© courtesy of Alvar Aalto FoundationFor many people, a roof above their heads is just an impossible thought to bare. The ‘small but expensive apartment design of excellence rhetoric’, linked with a kind of high-profiled speculation – transversal in all major cities – has something to do with this problem. Householders, property, real estate, architects – those taking a small slice of the “pie” –, are accepting a new normal. A new generation not endangering in the personal concept of creating massive personal debt, changes an old formula, for the good sake of personal finances. Even if it is a misconception, new self-mobility and a need of save money in small pockets, is destroying any scent of personal space awareness, of personal life and self-development, with the cost of having to live with this sense of not connected but still and always connected – a kind of air sustained philosophy.
If one digs through details, quality of life through
design – which has the purpose to improve how people live at a low cost (see
design theoretical models, please) -, if you add fine materials applied through
spaces and objects, well, it is easy to find yourself in an exclusive domain,
since the old and the new have been dominated by a strong hold on prices
configuration. The higher the price, the better the offer, the theory, even if
the case is not always the that same one. This can be a kick start theme for a
‘biology’ for living in a certain place, or space. And there is a bit of a
difference for what is actual seen as contemporary. And for what is possible to
take as self-space, since no one wants or can to dare take a space for its own
specifics – I like and want to develop there –, the sense of belonging.
In general, architecture main purpose is to give
people an opportunity to live properly. This works with the sense of belonging
to a place. Cities have evolved to produce cultural structures, links to a
contemporary life (home, job, kindergarten…) urban design helps to ensure as common
life through spaces. Routine. Supported by. Shops, cafes, restaurants, museums,
art galleries, streets to walk on, parks and gardens, lakes, offices, hybrid
spaces with several different functions (intermodal stations and similar). The
list is endless. A space is just not a
space but also what surrounds it and it cannot be just walls or paint and
materials, but one will need some of those objects to go along. Interior
configuration is also important. For that reason, crossing disciplines in a
common platform, accumulated layers of information in a manifest of symbolic
‘architectural sources’, is something to see by the eventual theoretical
lenses. Defining what is best to occupy space with throughout several places
organized by a plan, or at least with a will and purpose.
TV shows have changed any classical ideal approach, by
presenting architecture and interior design as a popular concept possible to
explore in 15 minutes of travelling exclusive ‘fiction’, in several scenarios
where houses are just isolated entities, very far away from any kind of
heritage from a common classical criterion. Architecture is in fact a
discipline to help common people to solve common problems, even if TV amazing
homes do not help such a conception to settle. 1,2 million euros in a house is
a new normal? Classical but contemporary?! A place to live? Yes, of course. Diverging
from a kind of popular reality. Because you want to fell at home, yes, not just
to see amazing post-modern spaces in a bubble. You want also to understand what
it means to live in a well-designed space contributing to easy your daily life
routine, created with a special sense of identification. This is the work of an
architect. Present a vision for a space from his own perception of the world,
educated by a strong technical approach. Is something he does for/with you, if
you are to build a house, if you chose to live in an apartment.
So, why it is so important to read again about Alvar
Aalto, an architect who, in his own words, ‘built for everybody’? Because truthfulness
in his work was, still is, a regulator factor to help perdure and endure, and
ensure for that matter, the relevance of a true meaning of conception in
architecture. Is reality a sense of rational awareness cutting all strings
attached? Alvar Aalto is a level breaker. He used his privilege to care,
building for rich and poor people, big and small plans for cities, big and small
houses, big and small apartments. Not one house in particular can we say is just
amazing, not spectacular amazing, in the common sense. But several, for the
same reason. You can live there and it is very good, not just apparently good.
Not just because he has built houses, or spaces where people enjoy living for
decades, but because he has built active ‘entities’ with a profound sense of
proportion, taste and quality related to this common sense of belonging. With an
inclusive interior design, a strong part of that equation. He created not just
livable spaces to wait for life to pass by. He produced architecture heritage, linked
by a strong use of very well chosen quality materials, blending a passion for
details where they are commonly neglected, with a very fine design research
level and reasonable approach, helping state living as something more complete,
and belonging, because seen around a well thoughted place.
© courtesy of Alvar Aalto Foundation
Aalto Beyond Finland 2 – Projects, Buildings and Networks
As Silvia Micheli putted in her dissertation on Aalto,
for “Aalto Beyond Finland 2” group of essays: “I suppose one can say without
reserve that it is precisely the authority of the past that is the main
criterion for our work today.” This affected, for example, how ‘classical
architecture was brought to attention in Nordic countries. Aalto read those
nuances when ‘travelling extensively’ from Finland to Southern countries of
Europe, where he visited and re-visited ancient architecture, taking that
knowledge and perception into account for a kept transversal blend of his
conceptual/rich approach with nature and landscape contextualization, typical
in Nordic countries architecture (and not just there) as being part of a
sensible design – not exclusively but relevantly. The result was something
worth to investigate, that perdures as a piece of historic heritage one can
learn from.
