Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T20:35:11.283Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Coordinating Method and Art: Alvar Aalto at Play

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 April 2016

Harry Charrington
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Modern society is characterized by an exaggerated worship of theory, an attitude that reflects the human predicament and insecurity. We think that in it we can find salvation from the threat of chaos. But we must realise that pure theory without feeling cannot create anything. You cannot set up series of methods applicable to the most varied circumstances; only intuition can help here. Let me put it this way: theory and methodology should form a basis for an intuitive working method. The question is not which dominates the other, but how to co-ordinate them. Method is not the antithesis of art, not its enemy but its prerequisite. (Alvar Aalto, speech at Jvyäsklylä Kesäpäivät (Summer Days), 1965)

Type
Research Article
Information
Architectural History , Volume 54 , 2011 , pp. 309 - 345
Copyright
Copyright © Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Notes

1 Alvar Aalto, speech at Jvyäsklylä Kesäpäivät (1965), quoted in Schildt, Göran, The Mature Years (New York, 1989), pp. 273–74 Google Scholar (p. 273).

2 Jussi Valtonen, address at the Opening Ceremony of Aalto University (Aalto-yliopisto), September 2010, http//www.aalto.fi/en/about/history/name (accessed on 5 October 2010). Ironically, Alvar Aalto was twice turned down for professorships by the University of Technology, in 1933 and 1935.

3 Nerdinger, Wilfred, ‘Preface’, in Towards a Human Modernism, ed. Nerdinger, Wilfred (Munich, 1999), pp. 9–27 Google Scholar.

4 Aalto, Alvar, ‘The International Status of Finnish Art’ (1962), in Alvar Aalto in His Own Words, ed. Schildt, Göran (Helsinki, 1997), pp. 276–80 Google Scholar (p. 276).

5 Ibid., p. 276.

6 Göran Schildt, recalled by Professor Vilhelm Helander in private conversation with author, February 2007.

7 Giedion, Sigfried, Time, Space and Architecture, 5th edn (Cambridge, MA, 1967)Google Scholar.

8 Ibid., pp. 620–33.

9 Treib, Marc, ‘Alvar Aalto at 100’, Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, 57 (March 1998), pp. 59–67 CrossRefGoogle Scholar (p. 59).

10 Richards, J.M., An Introduction to Modern Architecture (Harmondsworth, 1940)Google Scholar. For more on this period, see Higgott, Andrew, Mediating Modernism: Architectural Cultures in Britain (London, 2006) pp. 33–56 Google Scholar; Melvin, Jeremy, F. R. S. Yorke: and the Evolution of English Modernism (London, 2003)Google Scholar.

11 Alvar Aalto, ‘The International Status of Finnish Art’, p. 278.

12 Schildt, Göran, ‘Alvar Aalto and the Classical Tradition’, in Classical Tradition and the Modem Movement, ed. Salokorpi, Asko (Helsinki, 1985), pp. 106–37 Google Scholar (p. 106). The term ‘ruusun falangi’ is credited to the architect and critic Olli Lehtovuori; interview with atelier member Olli Lehtovuori, Helsinki, March 2001.

13 Weston, Richard, Alvar Aalto (London, 1995), p. 227 Google Scholar. Weston notes the phrase’s first use by Philip Morton-Shand in his 1930 review of the Stockholm Exhibition.

14 Wilson, Colin St John, The Other Tradition of Modern Architecture: the Uncompleted Project (London, 1995)Google Scholar; Pallasmaa, Juhani, ‘Alvar Aalto, Towards a Synthetic Functionalism’, in Alvar Aalto, Between Humanism and Modernism, ed. Read, Peter (New York, 1998), pp. 20–45 Google Scholar (p.21). See also Frampton, Kenneth, Modern Architecture, a Critical History (London, 1985)Google Scholar.

