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07 The Architecture of Alvar Alto

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62 views79 pages

07 The Architecture of Alvar Alto

Uploaded by

henok7888
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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History of Architecture III

The architecture of Alvar Aalto

Chair of History and Theory of Urbanism and Architecture


EiABC
Ephrem Nigusie
Biography
• Alvar Aalto born in Kuortane, Finland 1898 and died in 1976
• He held the position of Professor of Architecture at MIT 1946
to 1948, and was President of the Academy of Finland 1963-
68.
Regarded as the first and the most influential architects
of Nordic modernism

His wife, Aino Aalto was also an architect and designer


• Although his early work borrowed from the
neoclassic movement, he eventually adapted
the symbolism and functionalism of the
Modern Movement to generate his plans and
forms.
• Aalto's mature work embodies a unique
functionalist/expressionist and humane style,
successfully applied to libraries, civic centers,
churches, housing, etc.
• His works are characterized by rationalist spirit but – mixed
of popular tradition and local materials, mainly wood, so
common in his native region.
• His buildings are warm and thought to be appropriate for
human beings and the dimension of human body, something
in which Wright influence can be noticed.
• Aalto’s mature work embodies a unique
functionalist/expressionist and human style, successfully
applied to libraries, civic centers, churches, and housing.
Although Aalto borrowed from the International Style,
he utilized texture, color and structure in creative new
ways.

He refined the generic examples of modern


architecture that existed in most of Europe.

His designs were particularly significant because of


their response to site, material and form
He synthesized rationalist architecture with an
organic language of form.

Combining materials and making the landscape


part of the building
Furniture and interior designs
• Paimio Sanatorium (1929-1933) was the first
building Aalto designed that was furnished
entirely with his own factory-made furniture.
• Aalto's modern furniture is essentially linked
with inventions about the bending of wood
• the interior design and furnishings had to be
in harmony with the architectural style of the
building.
Organic architecture
• “Nature, not the machine, is the most important
model for architecture” -Aalto, 1938
• The freeform, undulating shapes of the objects
in the Aalto collection are like the Finnish
landscape with its thousands of lakes – beautiful,
alive and untamed.
• While Alvar Aalto designed modern architecture,
his designs stand out from his fellow modern
designers of the time with his unique features
from nature and specified functionality.
Aalto’s Modernism
• “Aalto is firmly committed to Functionalism,
but a Functionalism that is grounded in
humanist priorities...The overwhelming
significance of his work lies above all in his
direct approach to the operational and
experiential factors in the functions of day to
day living”
Characteristics

• Aalto’s buildings tend to display curvilinear,


vegetal forms inspired from nature.

• modern use of materials, and ribbon windows.

• A mixture of Finish vernacular and the


modern aspects.
• Jyväskylä University Building (1951)
• House of Culture (1955
• Säynätsalo Town Hall (1949
• Stephanuskirche (1968)
• Viipuri Library (1935)
• Heilig Geist Kirche (1962)
• Muuratsalo Experimental House (1953)
• Maison Louis Carré (1959)
• Riola Parish Church (1978)
• MIT Baker House Dormitory (1948)
Jyvaskyla University
Säynätsalo Town Hall
Viipuri Public Library. 1927-35

• Undulating ceiling of
wood
• He also designed the
stools
• the elaborate acoustic
properties of the
ceiling
Muuratsalo Experimental House 1952-1953
Villa Mairea 1938-39
Villa Mairea 1938-39

• The masterwork of Aalto’s pre-war career


• Clients were extremely wealthy and told Aalto to
regard it as an ‘experimental house.’
• Aalto capitalized on the client in much the same
way as Le Corbusier did with the Villa Savoye
• L shaped plan creates a semi private enclosure
• Various textures and colours of wood applied
• Solar shading
• Strong integration with site
Monumental stair.
Columns are like “twigs”.
Maison Louis Carré
MIT Baker House Dormitory 1946

• Maximizing the view of the river for every student


Design Studies of various
configurations.
Riola Parish Church
“an instrument of healing”
• Paimuri Sanatarium. 1929-33 in Paimio, Finland

• A place for tuberculosis


patients
• The best cure for tuberculosis
was exposure to sun, fresh air,
and greenery
• Patients rooms in long 6 story
slab facing south
• Open roof terrace on the top
floor
• Precise attention was given to
sunlight control at angles for
winter and summer sun
Structural system
consisted of a tapered
concrete “trunk” from
which rooms were
cantilevered. This
allowed for an openness
of floor plan
International style characteristics.
– Ribbon windows,
– Little ornamentation,
– Few materials,
– Simple rectangular form
The best treatment for
Tuberculosis patients was being
around a green environment with
fresh air and sunlight.

The orientation of the building is


intentional so that the patient
rooms are facing optimal sunlight
towards the south.

Organize the rooms of his building


around a horizontal axis
Wolfsburg Cultural Center
Alvar Aalto – Vuoksennniska Church 1956-9
Furniture and products
Main characteristics
• Organic architecture + Modern architecture
• Natural forms, warm color curved or undulating
lines.
• Organic materials vs. artificial materials
• Finland vernacular
• Courtyards
• Extensive use of natural materials specially Brick
and wood
• A synthesis of rational with intuitive design
principles
Quotes
• "The best way to acquaint oneself with
architecture is not to read about it: it is to
look, touch, smell, and listen to it - a building
only gains meaning when it becomes part of
human life."

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