Alvar by Alexander Zhukovsky for Aliticon
Updated: Jan 7, 2020
Plywood as a woodworking material (and the technology of plywood bending) has a number of features. On the one hand, these features impose certain restrictions to the design, but on the other hand these same features fill the shape with unique characters.
We know a lot of outstanding products made of this material and world-famous designers who had worked with plywood. Today a lot of modern young designers use this material and create beautiful furniture pieces.
Working on Alvar, Zhukovsky was inspired by the works of Alvar Aalto, and Charles and Ray Eames. He considers design to be good when the physical and mechanical properties of the material are reflected in the shape of the product, and the shape is inextricably interwoven with function and ergonomics. In the side view, the Alvar chair looks like a few thin twisted lines that support each other. These lines transmit the strain to each other and distribute it among themselves in the correct proportions. To Zhukovsky this is the real beauty of the union of material, technology and function.
In the process of creating the prototype of this chair, he and his team did a lot of experiments and corrections. Only empirically they managed to catch the ideal ergonomic solution.
When he finished this chair and the final prototype was ready he named the chair in honor of Alvar Aalto.