15 Porphyrios, Demetri, Sources of Modern Eclecticism (London, 1982), p. 2 Google Scholar; Venturi, Robert, Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture (London, 1992)Google Scholar. Conversely, Manfredo Tafuri and Francesco Dal Co argue that Alvar Aalto’s exceptionalism makes him an irrelevance within Modernism’s history; see Tafuri, Manfredo and Dal Co, Francesco, Modern Architecture (New York, 1976), p. 338 Google Scholar.

16 Giedion, Time, Space and Architecture, p. 620; Pallasmaa, Juhani, ‘Wood in Finnish Architecture, Design & Sculpture’, Form & Function Finland, 3 (1987), pp. 3–6 Google Scholar. The aestheticization of Finland’s history is even capable of rendering the impoverishment of Finland’s rural past, which as late as 1868 included lethal famines, as an attribute of an asceticism rooted in the values of a minimalist vernacular. See, for instance, Klinge, Matti, ‘The North, Nature, and Poverty’, in Klinge, Matti, Let us be Finns, Essays on History (Helsinki, 1990), pp. 7–20 Google Scholar.

17 Connah, Roger, Aaltomania (Helsinki, 2000), p. 13 Google Scholar.

18 ‘Nordic Classicism’ is the given name for a period of austere neo-Classicism widespread in all the Nordic countries between the 1910s and 1930s. The name originated in the 1980s post-modern ‘rediscovery’ of this Classicism. See Nordic Classicism, ed. Paavilainen, Simo (Helsinki, 1982)Google Scholar.

19 Rainer Knapas in private conversation with author, Helsinki, April 2007. Richards, J. M., A Guide to Finnish Architecture (London, 1966)Google Scholar. Wickberg’s book also forms the basis for, among others: Salokorpi, Asko, Finnish Modern Architecture (London, 1970)Google Scholar; Quantrill, Malcolm, Alvar Aalto, a Critical Study (New York, 1983)Google Scholar; Helander, Vilhelm and Risto, Simo, Suomalainen Rakennustaide (Modern Architecture in Finland, Helsinki, 1994)Google Scholar. Weston, Richard, Alvar Aalto (London, 1995)Google Scholar is a notable exception, accepting the overall history, but acknowledging the differing contentions within Finnish modernism.

20 Colomina, Beatriz, Privacy and Publicity, Modern Architecture as Mass Media (Cambridge, MA, 2000), p. 118 Google Scholar. Alvar Aalto, I: 1922–1962, ed. Fleig, Karl (Zurich, 1962)Google Scholar; interview with atelier member Veli Paatela, Helsinki, March, 2001; interview with atelier member Eric Adlercreutz, Helsinki, May 2001.

21 See Alvar Aalto, I: 1922–1962, pp. 87–93, p. 141; Petra Ceferin, ‘Imageneering Architecture, Finnish Architecture Experienced Through the Lens’, ptah (2002.1), pp. 3–16 (p. 16).

22 Connah, Aaltomania, p. 19.

23 Hobsbawn, Eric, On History (London, 1998), pp. 49–74 Google Scholar.

24 For more on this, see Jormakka, Kari, Gargus, Jacqueline and Graf, Douglas, The Use and Abuse of Paper (Tampere, 1999), pp. 11–32 Google Scholar; and also Barbara Miller Lane, National Romanticism and Modern Architecture in Germany and the Scandinavian Countries (Cambridge, 2000)Google Scholar.

25 ‘Vi ska inte vara dogmatiska!’ was Alvar Aalto’s often repeated entreaty (interview with atelier member Eric Adlercreutz, Helsinki, May 2001).

26 According to the Alvar Aalto foundation’s archivist, Arne Hästeskö, the Alvar Aalto atelier carried out approximately 500 projects in Finland and a further 90 abroad, as well as building over 2,000 ‘A Type’ houses (private conversation with author, Helsinki, April 2003).

27 Alvar Aalto, ‘T.K. Sallinen’, Iltalehti, 30 May 1922, quoted in Schildt, Goran, The Early Years (New York, 1984), p. 34 Google Scholar; Alvar Aalto, ‘Art and Technology’ (1955), in Alvar Aalto in His Own Words, pp. 171–76 (p. 173). This was a commitment to public service that Alvar Aalto extended beyond his own artistic practice, above all as the Chairman of SAFA, the Finnish Architects’ Association, from 1943 to 1959.

