Stool 60, Alvar Aalto, Artek, Finland, c.1960 – 1980

Architects and furniture designers Alvar and Aino Aalto patented their method for bending wood in 1933:

“Saw cuts are made in the wood, extending in from the end thereof over the area of bend. Pieces 3 of thin material, such as veneer, are coated with glue and placed between the layers. The wood is bent while the glue is still wet, the layers sliding freely over one another, and being secured in their final positions by the setting of the glue. The slotted ends of two pieces of wood may be interleaved in this manner.”

The stool has become the perfect embodiment of Aalto’s invention, and the most simple of variations. A round seat made of plywood and solid wood, and legs of solid birch with their famous L-bend.

Quotes taken from the European Patent Office online library