Artek Aalto chair 66, wild birch

Artek’s Chair 66, designed in 1935, is one of the most popular dining chairs of Alvar Aalto and part of the permanent collection of MoMA, The Museum of Modern Art in New York. The timeless chair features Aalto’s patented L-leg structure, which allows the legs to be attached directly to the round seat. Compared to his other dining chairs, Chair 66 has a higher backrest that makes it comfortable to sit on and gives the design its distinct look.

Aalto chair 66 celebrates the authentic beauty of birch wood: this bench is made of so-called wild birch that shows the material’s natural variation in its entirety. By using “wild birch”, Artek wishes to challenge our expectations of visual uniformity in natural materials and to spark conversation about the need for a new, more sustainable esthetic. Due to climate change, Finnish wood nowadays has more color variations than before, as well as marks left by insects previously unseen in Finnish forests. These marks or knots do not affect the durability or usability of the wood but are only esthetic limitations.