Scandinavian designers have beautified the world for the past three decades. One of the best was Alvar Aalto of Finland, whose designs are as popular today as when he first created them.

Were Alvar Aalto alive today, his reaction to the popularity of his designs would probably be mixed, a combination of satisfaction he'd feel at the continued accessibility of his designs and his bemusement at the piety reserved for these early modern classics.

One of Aalto's goals from the outset was to devise furnishings that could be reproduced from standardized materials, when he accessorized the interiors for public or private buildings for which he'd been commissioned. While most of his contemporaries were engaged in perfecting unique pieces for a particular installation, few simultaneously planned an important piece of architecture and assembly-line fittings.

In 1936, entered the competition for the design of Finland's Pavilion for the Paris World's Exhibition and for objects that might be exhibited in it .Among them was a vase containing four dozen daffodils as if blown by the wind. Its fluid shape is as eternal as a wave, suggesting various modifications and adaptations.

While it’s fitting to commemorate Aalto's vase in this way, it’s perhaps just as important to pay homage to the thinking behind the piece. It embodies principles of the best of Finnish design. The final meaning of the object is determined by the user. It’s not imposed on the piece by the designer. The vase echoes the formlessness of the materials it’s meant to hold. It looks as beautiful containing four dozen daffodils as it does with just a handful of tulips leaning over one side, as if with the wind. Its fluid shape is as eternal as a wave, suggesting a reason for its continuous appeal.

In such a piece, art and industrial design merge, blurring the distinction between use and esthetic. This is just as the architect intended. There is a distinction about its form,a universality about its appeal. While the reverence for Alvar Aalto's vase is flattering, it is undeserved in one sense.

And though it has found a place in the prestigious design collections of the museums of the world, it’s equally comfortable on the kitchen table of anyone's home.

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