28 Interview with atelier member Jaakko Kontio, Helsinki, March 2001.

29 The hundreds of thousands that occupy the everyday environments of Finnish homes, offices and institutions bear this out. Their price was modest until they were identified as a ‘brand’ and marketed at greatly inflated prices in the years following on from the Alvar Aalto centenary celebrations in 1998.

30 Suominen-Kokkonen, Renja, ‘The Silent Cultural Personage’, in Aino Aalto, ed. Kinnunen, Ulla (Jyväskylä, 2004), pp. 209–31 Google Scholar (p. 230). See also The Work of Architects, ed. Korvenmaa, Pekka (Helsinki, 1992)Google Scholar; Standertskjöld, Elina, ‘Alvar Aalto and the USA’, Towards a Human Modernism, ed. Nerdinger, Walter (Munich, 1999), pp. 77–90 Google Scholar; Pelkonen, Eeva-Liisa, Alvar Aalto Architecture, Modernity and Geopolitics (New Haven, 2009)Google Scholar; Suominen-Kokkonen, Renja, Aino and Alvar Aalto — A Shared Journey Interpretations of an Everyday Modernism (Helsinki, 2007)Google Scholar.

31 Alvar Aalto, letter to Aino Aalto, quoted in Schildt, The Mature Years, p. 99.

32 Interview with atelier member Jaakko Suihkonen, Helsinki, November 2000; interview with atelier member Tore Tallqvist, Helsinki, March 2002. For a more detailed account of the atelier, see Charrington, Harry, ‘Not A Locked Box, The Everyday Art of the Aalto Atelier’, Architectural Research Quarterly, 14/3 (2010), pp. 255–66 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

33 Aalto, Alvar, ‘Archittetura e arte concreta’, Domus, 223–25 (October-December 1947), pp. 103–15 Google Scholar. This is usually reproduced as ‘The Trout & the Stream’, this title being a translation of its subsequent Finnish title, ‘Taimen ja tunturipuro’.

34 Jakob von Uexhull quoted in Kull, Kalevi, ‘Jakob von Uexhull, An Introduction’, Semiotica, 134/1–4 (2001), pp. 1–59 CrossRefGoogle Scholar (p. 7). See also Charrington, Harry, ‘The Makings of a Surrounding World, the Public Places of the Aalto Atelier’ (unpublished doctoral thesis, London School of Economics, 2008)Google Scholar. I have used the term ‘surrounding world’ as the closest possible translation of the concept of the Umwelt. Uexküll’s term has also been rendered as ‘milieu’ in Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari’s work; see Ballantyne, Andrew, Deleuze and Guattarifor Architects (London, 2007), pp. 82–87 Google Scholar.

35 Jakob von Uexhull, quoted in Kalevi Kull, ‘Jakob von Uexhull, An Introduction’, p. 4; Alvar Aalto, ‘The Flexible Stair’ (1942), in Alvar Aalto in His Own Words, pp. 164–67 (p. 165).

36 Alvar Aalto, ‘The International Status of Finnish Art’, p. 277.

37 ‘Entweder fühle Ich oder fühle Ich nicht’, in Alvar Aalto, ‘Archittetura e arte concreta’, p. 107.

38 ‘nur die Dunkelmänner blicken Zurück!’ Alvar Aalto, ‘The Architect’s Dream of Paradise’ (1958), in Alvar Aalto in His Own Words, pp. 216–17.

39 These ranged from Riga’s Old Town to the ghost towns of the California gold-rush, and above all the towns of the Mediterranean. See Mosso, Leonardo, ‘Alvar Aalion työn ymmärtäminen tänään / Present-day understanding of Alvar Aalto’s work’, Tiili, 1 (1973), pp. 24–34 Google Scholar; interview with atelier member Frederico Marconi, Helsinki, August 2000.

