Arhitektonski fakultet

Diplomski studij arhitekture i urbanizma

Andrea Mui, bacc.ing.arch.

Alvar Aalto

SEMINARSKI RAD

kolegij:

Englieski jezik u arhitekturi III

mentor:

Neda Bori, dr.sc.

ak.god. 2014/15

CONTENTS

1. INTRODUCTION 1

2. LIFE 2

2.1. Childhood 2

2.2. Student days 3

2.3. Jyvlaskyla 3

2.4. Turku 4

2.5. Helsinki 5

2.6. War years 6

2.7. Mature career 6

3. WORKS 8

3.1. Paimio 8

3.2. Viipuri Library 9

3.3. Villa Mairea 10

3.4. Syntsalo 11

3.5. Paimio Chair 12

4. CONCLUSION 13

5. VOCABULARY 14

6. LITERATURE 15

Alvar Aalto 1

1. INTRODUCTION

Alvar Aalto was one of the most influential architects of the 20th century, inspiring various

architects and artists even today. Due to his great versatility, his work is a combination of natural

science, art and history, with special regards for balance with nature and human needs. He

designed furniture, glassware, and also did paintings and sculptures, which he considered parts of

his architecture, as well as jewelry, typographical experiments, and was also actively publishing

essays and other writings on various subjects. Aalto was not only versatile but extremely

productive almost 200,000 of his drawings and 20,000 letters have been preserved.

Always searching for the most appropriate and most beneficial solution for the user, he was

also careful to consider the social aspects of the building, equally so in private single-family

houses as well as public buildings. Because of his work in many different fields of arts and crafts,

as well as producing works belonging to various styles, Aalto cannot be accurately placed in any

single category. He was almost everything an architect could be, all at the same time painter,

sculptor, furniture designer, critic and even a theorist.

It seems to me that there are many situations in life where the organization is too brutal; it is the

architects task to give life a gentler structure Alvar Aalto, 1955

fig.1. Alvar Aalto at his drawing table

Alvar Aalto 2

2. LIFE

2.1. Childhood

Hugo Alvar Henrik Aalto was born on February 3, 1898, in the village of Kuortane in central

Finland, as the oldest of five siblings. His father, Johan Henrik Aalto, was a land-surveyor, and

his mother, Selma Matilda, was a postmistress. Since his mothers side of the family was

Swedish-speaking, and his fathers side was Finnish-speaking, Aalto grew up being fluent in both

languages.

The memory of his fathers 'big white table', where his assistants worked and on which Alvar

first started drawing as a child, is one of the earliest from his childhood which inspired his

interest in architecture. His fathers role as a civil servant was probably one of the key influences

in formation of Aaltos opinions on social and political matters, since Johan was also the city

councilor in the Jyvaskyla, where he represented the liberal party.

His mothers father, Hugo Hamilkar Hackstedt, was a senior forestry officer and chief

instructor at the prestigious Evo Forestry Institute in Lammi. His opinions would later prove to be

one of the foundations of Aaltos respect for the natural environment. Also, the abundance of

forests and lakes, as well as great variations in natural daylight in Finnish landscape will

influence his designs in the choice of materials, use of natural light and free forms in his works.

The entire Aalto family moved to Jyvaskyla in 1903 in search of a better education for their

children. Aalvars schooling at the Jyvaskyla Lyceum was moderately successful because of

some problems with dyslexia. Nevertheless, he exceled in oratory and essay-writing, and also

contributed reviews and drawings to the local paper. He took piano lessons and studied painting

in studio of Jonas Heiska, where he became a gifted painter in watercolors and oil. He also took

part in various voluntary activities, as well as being the chairman of the drama club.

Three years after the family had moved, when Alvar was eight, his mother died of

meningitis. This was a heavy blow for him, and some even assume one of the reasons he tried so

much to achieve harmony in his work was to make up for what he had lost. Soon after, his father

remarried to his wife's younger sister, Flora, who had been working as an assistant in his office

while helping to look after the children.

Alvar Aalto 3

2.2. Student

When it came to choosing his profession, art competed with architecture. The turning point

may have been his time in the office of Jyvlaskyla architect Toivo Salervo during the summer of

1916. Saleryo was so impressed by Aaltos social skills, he said to him: You'll never be an

architect. Try for a career in journalism instead.

