Alvar Aalto

Hugo Alvar Henrik Aalto

Presented By:Manish SinghB.Arch 3061016

History of Modern Architecture

AR 306

February 3, 1898 — May 11, 1976

Introduction

Finnish architect and designer

"Father of Modernism" in the Scandinavian countries

Work includes architecture, furniture, textiles and glassware

born in Kuortane, Finland

His father, Johan Henrik Aalto, was a Finnish-speaking land-surveyor

married architect Aino Marsio, who became Aino Alto

In 1952 Aalto married architect Elissa Mäkiniemi

Nordic modernism

Humanistic Modernism

Functionalism

Bio Architecture

Philosophy:

Embodied Rationalism

Philosophy:

Nordic modernism

•First and most influential architects of Nordic modernism.

•Nordic countries architects were practicing so-called Nordic Classicism style - a style that had been a reaction to the previous dominant style of National Romanticism - before moving, in the late 1920s

•Aalto's career spans the changes in style from (Nordic Classicism) to purist International Style Modernism to a more personal, synthetic and idiosyncratic Modernism

Humanistic Modernism

• Viewed the machine age as dehumanizing and believed it harmed social relationships and human worth

• Humanistic design• Clear message: Aesthetics and functionality belong to all

Functionalism

Usage dictates the outward form, without regard to such traditional conceptions of symmetry, proportions, etc

•Strongly influenced by the nature : Finnish forests and lakes•Bio-climatic solutions•There is a particular care in the use of natural materials, in the insertion of the building in the naturalenvironment, in the best sunshine conditions and natural lighting.

Bio Architecture

Viipuri LibraryAlvar Alto

Vyborg, Russia1927-35

Won the design competition in 1927 :: Nordic Classicism

The final decision on the construction of the library was taken in September 1933

Its final form it represented International Modernism

Sunken reading-well, free-flowing ceilings and cylindrical skylights, first tested in Viipuri

Destroyed in WW2, for a decade

Below ground (-1)

Rotated Plan of Robie House : F.L.Wright (1906-10)

Second Floor (+1)

Palau Güell , Barcelona (1885-90) by Antoni Gaudi

LUDWIG MIES VAN DER ROHE

TUGENDHAT HOUSE, CZECH REPUBLIC, 1930, MIES VAN DER ROHE

Otaniemi Technical University Library

Alvar Alto ,Otaniemi, Finland,1964-69

Otaniemi Technical University Library Alvar Alto ,Otaniemi, Finland,1964-69

•Red brick, black granite, and copper

•University include the main building, the library, the shopping centre, and the water tower, with a crescent-shaped auditorium at the center

•International Style

•Campus buildings pivot around landmark form of main auditorium, reminiscent of a Greek Theater

Colloseum

Greek Theatre



LARKIN BUILDING, BUFFALO, NEW YORK, 1904; F.L. WRIGHT



VILLA SAVOYE, POISSY, FRANCE, 1928-29; ARCHITECT: LE CORBUSIER

Furniture

• Armchair 41

• Designed originally to exude warmth and humanity in a Finnish Hospital

• In the permanent collection of the

Museum of Modern Art. Barcelona Chair

Larkin Building , FLW

Robie House

Armchair 41Trolley 900

Stool 60Table 83

Glassware

• Aalto vase (Savoy)

• “With its asymmetric shape and freely curving tapering walls it represents the quintessential qualities of Finnish design: originality, organic form, straightforwardness, aesthetic sophistication” - www.aalto.com

• Resembles natural lakes, cut by trees• Still produced by Iittala Glassworks

Embodied Rationalism

Alvar Aalto is often treated as the most importantearly Modernist

who doesn’t fit

The mainstream, nearly filmicnarrative begins with the work of Frank Lloyd Wright, and then,in a series of cuts, presents a central cast of characters in whichLe Corbusier, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe,and Walter Gropius play leading roles

Many of his design methods contravenethe precepts by which Modernism is typically conceived

If Modernism was concerned with mass production, Aaltoalmost defiantly celebrated the irregularities and idiosyncraciesof handicraft.

If Modernism aspired to universalism, Aalto—putatively, at least—practiced particularism. If Modernistsembraced structural rationalism, or at least the pretense of it,Aalto exhibited an only occasional interest in exhibiting thestructure of his buildings.

Aalto refused to integrate structure with form and masked hybrid structural solutions freely: load-bearing masonry here, steel beams, orpoured concrete there.

If Modernism insisted upon the symbolicimportance and pragmatic superiority of new materials, Aaltoliberally mixed old with new—wood; stucco; reinforced, poured,and prefabricated concrete; steel; brick.

If Modernism suffered adeep ambivalence toward typology and historic precedent, Aaltofreely drew from Eric Gunnar Asplund’s Stockholm Public Library,Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoye, the Vesnin Brothers’ project forPravda, Italian Renaissance palazzi, Finnish country churches,Karelian courtyard farmhouses, Roman amphitheaters, and more.

Source ::Ultraviolet: Alvar Aalto’sEmbodied RationalismHoward Design Magazine (2008)

If Modernism mandated a functional approach to planning andconsequently a formal abstraction, Aalto’s buildings pulsate withfiguration and symbols.

If Modernism redefined architecture asspace, Aalto celebrated objectness. If Modernism whisperedor shouted transparency, Aalto’s buildings revel in their longpassages of opacity

Source ::Ultraviolet: Alvar Aalto’sEmbodied RationalismHoward Design Magazine (2008)

For Aalto, rationalism and humanism intermeshed so muchthat the concepts were practically coterminous.Aalto’s rationalism better describes the cognitive realities ofhuman experience than did the multifarious rationalismsadvanced by his contemporaneous Modernist colleagues.

Aalto’s conception of rationalism and place it within these longstandingintellectual traditions. Only then can the alternativenotion of rationalism, which I call embodied rationalism.

Conclusion

Embodied Rationalism : Alvar Alto

Thank You