Paimio Chair (Armchair 41)

Alvar Aalto, 1932. Made by Artek as Armchair 41 Aalto took the tubular steel chair's floating seat and did it in wood. A single scrolled sheet of bent plywood forms seat and back, hung between two closed loops of laminated wood. It was designed for the Paimio Sanatorium, a tuberculosis hospital in Finland, and the angle of the back was meant to help patients breathe easily. Its success at London's Fortnum & Mason in 1933 helped lead to the founding of Artek, which has kept it in production ever since.