This book is a theoretical approach and a must read. A
collection of edited papers from invited lectures held at the 2015
International Seminar Aalto Beyond Finland. It presents a list like projects
made outside Finland, with great context and updated information on Aalto
travelling schedule (places, places), network and career consolidation.
Sometimes presenting a vision of the man itself, with his likes and dislikes.
Somehow giving insight in how he transformed himself during several years of
practice, in the beginning of his career and social life, from being very
active socially, writing, participating for the sake of his own professional
success and, after achieving some of those goals, assuming a low-profile kind
of reputation, in the end of the 1950’s. If one can have a low profile after
being so prolific!
Bibliography is intentionally quoted and mentioned,
helping researchers. Aalto focus in Italy and Italian culture, for example, as
remarkable “source” for his work: “I don’t want to talk about a particular
trip, because in my soul there always is a trip to Italy. Perhaps a trip made
in the past that keeps coming back in my memory, a trip on which I am, or maybe
a trip that I will take. Such a trip is perhaps a condicio sine qua for my
architectural work.” ( pag. 68, quoting from an article wrote for Casabella-continuita magazine number in 1954).
One can also read a group of essays about his non
conscious creative process. For the reason that an essay is an intentional
ground for experimentation and briefly discussion. The B&W photos presented
along just give this edition a clear clarification on what it means to try out
a hypothesis: to write (in the case) some kind of interpretation, proving some essential
range of risk, for the person at stake assuming the content of a paper. And resting
for the architect, in the case, his heritage, a sense of quietness evolving
from his practice or lifespan, a direct link for the sake of valuable insight
and architecture for its true value. Aalto will not be angry or said or happy.
But his work will be better known.
This is a great input on understanding why Aalto is
still a reference for architects nowadays. “Aalto Beyond Finland 2”, second
volume by Alvar Aalto Academy and Alvar Aalto Foundation publishers, edited by
Esa Laaksnonen and Silvia Micheli (quoted before), is an important tool to have
at hand when interrogating on some choice one sees as a reference to use in his/her
(sorry for the gender reference, people!) own work. And is a bit different from
“Alvar Alto Homes”, a chronological biography in a high sized edition, strong
imagery and short contextual texts, edited by Jari & Sirkkaliisa Jetsonen.
Both stamped by Rakennustieto Publishing. Critic follows.
© Jari Jetsonen
Alvar Alto Homes
For the sake of ‘stop building just glass facades
around the world where glass is not just the great option’, we need more often
to see a kind of architectural approach presented as a demonstrative tool, printed
in very good and very heavy paper, excellent printing design layout, with strong
and liable information in an exclusive edition. So, the book is not just a
bunch of good imagery and ideas speeded away in a feed. A person needs to stop
and see. It is important to see and understand what space means, to live it, avoiding
a kind of transliteration performed by the spectacular 3D image preview we all
are emerged in right now. Reality taking is course, but reality is also an
impression across a pausing event: to switch pages at a controlled velocity!
Who would care more about wood, concrete, glass and
bricks, open views and not so opened? So many, and at the same time, so few. Rather,
Aalto, a person who was worried with a sense of urgency for construction
consolidation, building and building and building across countries, a sense very
common to find among architects, preserved as memory, attaching smooth and
contrasted lines within strong arguments (not just corners) made to help
maintain a comfortable lifestyle. Architecture used as an improving tool for
life. Even if not improving at all (for any other reason), helping maintain a
certain degree of aesthetics.
Alvar Aalto worked at the center of architecture
demise. The changing floors and walls covered, because walls are a bit more
than just walls or concrete, mass and massive, more than just divisions in
space, but notes, specific notes composed among shadows and light entering a
place. A definition Aalto reached with a spatial hierarchy. Many problems
solved after, both interior and exterior plans had a common foundation. They were
(are) part of a major statement, to unveil space, light combination between and
deliver a smart combination between social and spatial routine. An example is “Aalto
House”, and “Muurarsalo Experimental House”, both of his property and built for
his own use.
Of course, Aalto had an amazing opportunity, living in
a period of time where architects were seen as the single authority creating design
methods, creative approaches among interpretation and design of value. Of
course, working along with multi tasked, skilled teams. We all build boxes, said me once a teacher in
a classroom, but the secret is to find a geometrical distinction in a geometric
figure like a “box”, so it can be used and seen as something more than just a geometric
figure. In reality, Aalto’s work is one that assumes space is not just a
neo-plastic consumption presentation, but a synthesized functional idea
integrated in a conceptual planification, gambling rationalism with purism,
discovering an inseparable common platform of discussion among chosen surfaces,
materials and working in and through ‘entities.’
