Dining table - Olavi Hänninen (attrib.) for Aranjou, Finland, 1960s

Scandinavian brutalism has the particularity of embracing raw materials rather than concealing them: here, a solid elm tabletop with live edges rests on a crossed, pegged base, with the joints deliberately left visible. The piece is attributed to Olavi Hänninen, a Finnish designer and interior architect active from the 1950s to the 1970s, known for his work on the interiors of the Palace Hotel in Helsinki and for a furniture approach that blends natural materials with sculptural lines. The tabletop has undergone a complete sanding and a new finish application that has revived the grain of the elm; the already stable structure only required a cleaning of the joints. Scandinavian brutalist furniture from this period has seen a true resurgence in the vintage market in recent years, driven by the current taste for raw materials and sculptural pieces. At 201 cm in length, it stands out as the centrepiece of a dining room that does not seek to go unnoticed.