However, Aalto was determined in becoming an architect, and was supported in this ambition

by his father, who probably valued the social status that came with the profession. He began his

studies of architecture in 1916 at Institute of Technology in Helsinki, the capital of the Grand

Duchy as well as the location of Russian army headquarters. By the end of the same year, he was

shortly imprisoned under the suspicion that he helped the anti-Russian movement.

Aaltos studies were interrupted in 1918 because of the civil war which started after the

Finland declared its independence following the overthrow of the Russian Czar. While some of

his colleagues joined the revolutionaries, the Reds, Aalto managed to reach Jyvaskyla to join the

Whites together with his father and two brothers. He fought at the Battle of Lnkipohja and the

Battle of Tampere. Somewhere around this time, he managed to realize his first design, a house

for his parents at Alajrvi.

After the war, he resumed his studies until his graduation in 1921. He became involved in

journalism as a friend of the founder of the satirical magazine Kerberos, for which he

occasionally produced stories and drawing. In the years following his graduation, he worked on

several private commissions and made his first trips abroad. In this early stage of his career, his

architecture was influenced by Nordic Classicism, then dominant style in Finland which was a

combination of Art Noveau, Classicism and even Functionalism. Aalto was first influenced by

this style while working in Sweden as a student.

2.3. Jyvlaskyla

At first he tried to make a career in Helsinki, but decided to move back to Jyvlaskyla in 1923.

He didnt get the bank loan he needed so he took many smaller jobs outside of architecture, like

book illustration and journalism. He advertised his new office by installing one meter high letters

saying 'Studio of Architecture and Monumental Art Alvar Aalto' on the fence of the ground floor

of the City Hotel. During his time in Jyvlaskyla he participated in many competitions, designed

his first public buildings (Jyvlaskyla Workers' Club, Muurame Church, Aira Building apartment

Alvar Aalto 4

house), private houses and also did a lot of alteration work and renovation, mostly neo-classical

in style. In less than four years he had produced 34 design projects, 14 of which were built.

One year after his return to Jyvlaskyla, he married his assistant, architect Aino Marsio, who

is to become his partner, while making her own, independent career as an interior and industrial

designer. They had a daughter Johanna (Hanni) in 1925 and son Hamilkar in 1928. They traveled

to Italy for their honeymoon, and the influence of that journey can be seen in some of Aaltos

work. His designed his first public building, Jyvlaskyla Workers Club, as a small Italian palazzo,

and continued to use its concepts in his later work while mixing them with other styles, such as

neo-classical Muurame Church. Neo-Classicism remains a brief period in his career, and by the

1927 the influence of Functionalism, Modernism, Rationalism and International Style begins to

be seen in his work.

2.4. Turku

As his office grew and prospered, Aalto moved to Turku in 1927, closer to his largest

building project, the Farmers Co-operative building and also closer to Stockholm and Europe

and its new, modernist ideas. He began to travel abroad to Holland and France, and as a result,

his international contacts and large commissions increased significantly, and he quickly became

familiar with Functionalism and other contemporary trends. Aalto was influenced by the Swedish

architect Gunnar Asplund, whose work he admired, and also by his friend Sven Markelius, who

was involved with CIAM and invited Aalto to join in 1929. Aalto attended the Frankfurt

congress, and partially the one in Athens, but later left CIAM. During that period he became

close friends with artists such as Fernand Leger, Constantin Brancusi, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy,

Georges Braque, Alexander Calder and Siegfried Giedion.

Aaltos work begins to receive international recognition at the beginning of the 1930s for

numerous reasons, most important of which was the completion of the Paimio Sanatorium in

1933, which was heavily publicized around the world. Another key work which shows the turn of

his design style from classicism to modernism is the Viipuri Library (1927-35). However, despite

being internationally recognized as a pioneer in architecture, in his homeland he was still

underrated. Around that time, he came into some financial difficulties and had to negotiate a bank

loan and also move to a rented apartment and office in Helsinki, where he struggled with his

practice, building his first project in the capital only in 1954.

Alvar Aalto 5

Although he designed several of his building under the influence of Functionalism, that

period in his architecture was rather short, as he began to question its rules and ideas very soon.

