Aalto 90 Pavilion by TABLEAU CPH x Iittala – Photography by Iittala.
Design, Architecture. Ninety years ago, Alvar Aalto sketched a vase for Iittala that would quietly redefine how we think about form. To mark the anniversary, the Finnish design house returns to that shape at an entirely different scale — introducing the Aalto 90 Pavilion, a seven-metre-high architectural installation by Copenhagen studio TABLEAU CPH, set against the harbourfront at Ofelia Plads during 3daysofdesign.
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The studio reimagined Aalto’s famed fluid silhouette as a structure you can actually walk into. Fabricated in low-carbon aluminium from Hydro, the Aalto 90 Pavilion brings design heritage, material innovation and contemporary architecture together in a single, luminous public landmark — shaped equally by light, sound and structure.
Inside, visitors move through the installation’s flowing contours, encountering the icon not as object but as space. At the heart of it, Iittala launches the Aalto City Vase collection — inspired by six cities including Berlin, Tokyo and Copenhagen — woven directly into the spatial experience rather than displayed apart from it.
“The Aalto vase is not simply an object — it is an idea that continues to shape how we think about design,” says Janni Vepsäläinen, Iittala’s Creative Director. “With the Aalto 90 Pavilion, we wanted to transform that philosophy into an experience people can enter physically — to step inside the icon and encounter its movement, softness and emotional power in a completely new way.”
That ambition is matched by the material logic. Produced using 100% renewable energy, the low-carbon aluminium profiles are extruded to two precise lengths and assembled without permanent fixings — allowing Aalto’s organic curves to read as almost weightless at monumental scale. The structure is designed to be dismantled and reassembled, conceived for life well beyond Copenhagen.
Modular, migratory and quietly radical, the Aalto 90 Pavilion is less a commemoration than a provocation: proof that the most enduring design ideas don’t just age well — they keep opening up.
All photos are by Iittala.
