Death Anniversary: Alvar Aalto — May 11, 1976

Alvar Aalto died in Helsinki on 11 May 1976, having just completed Finlandia Hall, his last great work in the capital. In half a century of work he had signed buildings, furniture, lamps and glass, exported everywhere as the symbol of Nordic design. His lesson — a modernism attentive to natural materials and to the body of the person who lives there — still shapes contemporary architecture. The anniversary marks a total designer, from the building to the drinking glass.