He already began to express some of his doubts in his essays during the 1927, when he wrote:

there is no sense in inventing new forms which have no new content. In time, his criticism

becomes sharper and he begins with fierce attacks on Functionalism because of its inhumanity

and exclusion of the human factor from the design process, since he believed that the design of

architecture should be an integrated process Architecture not only covers all the areas of

human activity, it must also be developed in all of those areas simultaneously. If that does not

happen, we achieve only one-sided, superficial results (1940).

2.5. Helsinki

The entire family moved once again in 1933, to Helsinki. While Aalto had some problems

getting commissions in architecture during this period, his career as a furniture designer started to

advance during this period with the help of Marton Shand, who was inspired by his work and

offered to act as his marketing agent, and Sigfried Giedion who persuaded Wohnbedarf furniture

company to begin producing and selling his furniture. He held his first exhibition in London in

1933, which was followed by awards in Finnish competitions for glass design. In 1935, Aalto

founded Artek Wooden Furniture to oversee the marketing of his furniture and design products.

His wife Aino became the leader of the company and had developed it into an internationally

known name. He was finally accepted in Finland and elected on the Board of Finnish Association

of Architects in 1935.

The family finances improved and Aaltos built their own house in Helsinki with a space for

a small office in 1936. He received the commission to design the Finnish Pavilion for the New

York Worlds Fair in 1939, which attracted a lot of attention because of its unusual, organic

design. With the financial awards from the competitions, Alvar and Aino traveled to America for

the first time in 1938, for a period of six weeks, primarily to visit the Finnish Pavilion they

designed. In the following years, Aaltos connections with the US will deepen during several

visits, mainly to attend exhibitions featuring his works. During this time, he collaborated with

William Wurster, who was to become Dean of Architecture Department at MIT and an important

contact. Upon his return to Europe, the ensuing war interrupted the exhibition he organized in

Helsinki, as well as his plan for the launch of journal The Human Side.

Alvar Aalto 6

2.6. War years

Finland was invaded by the Soviet Union in 1939 despite its attempts to remain neutral.

Aalto has taken his family to Stockholm, but was called upon to join the army and stationed in

Kuopio. He managed to get transferred to an office position in Helsinki, and subsequently

avoided active service on the front. During the war, the province of Karelia was given to the

Soviet Union, which reflected on Aaltos architecture with the use of many elements of

traditional Karelian architecture, in a way that was pronounced more than was usual for Aalto.

In his efforts to assist in the war, he tried to contact several important international figures,

especially in the US, but achieved little save for personal results. He recieved invitations to the

United States for his entire family and traveled there for seven months in the 1940. During that

visit, he held lectures on many universities and was appointed as a visiting professor at MIT for

three months per year. There, he worked on the development of standardized housing he wanted

to implement in the reconstruction of Finland after the war. While teaching there, he also

designed a students dormitory, Baker House, which was completed in 1948. This was his first

building featuring red brick, the material which will define his next phase in architecture.

He became the Chairman of the Finnish Association of Architects in 1943 and retained that

position for the next fifteen years. He used his new position to implement the ideas of flexible

standardization through cooperation with Finnish Standardization Office, and also fought for the

independent profession of an architect.

In the period after his visit to the States, Aalto visited Sweden frequently from 1942 1945,

where he collaborated with architect Albin Stark, and together they designed several projects for

Axel Johnson, Starks rich patron. Despite the quality of those projects, none of them were

realized, as Stark died in 1945. After that, Aalto generally gave up on the idea of active practice

in Sweden, although he did participate in several competitions and eventually built a student

union building in Uppsala in 1963.

2.7. Mature career

After the war, Aalto became actively engaged in reconstruction work in Finland, designing

even the development plan for the entire ruined capital of Finnish Lapland, Rovaniemi, in 1945.

In 1949, Aino died of cancer, and three years later Aalto remarried to a young architect

named Elissa Mkiniemi, who had been working as an assistant in his office and later became a

Alvar Aalto 7

partner in his office. In the following years, Aatlos office grew significantly and his personal

style finally developed to its fullest. He became a member of the Academy of Finland in 1955

and then its president from 1963 to 1968, as well as receiving many high honors from different

parts of world. He won several important competitions, including Syntsalo Town Hall, the

Jyvlaskyla Institute of Pedagogics, Jyvlaskyla University and Helsinki University of Technology.

