Aalto stool E60, dark blue - birch

The Aalto Stool E60 has new, bold colors thanks to the collaboration between Artek and designer Hella Jongerius. This version combines a dark blue seat with clear-lacquered legs. 

Artek’s Stool E60, designed by Alvar Aalto, is one of the icons of Finnish furniture design. Aalto stool is still today a beautiful, genius product, whose simple shape will always be modern. Four-legged E60 stools are perfect extra chairs, easily stackable as a beautiful tower when they are not needed. At the same time, Aalto stool can be used as a small table, for instance next to an armchair or in the bedroom.

The Aalto stool was presented for the first time in 1933 and it was a sensation in the design world of its time. The stool’s revolutionary L-leg structure was a major boost for all the modern Scandinavian design. To bend the leg of Aalto’s stool, the same technique is still in use: a piece of straight, solid birch was sawn open at the end in the direction of the fibres, forming the shape of a fan. Thin pieces of plywood were then glued in the grooves. This structure makes it possible to bend the wood by heating or steaming the desired angle and when dry, it will have a very strong texture that can be easily joined to the seat. 

Alvar Aalto

Hella Jongerius

Artek was founded in 1935 by four young idealists – Alvar and Aino Aalto, Nils-Gustav Hahl and Maire Gullichsen published a design manifesto inspired by functionalism, stating that Artek’s aim was “to sell furniture and to promote modern culture of habitation by exhibitions and other means”. Since its foundation, Artek has played in the intersection of design, architecture, and art, making Finnish design and Alvar Aalto's furniture known all over the world.