40

  • Guldpudra vid järnkällan

  • kopparorm under silverlind

  • det är huldrans gâta

  • Det är din och min

August Strindberg, quoted in Alvar Aalto, ‘Art and Technology’, in Alvar Aalto in His Own Words, pp. 171–76 (p. 174). Lefebvre, Henri, The Production of Space (Oxford, 1991)Google Scholar.

41 Albers, Joseph quoted in ‘Back to Zero, Black Mountain College 1933–57’ (exhibition at Arnolfini, Bristol, 5 November 2005–15 January 2006 and Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge, 28 January-2 April 2006)Google Scholar. I use ‘purposive intention’ in the terms of Frankl’s, Paul 1914 book Die Entwicklungphasen der Neueren Baukunst (English language edition: Principles of Architectural History, Cambridge, MA, 1968)Google Scholar, in which Zweckmässigkeit forms an aesthetic category alongside those of spatial composition, treatment of mass and surface and optical effects. See also Forty, Adrian, Words and Buildings (London, 2000), pp. 174–95 Google Scholar.

42 Alvar Aalto, ‘Form as a Symbol of Artistic Creativity’ (1956), in Alvar Aalto in His Own Words, pp.180–83 (p. 181). For more on Alvar Aalto’s Germanic education, see Schildt, The Early Years, pp. 44–53. Nicholas Ray has noted in relation to this conception of Alvar Aalto that morphology is a term that was initially coined by Goethe: Ray, Nicholas, Alvar Aalto (London, 2005), p. 154 Google Scholar.

43 Yrjö Hirn was Professor of Aesthetics and Comparative Literature at Helsinki University.

44 Schiller, Friedrich, On the Aesthetic Education of Man (New York, 2004), pp. 71 Google Scholar, 91–93.

45 Hirn, Yrjö, The Origins of Art (London, 1904), pp. 13 Google Scholar, 25.

46 Hirn, Yrjö, Barnlek några kapitel om visor, danser och små teatrar (Helsinki, 1916), p. 52 Google Scholar. Originally published in Swedish, this has not been translated into English, but was translated into Finnish as Leikkiä ja taidetta muutamia lukuja lasten leluista, lauluista, tansseista, ja pikku teatterista (Play, art and other figures from children’s games, songs, dances and little theatres) (Porvoo, 1918) and this has been my source. Alvar Aalto seems most likely to have been introduced to Hirn by his tutor Carolus Lindberg (1889–1955), who had collaborated with Hirn while Alvar Aalto was his student.

47 Hirn, The Origins of Art, p. 5.

48 Aalto, Alvar, ‘Experimental House at Muuratsalo’, Arkkitehti, 9–10 (1953)Google Scholar, reproduced in Alvar Aalto in His Own Words, pp. 234–35.

49 Kaila was, like Alvar Aalto, from Alajärvi, and was Professor in Turku from 1921 until 1930. Alvar Aalto used the translation of the phrase ‘man the unknown’ in his obituary of Asplund, Gunnar in Arkkitehti, 11–12 (1940), reproduced in Alvar Aalto in His Own Words, pp. 242–43 Google Scholar.

50 Aalto, ‘Archittetura e arte concreta’, p. 109. See also Hirn, The Origins of Art, pp. 76, 142 and 302.

51 Aalto, ‘Archittetura e arte concreta’, pp. 103–15.

52 Atelier member Mikko Merckling in private conversation with author, Helsinki, April 2002.

53 Alvar Aalto, ‘The Humanizing of Architecture’ (1940), in Alvar Aalto in His Own Words, pp. 102–07 (p.102). In the words of Adlercreutz, Eric, ‘He always wanted to structure his buildings so that its workings would be symbolized’ (interview with atelier member Eric Adlercreutz, Helsinki, May 2001)Google Scholar.

54 Hirn, The Origins of Art, p. 270.

55 Vesely, Dalibor, ‘Architecture and the Conflict of Representation’, AA Files, 8 (1985), pp. 21–38 Google Scholar (p. 32).

