvar Aalto Museum), Bremen (Ubersee Museum), Montreal, Tokyo (Idée, E&Y), Osaka, Stuttgard (Design Centre) and San Francisco (Museum of Modern Art). His work has been published inall the leading international design magazines, among which: Items (NL), Design Report (D) Designo Interior (S), Blue Print (GB), Interni (I), Abitare (I), Design News (J), Wind (J), Axis (J), Vieuw on Colors (NL/F), Vieuw on interior (NL/F), Architectur und wohnen (D), Wallpaper (GB) Intramuros (F) and several issues of the international Design Yearbook (GB).