As his office expanded, his old house became too small and he designed for himself a new studio

building in Helsinki, which was completed in 1955.

During these years, Aalto did several mayor projects, culminating in several different plans

for Helsinki (1959-73), with which he suggested filling the void in the center of the city with a

line of buildings clad in marble, containing various cultural institutions. Only fragments of the

plan were realized the Finlandia Hall (1976) and an office building for the Helsinki Electricity

Company (1975).

The last period of Aaltos architecture is dedicated to great administrative and cultural

centers, some of which were realized completely (Seinajoki and Rovaniemi), and some only in

part (Jyvlaskyla). He wrote on importance of public buildings in 1953 Nevertheless, the role of

public buildings in our community must have the same significance as the major organs of the

human body if our communities are not to become polluted by traffic, psychologically unpleasant

and physically exhausting.

Alvar Aalto died in Helsinki on May 11, 1976, at the age of 78 years. After his death, his

wife Elissa carried on the work of his office until her own death in 1994, when Alvar Aalto

Architects stopped working after 71 years of existence.

Alvar Aalto 8

4. WORKS

4.1. Paimio

In 1929, Aalto won the competition for the new sanatorium in Paimio that is to become the

master-work of his functionalist period. Despite being based on the new, modernist style, Paimio

sanatorium already shows some subtle, but significant differences compared to the standard

functionalist approach. All in all, Paimio represents one of the key works of both Aaltos career

and the Rationalist architecture in general.

fig.2. Paimio Sanatorium

The location of the building and its relationship with the surrounding forest is carefully

considered, with it rising above the pines to gain maximum sunlight while also preserving as

much as possible of the forest. The sanatorium consists of four wings forming an asymmetrical

composition, each with its own separate function, connected by the area of the entrance hall. The

most important feature of the patients wing, the sun balconies, are designed in order to enable

each room direct access to the sunlight, but also to prevent too much light on the inside of the

room. The entire building is very carefully designed, down to the complete furniture and

equipment inventory and the coloring of the walls and ceilings. Some of the typical modernist

features include skeletal structure of the building, the use of large, striped windows, roof terrace

and the desire to use standardized products as much as possible.

Alvar Aalto 9

4.2. Viipuri Library, Vyborg, Russian Federation, 1933 35

Even in the design of the Vyborg Library, there can already be seen first traces of Aaltos

future organic style, especially in the free form of its wooden ceiling. That motif would also

appear in his Finnish Pavillion at the New Yorks World Fair as an aurora borealis wall.

The main area of the Viipuri library is the so-called book pit with its 'librarian's watchtower'

placed in the center, lit by numerous round skylights which rise above the roof surface in order to

solve the problems of winter snow and direct summer sunlight.

fig.3. the main area of the library

The highlights of the project include his use of abundant natural lighting, unpainted wood

surfaces and warm colors, as well as undulating lines in the interiors. All of these things show the

shift in his design from the strict and abstract modernist style toward his own organic style.

Alvar Aalto 10

4.3. Villa Mairea, Noormarkku, Finland, 1939.

His architectural masterpiece, Villa Mairea combines the international modernism and

Finnish vernacular tradition. Aalto designed Villa Mairea as a guest house for Harry and Maire

Gullichsen. With this house, his organic style emerges at last. He achieved this through the

skillful use of natural materials, especially wood, in its many forms, in order to create warm and

welcoming ambient close to nature.

fig.4. Villa Mairea

The skeletal structure is a functionalist feature of the house, yet it is positioned and shaped in

a way that makes it organic and natural. The openings of the building are formed in such a way to

blur the line between the forest on the outside and the interior of the house. Also, there are many

free-forms found throughout the house, from the shape of the outdoor swimming pool to the finer

details of the fireplace, as well as the eave above the entrance, characterized by randomly placed

thin wooden posts which make it appear as if it is a part of the forest.

Alvar Aalto 11

4.4 Syntsalo Town Hall, 1952

Saynatsalo Town Hall is Aaltos most prominent work from his red-brick phase, for which he

won the competition in 1949, during the final years of his work in the United States.

