Alvar Aalto Alvar Aalto Education Background In 1916

Alvar Aalto

Alvar Aalto Education Background • In 1916 he then enrolled to study architecture at the Helsinki University of Technology. His studies were interrupted by the Finnish Civil War, which he fought in. He built his first piece of architecture while still a student, a house for his parents, at Alajärvi. Afterwards, he continued his education, graduating in 1921. In the summer of 1922 • he began his official military service, finishing at the Hamina reserve officer training school, and was promoted to reserve second lieutenant in June 1923.

Viipuri Library The library's massing consists of two simple rectangular blocks that are offset horizontally from one another, but the internal spatial organization is deceptively more complex. What is often described as three floors in plan is actually six or seven in section, resulting in a variegated array of volumetric conditions and a complex field of transitional spaces. The programmatic arrangement bears some resemblance to the simpler massing, with administrative and ceremonial spaces in the main entrance block and the bulk of the reading spaces and bookshelves in the larger rear block. The intricacy of the plans, however, reveals this diagram not to be so straightforward in practice.

Riola Parish Church The interior chapel's play on light is especially divine; the northern light is diffused through vertical, asymmetrical ribs, which create a majestic grid of soft light which projects down onto the worshipper. The presence of light brilliantly transcends the occupier into a holy state. The intensified light around the alter is intended to create a close relationship between the functioning spaces of the alter, choir and organ, and the baptistery. The hexagonal baptistery is occupied by wooden pews that descend in height as they approach the luminous alter.

Maison Louis Carré

ECOLOGY , Viipuri Library • Ever sensitive to the environment and traditions of his country, Aalto enriched the formal purities of Viipuri’s modern design with a material palette more typical of Finnish architecture. • The white stucco, concrete, and glass of the façade finds delightful contrast with the warm wood finishes of the interiors, including a spectacular rolling wooden ceiling in the lecture hall. Aalto’s concern over natural lighting, a timeless hallmark of Scandinavian design, alludes to distinctly local construction methods. • These impulses away from mainstream modernism allow the library to fall into an early category of regional modernism that stylistically integrates local tradition with the progressive sensibilities of L’Esprit Nouveau of mainland Europe.