A presentation about modern architecture of "Alvar Aalto " prepared by my colleagues Darshana Dhaubanjar, Divya Poudel, Sadikshya Gautam.

1. SUBMITTED BY:
68008: DARSHANA DHAUBANJAR
68010: DIVYA POUDEL
68039: SADIKSHYA GAUTAM
SUBMITTED TO :
AR. SHWETA SHRESTHA
DEPATMENT OF
ARCHITECTURE

2. Alvar Aalto
Father of Modern Scandinavian
Architecture
Full name: Hugo Alvar Henrik Aalto
Name itself means “wave” which later
would come into life in his architecture
Born: February 3, 1898
Nationality: Finnish Kuortane, Finland
Father: Johan Henrik Aalto, Land-surveyor
Mother: Selma Hackstedt Aalto,
Postmistress, Died in 1903
Died: May 11, 1976 (aged 78), Helsinki,
Finland
Awards: RIBA Gold Medal, AIA Gold Medal

3. Moved to Jyväskylä attended the
Normal School and the classical lyceum
and often accompanied his father on
surveying trips
Received Architectural Diploma from
Technical University of Helsinki in 1921
Span of his career: From the 1920s to
the 1970s, is reflected in the styles,
ranging from Nordic Classicism to a
rational International Style Modernism
Works includes: Architecture, furniture,
textiles and glassware
Toured Europe and upon his return
began practice in Jyväskylä, in central
Finland

4.  1924 - Married architect Aino Marsio, got two
children and moved to Turku and from there
to Helsinki, the capital of Finland
 After Marsio’s death in 1949, remarried
second wife, Elissa Mäkiniemi in 1952.
 Alvar Aalto worked for A. Bjerke on the
Congress Hall for the Goteborg World's Fair
(1923)
 In 1927 he moved his office to Turku, where
he worked in association with Erik Bryggman
until 1933
 During this period, his two buildings Paimio
Sanatorium and Vipuri Municipal Library won
him great acclaim

5. Alvar Aalto's Nature and His Ideology
Motto “You must surprise people; make them wonder”
• Believed in –“Great Ideas arise from the small details of
life.”
• Emphasised on "organic" geometry; supple, natural
materials; and respect for human feeling
• “Architecture is not a box for accommodating function, but
a living organism, a life force to be experienced and
enjoyed in the variety of stimuli which it has to offer.”
• Showed connection between nature and building and took
nature as a symbol of freedom and tried to base his
technical plans
• “The truth about building is in building, not talk”

6. Quotes
• “Nature not the machine should serve as the model as
the architecture.”
• “Architecture cannot disengage itself from natural and
human factors; on the contrary it must never do so. Its
function is to bring nature ever closer to us.”
• “Nothing is ever reborn, but it never completely
disappears either, everything that has been emerges in a
new form.”
• “Nothing is as dangerous in architecture as dealing with
separated problems. If we split life into separated
problems we split the possibilities to make good
building art.”

7. Styles of Alvar Aalto
• His architecture evolved from the stripped classicism
of the Agricultural Cooperative Building toward a full
acceptance of the formal and theoretical canons of
International Style Modernism or “Functionalism” as it
was termed in Finland.

8. 1. Classicism
• First and most influential architect of Nordic
Classicism
• His early work was influenced by contemporary
Nordic practitioners –Nordic Classicism style
• A style that had been a reaction to the previous
dominant style of National Romanticism and
Functionalism
Alvar Aalto’s studio

9. 2. Functionalism (aka Modernism)
• His design approach from classicism to modernism.
• Epitomized by the Viipuri Library (1927–35) –
transformed from an originally classical to the
completed high-modernist building.
• Based on functionalism move towards modernism.
• Followed closely the work of Le Corbusier, pioneer of
modernism.
• Turun Sanomat Building and Paimio Sanatorium are
comparatively pure modernist works
Turun Sanomat Building Paimio Sanatorium

10. 3. Experimentation
• His early experiments with wood lead to his move
away from a purist modernism.
• He got influences from traditional Finnish vernacular
to purist modernism, as well as influences from
English and Japanese architecture.
• Experiments applied in Villa Mairea gives the idea
about design of mass housing.
• Experiment to red bricks – Baker House
• Helsinki House of Culture – Experiment house
Auditorium of Helsinki University

11. 4. Monumentalism
• After all these, he thought that the building should act
like a monument.
• It’s a mature thinking of Aalto towards building.
• Work on it from early 1960s up until his death in 1976.
Finlandia Hall, National Museum

