Online: Furnishing London: Aalto and Finmar
Online: Furnishing London: Aalto and Finmar
Wednesday 5 November 2025 at 6.30pm – 8pm
Between the 1933 exhibition of Aino and Alvar Aalto’s furniture at Fortnum & Mason and 1939, 70% of all Aalto furniture production was sold in London, primarily through the Finmar company set up by Philip Morton-Shand. Finmar supplied clients as diverse as Heal’s, Alexander Korda, Tecton, John Piper, and Kells Colliery, and became the model for the Aaltos when they later set up Artek in Helsinki.
The lecture by Harry Charrington explores the unique qualities that made Aalto furniture so appealing to the London public and architects alike, and examines how Finmar promoted and marketed it through specialist and mass media. A story involving, among others, Hubert de Cronin Hastings, Laszló Moholy-Nagy, and Herbert Read, as well as Shand. The lecture concludes that furniture and Finmar became the basis for the enduring connection between Finnish and British architecture.
Dr Harry Charrington is Professor of Architecture at the University of Westminster. He has combined academia and practice in the UK and Finland, including working for Elissa Aalto at the Aalto atelier in Helsinki. His oral history of the Aalto atelier ‘Alvar Aalto: the Mark of the Hand’ (2011) won the RIBA President’s Award for Research.
This booking is for online Zoom lecture. For in-person event book here.
C20 Society Member £6;
Non-Member £8;
Young C20 member free*;
Student £4 **
*For Young C20 members, please email coordinator@c20society.org.uk to secure a place.
**For student pricing please select from the dropdown option next to ‘membership number’ on the booking form below.
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Note: This event is hybrid and is being run both in-person at Cowcross Street Gallery and online via Zoom. The event will be recorded and offered as a catch-up lecture for those who have booked and will be available for two weeks.
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The Twentieth Century Society is an IHBC (Institute of Historic Building conservation) recognised CPD provider.
The Twentieth Century Society is a registered charity, no 1110244
Image above: Inside Royal Festival Hall, photo by University for the Creative Arts, CC BY 2.0