Alvar Aalto (1898-1976) is admired as a master of modern architecture and design whose unique aesthetic helped define Finnish design and introduce it to a global audience. Designed in 1936, and first introduced at the 1937 Paris World Fair, his collection of vases included the famous Aalto vase which caused a sensation with its dynamic wavy design, boldly differing from art glassware of the time. Today, the vase is one of the world’s most famous glass objects and a timeless staple for Iittala, the luxury art glassmaker based near Helsinki, Finland.
To mark the 90th anniversary of Aalto’s iconic vase, Iitalla and Hydro erected the Aalto 90 Pavilion for 2026 Helsinki Design Week. Thanks to Finland’s largest airline and flag carrier, Finnair (one of the oldest continuously operating airlines in the world), Pursuitist was invited to attend Scandinavia’s largest design festival and view the mesmerizing seven-meter aluminum structure built that mirrors the vase’s silhouette.
Designed with Lars Beller Fjetland and TABLEAU CPH and built in low-carbon aluminium from Hydro, the temporary pavilion sits at the meeting point of Finnish design history, architecture and material innovation. For Helsinki Design Week, it became the setting for an exhibition by photographer Arno Rafael Minkkinen, presented by Iittala as part of their ongoing The Spirit of Aalto project.
For more than five decades, Minkkinen has photographed the relationship between the human body and the natural world, working without assistants or digital manipulation. Here he turns to another lasting Finnish form: the Aalto vase.
Minkkinen returns to selected works from his archive and pairs them with new photographs made for this project. Shown as diptychs, the images move between past and present, body and object, nature and design. Rather than photographing the vase itself, Minkkinen responds to the spirit of the vase.
The exhibition is one element of The Spirit of Aalto, Iittala’s anniversary-year series inviting contemporary artists to interpret the vase’s legacy in their own practice.
Inside the pavilion, architecture, photography and design meet across generations. It’s a reminder that an icon isn’t fixed in the past, but a form still capable of producing new ideas, 90 years on.
Coincidentally, Aalto also designed Iitalla’s coveted Ultima Thule glassware expressly for Finnair, which was introduced on the airline’s 1969 maiden flight to New York. Collected and coveted by design aficionados, Ultima Thule glassware has remained in use to this day to serve a champagne welcome to Finnair’s business class passengers.
The entire Iitalla catalog of cherished art glass can be purchased at the Iitalla flagship store in Helsinki, and the special Aalto Design – Shapes of Wellbeing exhibit on Aalto’s decorative arts and architectural legacy can viewed at the Architecture & Design Museum Helsinki.
HOW TO GET THERE: Finnair flies nonstop from Helsinki, Finland to six cities in the United States: year-round from New York, Los Angeles, and Dallas/Ft. Worth, and seasonally from Chicago, Miami, and Seattle. Select Aalto furnishings can be found in the Helsinki Airport’s Finnair Business Lounge, a mid-century-inspired masterpiece which is free of charge for Finnair’s Business Class customers with a Classic or Flex ticket and for Finnair Plus Gold members. Finnair Platinum Corner is accessible with Platinum and Platinum Lumo cards.
