Architects and Technology Index

The Encyclopaedia of Architectural Technology [London: Wiley 2002]

Alvar Aalto was born in 1898 and grew up in Jyvaeskalae in central Finland, at a time when Finland was still a province of Russia; it fought for and gained its independence during the Revolution in 1917, and again during the Second World War against both the Soviet Union and Germany. National identity was of particular importance; Aalto started in the nationalistic classical style of his contemporaries but converted to the Modern Movement during the 1920s.

Three buildings established Aalto's credentials as a Modern Movement architect: the competition entry for the Municipal Library, Viipuri (1927; built 1930-35), and the Turun Sanomat newspaper offices (1927-29) and the Paimio Sanatorium (1928; built 1929-33) in the culturally independent city of Turku. Even in these early works, however, one can see a divergence from programmatic Modernism in the environmental and constructional adaptations, as well as the aesthetic preferences. The asymmetrical columns in the production hall of the Turun Sanomat building - one of its most famous images - showed Aalto moving away for the formality of the Modern Movement; the double windows in the Paimio Sanatorium acted as a moderating device for incoming air. The ceiling of the concert hall in the Viipuri Library, supposedly justified on acoustic grounds, was an experiment in sensuous wood architecture.

It was experiments with wood - Finland's most abundant natural resource - which signalled a change in direction away from the Modern Movement. The first use was in the open-air bandstand at the '700 Years of Turku' exhibition (1929). Aalto started to use timber screens to relieve the severity of the otherwise white-rendered geometric volumes of the staff housing at the Paimio Sanatorium; these became external screens of larch poles joined with wicker at the workers housing at Kauttua (1937-40). This expanded into the wholesale use of timber cladding on his house in Munksnaes (1934; built 1935-36). The Finnish Pavilion for the Paris World's Fair (1937) had external walls wrapped in timber sections and columns of larch poles joined with wicker, perhaps as a metaphorical representation of a forest; that for the New York World's Fair (1939) had a 4-storey internal curved exhibition wall of timber.

The Villa Mairea, Noormarku (1937-39) is a virtuoso display of Aalto's preoccupations of the period. Floors and ceilings were clad with boards; walls were clad in various timber sections; the columns of the entrance canopy were of rough timber poles; a sauna was made of untreated logs. The internal structure was also highly varied, with groups of steel and concrete columns, some clad in wicker, timber sections or leather, supporting the concrete floor slabs. The double layers of windows were of widely mixed sizes with ventilators of separate wooden shutters.

Aalto experimented with timber not only in architecture, but also in furniture and works of sculpture. His major invention was a joint consisting of thin lamina of wood inserted into saw-cuts in a solid timber section; this, by weakening the cross-section, allowed the section to be bent, and then set solid again by gluing the lamina. This was evident not only in the legs of table and chairs he promoted through his furniture company Artek, but also in purely experimental pieces. The sensuousness of the forms and material also found expression in his designs for cast glass and cast bronze door handles.

Aalto had great opportunities in Finland after the Second World War in response to the need for reconstruction and to Finland's economic development. He developed architectural solutions as distinct 'types' in which social, programmatic and technical solutions could be refined. These 'types' included libraries, theatres, museums, churches, town halls, offices and housing. While no common features can be ascribed to such a diverse set of 'types', many common features abound, particularly informal plan shapes highly responsive to the geography of the context, large internal social spaces intended not only as functional areas but as replacements for outdoor space in the hostile climate, and extraordinary attention to the manipulation of light through windows and rooflights.

The Rautatalo Office Building, Helsinki (1951: built 1953-55), the Vuoksenniska church, Imatra (1956; built 1957-59) and the Rovaniemi Library (1963; built 1965-68) epitomized the spatial and material qualities and showed the range of invention of Aalto's 'types'. The Rautatalo Building is noticeable for the highly refined bronze cladding of its very austere facade and the travertine-clad internal atrium lit by round skylights. The Vuoksenniska Church, whose nave is often described as a series of 'hands', has extraordinary double-layered light hoods. The Rovaniemi Library has a fan-shaped plan with light hoods over the reading and stack areas.

At this time Aalto began to regard brick and ceramic tiles as appropriate cladding, and in some cases structural, materials, not least to avoid the problems of the weathering of concrete and render finishes. His own holiday house on the island of Muuratsalo (1953) is an example of the latter, with facades made of varied types and sizes of brick. Brick was also used for the town hall on the adjacent island of Saeynatsaelo (1949; built 1950-52) and the Pensions Institute, Helsinki (1948-56). In the 'House of Culture', Helsinki (1955-58), concrete was used as a plastic material clad in glazed tiles, similar to Roman roof tiles, which could accommodate the changes in angle.

Aalto's buildings have a profound material presence due to the sensuous use of materials and to the craftsmanship with which they were executed. Most buildings are signaled by his trademark cast bronze door handle, often stacked 3 high for various heights of user. It is a tribute to Aalto's skill that his buildings still function well without excessive programmes of maintenance or environmental problems.

Thomas Deckker
London 2001