56 Schiller, On the Aesthetic Education of Man, p. 120; see also pp. 70–71, n. 1.

57 Eckermann, Johan Peter, Conversations with Goethe 1836–48 (Cambridge, MA, 1998), p. 366 Google Scholar; von Goethe, J. H., Italian Journey 1786–88, trans. Auden, W. H. and Mayer, Elizabeth, 1962 (cited from Harmondsworth, 1970), p. 87 Google Scholar; Alvar Aalto, ‘The Dichotomy of Culture and Technology’, in Alvar Aalto in His Own Words, pp. 136–37; Schiller, On the Aesthetic Education of Man, pp. 28–29.

58 Arne Heporauta, ‘On Aino Marsio-Aalto’, in Aino Aalto, pp. 14–35 (p. 20).

59 Aino Aalto was an accomplished photographer, and her use of tilted camerawork reveals the influence of contemporary avant-garde photographers, most clearly Moholy-Nagy. For more on this, see Marjaana Launonen, ‘Aino Aalto as a Photographer’, in Aino Aalto, pp. 136–92.

60 Interview with atelier member Sverker Gardberg, Helsinki, May 2002. Alvar Aalto made reference to Dante’s inferno, in which the most frustrating aspect of hell was that the going and the riser of the steps had the wrong proportions in relation to each other. See Alvar Aalto, ‘The Enemies of Good Architecture’ (1957), in Alvar Aalto in His Own Words, pp. 201–06 (p. 205).

61 Moholy-Nagy and Ellen Frank stayed with the Aaltos in the summer of 1931 and named their daughter ‘Hattula’ after the Finnish mediaeval church of the same name.

62 Findeli, Alain, ‘Moholy-Nagy’s Design Pedagogy in Chicago (1937–46)’, Design Issues, 7/1 (1990), pp. 4–19 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

63 Findeli, ‘Moholy-Nagy’s Design Pedagogy in Chicago’, p. 14, n. 22.

64 Berleant, Arnold, ‘The Aesthetics of Art and Nature’, in Landscapes, Natural Beauty & the Arts, ed. Kemal, Salim and Gaskill, Ivan (Cambridge, 1993), pp. 228–43 CrossRefGoogle Scholar (p. 231), quoted in Menin, Sarah, ‘Relating the Past, Sibelius, Aalto and the Profound Logos’ (unpublished doctoral thesis, University of Newcastle, 1997), p. 377 Google Scholar.

65 There is a dated photograph of the Alvar Aalto and Frederick Kiesler at Grand Central Station in the archives of the Alvar Aalto Foundation. The Aaltos’ library contains copies of Frederick Kiesler’s 1939 articles for Architectural Record.

66 See Schildt, The Early Years, p. 31.

67 Alvar Aalto, ‘Constructive Form’ (1954), in Alvar Aalto in His Own Words, p. 258; Kinross, Robin, ‘Herbert Read’s “Industry and Art”, A History’, Journal of Design History, 1/1 (1988), pp. 35–50 CrossRefGoogle Scholar (pp. 37–39). Moholy-Nagy’s fellow Bauhaüsler Herbert Bayer was the designer of the book. For more on this, see Pekka Korvenmaa, ‘Aalto & Finnish Industry’, in Alvar Aalto, Between Humanism and Materialism, pp. 70–93.

68 Herbert Read, ‘The Redemption of the Robot’, quoted in Parsons, Michael, ‘Herbert Read on Education’, Journal of Aesthetic Education, 3/4 (October 1969), pp. 27–45 CrossRefGoogle Scholar (p. 31).

69 Read, Herbert, Art Through Education (London, 1958), p. 63 Google Scholar. Aalto, Alvar, ‘Viaggio in Italia’, Casabella-continuata, 200 (February-March 1954), pp. 4–7 Google Scholar (p. 4).

70 Yrjö Hirn, Det estetiska livet (The Aesthetic Life, 1924), quoted in Mikkola, Kirmo, ‘Teknisestä inhimilliseen, Alvar Aallon suhde funktionalismin / From the Technological to the Humane, Alvar Aalto Versus Functionalism’, in Abacus Yearbook 1979, ed. Herler, Igor (Helsinki, 1980), pp. 135–58 Google Scholar (p. 149). Hirn, The Origins of Art, pp. 128–29.

