Stacking Glass designed by Saara Hopea

This elegant Stacking Glass reflects Saara Hopea's functionalist ideals of economy and minimal design.

Finnish ceramicist, furniture, glass and silverware designer, Saara Hopea-Untracht was born on August 26th, 1925 in Porvoo, Finland. Like many of her contemporaries she excelled in a wide variety of materials, achieving silver medals for her glass at two of the Milan Triennale’s. 

Hopea is renowned for her clean undecorated glass forms produced in a rainbow of muted colours, which like Kaj Franck, followed the shapes of geometry.

Hopea worked as assistant to Kaj Franck from the early 1950’s at the ceramic manufacturer Arabia and the glassworks Nuutajärvi Notsjö. Trained as an interior designer, she was initially employed by Franck to assist him in designing interiors and furniture for the Arabia-Nuutajärvi showroom. But was soon asked to design ceramic wares for the Arabia factory and glassware for the Nuutajärvi factory.

The Second World War and its aftermath profoundly affected the ideals of many designers. At the core of these beliefs was the idea of democratic design; the creation of well-designed objects that everyone could afford and enjoy. 

During the 1950s the highly influential La Triennale di Milano exhibitions in Milan brought Finnish design, particularly glass, to the fore. As a result, Finland became regarded as a leading exponent of Modernist design.

Saara Hopea worked alongside Kaj Franck to modernise production at Nuutajärvi. Together they created innovative designs for mass manufacture which reflected their functionalist ideals of economy and minimal design. Their elegant minimalist glassware came to epitomize Finnish design in the 1950’s. 

Nuutajärvi, is Finland’s oldest glassworks and was founded in 1793. Leading Finnish designers of the post-war years at Nuutajärvi, such as Kaj Franck and Oiva Toikka helped make the glassworks widely known.