Alvar Aalto work production can be seen around the
world, but Finland was a laboratory like place to test and develop ideas used
after. This book helps to uncover that. He could build a house for a rich friend
with a large art collection (Maison
Louis Carré, 1956-1959) and, at the same time, combine his efforts with a smart
plan for a city center (Korkalavaara Apartment Buildings, 1956-1960, related
with Rakovalkea housing block, at Rovaniemi), with diverse houses typology, in
this case, apartments, to be used and bought by various types of families, less
wealthy or really pouring money from their pockets. Standardization was a
common conceptualization and research feature. But who can find commonalty in
Rot Houses Slope-Door Houses design project (Kotka, Finland, 1938-1939) or in
the iconic Villa Mairea amazing in sito construction, where landscape, views,
light and details are so upscaled as the architectural unity everyone wants to
achieve?
© Jari Jetsonen
This book is a biographical approach in a fine and elegant edition, revealed as an easy reading for those thinking about re-editing the re-neo-modernism. All “isms” are to discover in a group of revealing photos, like a portfolio edited to show off a singular work, with strong images and technical designs as a very good graphic description. Some projects could have been more explicit, with more pages, covered to maintain a certain common level of intensity for every single work. But that would maybe have transformed this book edition in an unbearable one, any reading completely devastating.
Images and sketches, from technical to any single detail
or general drawing, are of some perception for a giving understand and
interpretation, and are common ground for a territorial condensation, who helps
to unveil a developing idea. In one’s memory and even work, if you are an
architect and need a little external consultation. On Aalto´s work, as a breach
in the Scandinavian approach, with its warm colors and sometimes contrasts. A
bit more exquisite and differing from a certain common grounded white degrade. He
placed itself in a certain Scandinavian architecture tenure, since he was also
a teacher, pushing the cord to reach new limits, using wood as a spatial
configuration element, not just masking surfaces. He carefully treated wood for
enhance cozy designing, natural space absortion, natural light flooding,
rectangular plans refused and at some point, with his standard interior conception
materialized in extensive furniture plans, common to several works.
Alvar Aalto Homes, by Jari and Sirkkalisa Jetsonnen,
is a remarkable piece to have within doors for any architecture practice.
Drawings are presented at a reading scale, as elements to inspire. Images
reveal details within plans and related to them. Aalto needed concretion –,
getting along within life´s normality, marriage, children, more work, less
work, changing countries, and so on. A level of intensity that is absolutely
true.
Architectural dimension and impact its one right so
intense and obvious, one can have a tendency to diminish its value. Blur or fog
does not open endless opportunities when having to induce design standards by
practice. Architecture is not just building stuff (interior and exterior) in
record time. Is solving big urban problems, perpetuating time with a sense of
poetic extrusion. This have nothing to do with chic, or super chic, but with fitting
a purpose, the program, project and need. Yes, it can be luxurious, but living
in a good, dimensioned space, even if made with a low budget, it is, in fact,
luxury at its best. Good spatial architectural design, interpretation (f.
example, a clients will) and creation, is to combine proportion, program
(already said), intervention, deletion and to avoid ignorance – in its diminishing
need to build pathos. To absorb heritage as a strong related ground, and
conceptualization of the past to develop from that step onwards.
Aalto wasn´t building in the 21st century.
He had better/more time, a team that read and took is obsession as raw material
in a locking completion modus. He could, not all can. No strings attached, all
strings attached. He had who could pay for his work, in the first place. He
cherished his friendships, was close to his delivering modus operandi. But was
tight to his emphasis on good architecture, nurtured by excellent sense of
composition and extremely good interpretation of space and time. It was good
taste, of course, and a bit more along that fringe line. Very much more. He worked
with teams and teams worked for him. In a parallel emergent and differentiated
ordeal, placing houses, buildings and architecture conceptions through a
variety of architectural paths, with a combined continuity. His work, for
public and private clients, culminated in bedrooms, living rooms and kitchens,
bathrooms, corridors, fireplaces, walking closets, enormous blocks with small bricks
and concrete, amazing squared and not so squared windows, natural light radiance,
shadows. All is still in place. Programs, but not just, enhancing impeccable use. The summarized
formula architecture is all about.
© All images are protected by copyright and are part of Aalto Beyond Finland vol 2 or Alvar Aalto Homes, and cannot be reproduced or used without previous authorization from its authors.
© All images are protected by copyright and are part of Aalto Beyond Finland vol 2 or Alvar Aalto Homes, and cannot be reproduced or used without previous authorization from its authors.
Title: Aalto Beyond Finland vol 2 – Projects, Builds and Networks
Author/Editor: Esa Laaksonen and Silvia Micheli eds
Publishers: Alvar Aalto Academy and Alvar AaltoFoundation
Publishing company: Rakennustieto Publishing
Publisher: Rakennustieto Publishing
Publishers: Alvar Aalto Academy and Alvar AaltoFoundation
Publishing company: Rakennustieto Publishing
Title: Alvar Aalto Homes
Author/Editor: Jari Jetsonen & Sirkkaliisa
JetsonenPublisher: Rakennustieto Publishing
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