71 See Alvar Aalto, ‘Art and Technology’ (1955) in Alvar Aalto in His Own Words, pp. 171–75, and ‘Between Materialism and Humanism’ (1955) in ibid., pp. 175–79.

72 Alvar Aalto, ‘Archittetura e arte concreta’, p. 108.

73 ‘älä sommittele’.

74 Interview with atelier member Jaakko Suihkonen, Helsinki, November 2000.

75 France, Raoul, Die Pflanze als Erfinder (Stuttgart, 1920)Google Scholar, translated as The Plants as Inventors (New York, 1920); cited in László Moholy-Nagy, Von Material zu Architektur, Bauhaus Bucher 14, trans. and updated as The New Vision, 4th rev. edn (New York, 1947), p. 46.

76 Interview with atelier member Veli Paatela, Helsinki, March 2000. Those seeking evidence of an empirical approach to design have erroneously cited these designs as serious alternatives. See Quantrill, Alvar Aalto, a Critical Study, p. 109; Wilson, The Other Tradition, ch. 5, ‘Four Case Studies’, pp. 81–121; Sarah Menin, ‘Relating the Past, Sibelius, Aalto and the Profound Logos’, p. 312.

77 Alvar Aalto expressed particular admiration for Georges Braque; see interview with Aalto, Elissa, ‘Tapaamisia’, in Hihnala, Teija and Raippalinna, P.-M., Fratres Spirituales Alvari (Jyväskylä, 1991), p. 8 Google Scholar. Some critics have interpreted the Villa Mairea as a collage; see, for instance, Pallasmaa, Juhani, Villa Mairea (Jyävskylä, 1998), p. 93 Google Scholar.

78 Hirn, The Origins of Art, p. 145.

79 Aalto, ‘Archittetura e arte concreta’, p. 109.

80 Interview with atelier members Mauno Kitunen and Jaakko Suihkonen, Helsinki, March 2001.

81 Charrington, Harry, ‘Making the House of Culture’, in Process & Culture, ed. Charrington, Harry (Helsinki, 1998), pp. 6–23 Google Scholar.

82 Interview with atelier members Heino Paanajärvi and Tore Tallqvist, Helsinki, March 2002.

83 Alvar Aalto, ‘The Relationship Between Architecture, Painting and Sculpture’ (1970), in Alvar Aalto in His Own Words, pp. 265–69 (p. 267).

84 Aalto, ‘Between Materialism and Humanism’, p. 178.

85 Interview with Artek designer Pirkko Stenros, Helsinki, April 2002.

86 Arne Heporauta, ‘On Aino Marsio-Aalto’, in Aino Aalto, pp. 15–22.

87 Josef Albers, quoted in Back to Zero, Black Mountain College 1933–57. A copy of Von Material zu Architektur, signed by Moholy-Nagy, is in the Aaltos’ library, now housed at the Alvar Aalto Foundation. Alvar Aalto also knew Josef Albers, who was specifically in communication with Alvar Aalto during 1933, inquiring as to the possibilities of installing some of his work in the Paimio Sanatorium; see letter in Alvar Aalto Foundation, 11109.

88 See also Alvar Aalto, ‘Rationalism and Man’ (1935), in Alvar Aalto in His Own Words, pp. 89–93.

89 Interview with atelier member Kaarlo (Kalle) Leppänen, Helsinki, April 1997. Hirvonen was nicknamed Lamppu (literally ‘lamp’, colloquially ‘Sparks’) by the Alvar Aalto atelier. Both Tynell and the Aaltos had read Paulsson’s, Gregor (1890–1977) Vackrare vardagsvara [Everyday Products] (Gothenburg, 1919)Google Scholar; and in his 1926 essay, From Doorstep to Living Room, Alvar Aalto praised the lightness of Paulsson’s approach; see Simpanen, Marjo-Riitta, Kasityö — Aalto inhemillinen tekijä (Jyväskylä, 1998), pp. 17–30 Google Scholar.