12. His works based on monumentalism
• Finlandia Hall (1976)
• Aalto theatre (1959)
• Enso-Gutzeit Building, Academic Bookstore (1962)
• Essen Opera House
• SYP Bank Building (1969)

13. Villa Mairea

14. •Location:Noormarkku,
Finland
•an experimental house
•Inspiration from residence
“Falling water”
•guest-house and rural retreat
•Modified L shape with semi-
private enclosure to one side
•lawn and the swimming pool
are situated in the angle of
the L
•curved pool weds the nearby
forest topography
•main facade more rigid,
formal mood

15. •Concepts:
a. Serpentine
Curves and unpredictable line as
symbols of human freedom
b. L-shape
separates the family accommodation
from that of a courtyard – garden

18. •interior richly
articulated in wood,
stone and brick

19. Säynätsalo Town Hall

20. • multifunction building complex
– town hall, shops, library and
flats
• three-story multi-purpose
building surrounding an
elevated courtyard
• constructed the building into
the wooded hillside of
Säynätsalo
• main program of the building is
housed within a heavy brick
envelope
• courtyard bordered by a glass-
enclosed circulation space
which can be linked to the
model of an arcade-bordered
Piazza

21. •town hall is crowned by the
council chamber, a double-height
space which is capped by the
Aalto-designed "Butterfly"
trusses
•butterfly truss eliminates the
need for multiple intermediate
trusses
•Materials: brick as dominant,
accented by timber and cooper
•Saw buildings as organisms
made of up of individual
cells(traditional material brick)

22. Features:
•the grass stairs which
complement a
conventional set of
stairs adjacent to the
tower council chambers
•bricks laid slightly off-
line to create a dynamic
and enlivened surface
condition
•was influenced by both
Finnish vernacular
architecture and the
humanist Italian
renaissance.

24. Finlandia Hall
(1967-1971)
Type :Concert Hall
Location :Helsinki, Finland
Philosophy :Monumentalism
Features:
• The building shows the great horizontal mass with towering
auditorium that rises above it.
• The Hall is based on asymmetricity.
• Carrara marbles are used in the main external as well as internal
wall. Other materials like copper used in roofs gives green patina;
teak used in window frames; hardwood and ceramics-used in
interior part.

25. Finlandia Hall
• The interior hall shows
contrast between the
marble balconies and cobalt
blue walls.
• Carrara marbles for the
exterior are replaced by
durable Finnish grey granite
slabs.
• The main concert hall seats
1700, smaller auditorium
seats 340 and the congress
hall seats 450-900.
Interior Hall
Marble cladding

26. Finlandia Hall
Finlandia Hall : stall
Finlandia Hall:Balcony
Finlandia Hall

27. Other Important Works

28. Paimio Tuberculosis Sanatorium, Paimio,
Finland,1929-33
Technical Facilities Centre Foyer

29. University of Jyvaskyla, Main Building

30. The Finnish Pavilion at the New York World Fair,
1939

31. Aalto Hochhaus

32. AALTO’S FURNITURE
• Experimented tubular steel but made furniture using
laminated materials such as birch and plywood
• Alvar and Aino together innovated chairs at the time which
he named Model No.41
• The Model No. 31 which was the first chair to use
laminated wood in a cantilever structure
• SOME OTHER REPRESENTATIVE FURNITURE

33. Tea Cart Dressing table
Garden furniture

34. AALTO’S LAMPS
Pedent lamp Table lamp
Ceiling lamp Wall lamp

35. GLASSWARE
Candle holder Aalto Vase
Tray Bowl

36. Criticism
• Aalto’s atelier completed over four hundred projects
in response to myriad briefs, for every villa Mairea
there were copious others in housing, health care and
education, plus ware houses factories, lending
libraries etc
• Social spaces that might encourage socially
beneficially forms of behavior are place at the heart
of his projects whether they are asked for or not.
These include piazza at the centre

37. Conclusion
• Design must be treated as a holistic approach.
• The complete effect is thought to be more important than the
sum of its individual parts
• This could be achieved through the correct choice of colors,
materials and shapes. So Aalto not only created the structure
but he also took care of the structure by detailing each and
every part of it with his unique style of furniture and other
decorative glass wares.
• Creation of place in the midst of the space is the job of an
architect which we can clearly see in the buildings of Alvar Aalto
• Even he believed that placing of these things is not only enough
for creating the space but it should cooperate with the humans
and nature
• Aalto was a master of form and planning, as well as of details
that relate a building successfully to its users.