Students from Swiss design school ÉCAL have used material offcuts and production rejects from Finnish manufacturer Artek to create a collection of toys.

A modernist-style doll's house, a balance bicycle, a wheelie chair and a cuddly sheep are among the designs created by second-year students from ÉCAL's Bachelor Industrial Design programme.

Others include plush toys shaped like sea creatures, a playground slide and a hanging ladder "to reach for the stars".

The objects were created under the guidance of Swiss-French designer and ÉCAL tutor Julie Richoz.

Richoz took 27 students to Turku in Finland to visit the factory of Artek, the furniture brand established in 1935 by the country's most famous architect and designer, Alvar Aalto.

Here, the students collected both material offcuts and half-finished production pieces that had been rejected.

As a result, the designs feature recognisable elements from various classic Alvar Aalto designs.

Designers Jessy Bueno, Léo Crespin, Aramis Rüdisühli, Nicolas Honegger, Bruno Pauli Caldas, Mattia Cook and Marco Renna all created toys incorporating the best-selling E60 stool.

A swing seat, a mini office chair, a coat stand and a minimalist sledge "to enjoy the snowy Lapland winter" are among the results.

Similarly, the wheels of Aalto's Tea Trolley 900 were utilised in Sam Lombardo's Carriola wheelbarrow, Antony Gallay's Kärry toy wagon and Shania Soares' L-Bike.

In line with Artek's ethos, which champions the use of natural and renewable materials, some of the designs are wooden versions of toys that are more typically made from plastic.

These include Cindy Sacher's Gone Fishing game, Robin Luginbühl's marble maze and a pre-school toy made by Inès Aznar combining natural wood and pebbles.

Others feature famous textile prints. Léonie Sammons turned these fabrics into playful puppets, while Aleksandra Nazarova created a table cloth that doubles as a play mat.

"Staying true to the spirit of Artek and its founders, the products promote conscious manufacturing and seek to highlight the natural materials that have gone into producing these designs," said ÉCAL.

The designs were first exhibited during Fiskars Village Art & Design Biennale 2022.

A selection of the designs are now being presented in exhibitions at Artek stores in Helsinki and in Tokyo, where the designs will be displayed alongside similar works by Musashino Art University students.

ÉCAL Toys with Artek is on show at Artek Helsinki Store from 9 January to 4 February 2023, while ÉCAL + MAU Toys with Artek is on show at Artek Tokyo Store from 4 to 20 February 2023. See Dezeen Events Guide for more architecture and design events around the world.

The photography is by Jasmine Deporta.

Project credits

Designers: Inès Aznar, Alicia Berclaz, Jessy Bueno, Mattia Cook, Léo Crespin, Charlotte Dubois, Sacha Dufour, Louise Dupont, Hugo Duport, Jade Eymann, Antony Gallay, Camila Hidalgo, Nicolas Honegger, Sam Lombardo, Robin Luginbühl, Julie Meyer, Aleksandra Nazarova, Sven Odermatt, Bruno Pauli Caldas, Annick Persechini, Marco Renna, Tiziana Rocha da Silva, Aramis Rüdisühli, Cindy Sacher, Léonie Sammons, Shania Soares, Noah Watzlawick
Partners: Artek, Fiskars Village Art & Design Biennale, Summer University programme of the Board of Higher Education (DGES) – State of Vaud