90 Galison, Peter, ‘Aufbau / Bauhaus, Logical Positivism and Architectural Modernism’, Critical Inquiry, 16/4 (1990), pp. 709–52 CrossRefGoogle Scholar (pp. 717, 735).

91 Following their work with Korhonen, furniture designs continued to evolve in the Artek studio under the supervision of Aino Aalto, albeit separated from the inspiration and serendipities of the workshop.

92 Lawrence Kocher, A., ‘Essay’, in Aalto Architecture and Furniture (New York, 1938)Google Scholar, unpaginated.

93 Frankl, Paul, Die Entwicklungphasen der Neueren Baukunst (Berlin, 1914)Google Scholar, translated by O’Gorman, James as Principles of Architectural History, The Four Phases of Architectural Style 1420–1900 (Cambridge, MA, 1968), p. 112 Google Scholar.

94 Interview with engineer Aarne Hollmén, Helsinki, June 2002.

95 Private conversation with atelier member Tide Huesser, Helsinki, 1986.

96 Mallgrave, Harry, Gottfried Semper Architect of the Nineteenth Century (New Haven, 1996), p. 298 Google Scholar.

97 Interview with atelier member Veli Paatela, Helsinki, April 2001.

98 Aalto, ‘The Relationship Between Architecture, Painting and Sculpture’, p. 266.

99 Aalto, Alvar writing in Arkkitehti, 1–2 (1948)Google Scholar, quoted in Ulla Enckell, ‘Alvar Aalto the Artist’, in Enckell, Ulla, Alvar Aalto Taitelija-Konstnären-Artist (Helsinki, 1998)Google Scholar, unpaginated.

100 ‘Villa Mairea’, Arkkitehti, 9 (1939)Google Scholar, reproduced in Alvar Aalto, ‘The Home of a Rich Collector’ (1939), in Alvar Aalto in His Own Words, pp. 225–30 (p. 230).

101 Interview with atelier member Heikki Hyytiänen, Helsinki, April 2002.

102 Leena Ahtola-Moorhouse, in private conversation with author, Helsinki, April 2006. Eero Nelimarkka was also a native of Alajärvi. Frosterus wrote his doctoral thesis ‘Väri ja valo’ (Light and Colour), in 1903, on Cézanne and Post-Impressionist colour; he was in conversation with the Bloomsbury Group artist and critic Roger Fry (1866–1934).

103 László Moholy-Nagy, Von Material zu Architektur, pp. 13 and 19.

104 Kaarina Mikonranta, ‘Aino Marsio-Aalto — Interior and Furniture Designer’, in Aino Aalto, pp. 112–44 (p. 134). See also Alvar Aalto, ‘Benvenuto’s Christmas Punch’ (1921), in Alvar Aalto in His Own Words, pp. 29–30 (p. 30).

105 Interview with atelier member Ilona Lehtinen, Helsinki, March 2001. On site plan drawings the actual physical contour lines of the mapmaker are often left and the buildings often emerge as an extension of this, as with the Essen Opera House. See Hewitt, Mark A., ‘The Imaginary Mountain, The Significance of Contour in Alvar Aalto’s Sketches’, Perspecta, 2 (1989), pp. 163–77 Google Scholar.

106 Treib, ‘Alvar Aalto at 100’, p. 64; Barry Gasson, private conversation with author, Manchester, 1993.

107 ‘Ausser sich gehen’. Alvar Aalto, ‘What is Culture?’ (1958), in Alvar Aalto in His Own Words, pp. 15–17 (p. 16).

108 Ibid., p. 15.

109 Alvar Aalto, ‘The Stockholm Exhibition’ (1930), in Alvar Aalto in His Own Words, pp. 71–76 (p. 72). Merleau-Ponty, Maurice, Phénoménologie de la perception (Paris, 1945)Google Scholar, citation from the English translation, Phenomenology of Perception, trans. Smith, Colin (London, 1962), p. vii Google Scholar.