The building is a representation of everything Aalto admired about the European tradition:

democracy on a small scale, individuality, harmony with nature, moderation and elegance. It is

conceived as a Greek agora, a public square which was the meeting place for all the citizens and

on which all the important matters of state were resolved. The square courtyard is set one storey

above its surroundings and is enclosed by four wings of the complex which contain a variety of

functions. The access to the courtyard is via grassy terraced staircase at the west corner and a

granite staircase at the east corner. The dominant element of the building is the council chamber,

higher than the rest of the complex.

fig.5. the council chamber towering above the complex

The Town Hall contains spaces for business purposes, housing and a library in addition to its

basic function as a seat of the municipal council and administration. The entire interior, including

fixtures, furnishings, and lighting, was carefully designed by Aalto himself, with the use of wood

in addition to the red brick in the interior creating an interesting tactile quality.

Alvar Aalto 12

4.5. Paimio Chair

Aalto did a lot of furniture design, often for the purposes of his own projects. As such, his

furniture, lighting fixtures and other objects reflect the same stages as are seen in his architecture.

He always emphasized that these interior fittings were to be considered parts of his architecture

and not a simple additions to the finish product. He produced so much of furniture designs he

founded a special company in 1935 Artek to sell his products.

His experiments with the new materials and techniques lead to many innovative designs and

even some patents. One of most important examples of his work is Paimio chair, designed during

his work on the Paimio Sanatorium at the beginning of the 1930s.

fig.6. armchair model no. 31, designed for the Paimo Sanatorium

Alvar Aalto 13

5. CONCLUSION

The work of Aalvar Aalto is unique in its diversity of themes and mediums. He believed in

the complete design with the users wellbeing in mind. In his speeches and writing, he always

emphasized the architects responsibility as a servant of society.

Due to versatility, he tried to design everything in his buildings, down to the furniture and

lighting fixtures, but always with the idea of standardization and mass production in mind.

Despite following some functionalist ideas, he recognized their flaws very early and continued to

develop his own style more suited to the users. Like Functionalists, he often used the latest

available technology in his buildings, but it was never as pronounced as in the typical works of

Le Corbusier or Gropious, what sets Aaltos personal style apart as a first step in a new direction.

His buildings are much warmer and welcoming in ambience, reflecting his love of art and nature

in all its forms through the use of various materials and shapes.

Without the art, life becomes mechanized and dies, Alvar Aalto, 1947

Alvar Aalto 14

6. VOCABULARY

ALTERATION WORK (noun) modifications of the building in order for it to become fit for

a new purpose

BANK LOAN (noun) a larger sum of money borrowed from the bank, to be returned with

interests, in smaller payments over longer time period

CIVIL SERVANT (noun) a person working in government administration

TO COLLBORATE (verb) to work together with someone on a project

EAVE (noun) the lower overhanging part of the roof, usually above the entrance area

FORESTRY OFFICER (noun) a person responsible for managing the forests, a member of

the state forestry organization

INTERIOR FITTINGS (noun) the furniture and the equipment inside the building

LAND-SURVEYOR (noun) a person responsible for properly measuring and mapping the

landscape features, including the surface and shape of the land lots

LIGHTING FIXTURES (noun) the part of the lighting which contains the light bulb (or some

other lighting element), attached to the wall or ceiling

MOTIF (noun) a recurring, recognizable element or theme in art

ORATORY (noun) the art of public speaking

POLITICAL PARTY (noun) an organized group of people sharing the same political

opinions and goals, working together to gain political power

PATRON (noun) a person supporting another individual or organization by using his/her

money and/or influence

POSTMISTRESS (noun) a woman working in a post office

UNDULATING (adj) in a wave-like form

Alvar Aalto 15

7. LITERATURE

1. Alvar Aalto, The Finnish Building Centre, Markku Lahti Maija Homa and Vammalan

Kirjapain Oy, Vammala 1998 Markku Lahti, Maija Homa,

2. Alvar Aalto, Nicholas Ray, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2005

3. Modern North, Julie Decker, Princeton Architectural Press New York 2010

4. Encyclopedia of 20th-century architecture, Magnano Lamugnani, Vittorio,

5. www.archdaily.com (October 23, 2014)

6. www.alvaraalto.fi (October 25, 2014)

7. www.pinterest.com (October 27, 2014)