Alvar Aalto

by Aalto, Alvar; Nerdinger, Winfried; Achleitner, Friedrich

• ISBN13: 9783791320496
• ISBN10: 3791320491
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-06-01
• Publisher: Prestel Pub

Summary

Although Aalto was a Modernist architect, he could also be considered a "secret opponent within the modern movement" for his resistance to aesthetic dogmas. In his architecture he always pursued a single goal: to create architecture that was human, that is, serving the people and their needs. His maxim was: "In art, there are only two criteria: human or inhuman." In stark contrast to his position within architectural history, specialized literature on Aalto is rather scarce, and many documentaries on Aalto's work have been published only in Finnish. This volume attempts to close the gap in the scholarship on Aalto by examining his ceuvre and his on-going influence on contemporary architecture.

Table of Contents

Preface	7	(2)
Winfried Nerdinger
Alvar Aalto's Human Modernism	9	(19)
Winfried Nerdinger
The Many Faces of Alvar Aalto	28	(9)
Goran Schildt
Alvar Aalto and the City	37	(11)
Riitta Nikula
Alvar Aalto and the Beauty of the House	48	(13)
Markku Lahti
Between Nature and Culture: Reflections on the Villa Mairea	61	(16)
Richard Weston
Alvar Aalto and the United States	77	(14)
Elina Standertskjold
Alvar Aalto and Sweden	91	(14)
Eva Rudberg
Alvar Aalto in Vienna	105	(8)
Friedrich Achleitner
Alvar Aalto and Switzerland	113	(29)
Bruno Maurer
Arthur Ruegg
Alvar Aalto in Wolfsburg	142	(10)
Reinhard Roseneck
Learning from the Forest Apes: Alvar Aalto's Influence on North German Architecture	152	(15)
Ulrich Hohns
Index	167