Savoy Vase

The Savoy Vase was named after a restaurant in Helsinki called Savoy which opened in 1937. Even though the vase is named after the restaurant  it was not made for it. It was a part of a series of designs which Alvar Aalto entered into a competition and won.
Aalto wanted the forms to blown into molds of thin steel sheets. This was so that molds were easily replaceable to make remodeling possible. He took part in production trying to soften the sharpest curves. Then the molds had to be done in wood. This continued until 1954 when the wooden molds were replaced with cast-iron molds.
The original height of the vase was 140mm.
There are a lot of people who have different opinions to the form of the Savoy vase. Some say it represents the characteristic shapes of the Finnish landscape. Others say it was Aalto's intention to make it formless, symbolizing formless nature.



Alvar Aalto: Savoy Vase (1936). Text by Jan Michl. 2013. Alvar Aalto: Savoy Vase (1936). Text by Jan Michl. [ONLINE] Available at:http://janmichl.com/eng.aalto.html. [Accessed 15 May 2013].