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Aalto Expert Lecturing in U.S.

Lahti will speak to the public at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. this week.

Meaghan O'Neill -- Interior Design, 11/6/2006 12:00:00 AM

Director of the Alvar Aalto Museum since 1973 and director of the Alvar Aalto Foundation since 1998, Markku Lahti may be the world’s most knowledgeable expert when it comes to the famous Finnish designer’s style and oeuvre.

This month, the Finnish professor, whose most recent books on Aalto include, Alvar Aalto: A Gentler Structure for Life (1998) and Alvar Aalto Houses (2005), will travel throughout the United States to lecture on the life and work of Aalto. Having already made stops at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Center for Architecture in New York, Lahti will head to Washington, D.C. on November 8, where a VIP luncheon with Finnish ambassador Pekka Lintu will be held, followed by an evening lecture at the National Building Museum, which will be open to the public. The tour is sponsored by Iittala, manufacturer and distributor of what is perhaps one of Aalto’s most famous icons, the Aalto vase, which was designed in 1936.

In honor of the 70th anniversary of the vase, which has been in constant production, Iittala has launched a special petrol-blue anniversary edition vase that will only be produced this year. The Iittala factory in Finland itself is celebrating 125 years in existence this year.