Representative architectural works
Viipuri Library
This building (1927-1934), damaged during the first Russo-Finnish war and almost completely destroyed in the second, gained its historical importance from the undulating roof of its assembly hall, built in wood, a continuous and folded plane that gives the sensation of lengthening the space.[15] The curve is used continuously by the architect from this work on.[16].
Formally, they were two rectangular bodies of different sizes, placed at an angle and joined by an entrance system that caused the entrance to be transverse in both bodies. The largest volume was largely occupied by the reading room and the smallest by the conference room, while the library occupied the lower part.[16] In the words of Alvar Aalto (The Trout and the Torrent, 1948), the library "is made up of several reading and delivery areas, staggered on different levels, and at the top is the administrative and supervisory center. The drawings (...) led to an interweaving of the section and the plan, and to a certain unity between the horizontal and vertical construction».[17] Since Aalto won the competition (1927) until the project was finally completed, Aalto lavished himself on drawings that he defined as childish and naïve in which, taking nature as a reference (landscapes, natural lights), he managed to imagine the "main idea" of the building.[17].
The project is rich in details. Thus, for example, there are few windows in favor of uniform overhead lighting and artificial light that gently illuminates the whitewashed walls.[16].
Paimio Sanatorium
Located 3 km from Paimio, in Finland,[18] and built between 1929 and 1933, it was one of many that were planned in the country at that time. Aalto, who participated in various local administration competitions, only won the one for the Paimio tuberculosis sanatorium, which failed in 1928.[19][1] He designed for him the Paimio chair"), whose angle, the result of interaction with doctors, facilitates the breathing of patients with problems,[19] as well as steel loungers.[20].
Formally, the sanatorium is made up of two volumes, one very elongated rectangular one with the rooms and another with singular "Form (figure)" shapes with the common spaces, so that at the intersection of both is the core of vertical communications.[19] The patient wing, very regular, includes terraces so that they can get some air.[15] The common areas each have a different shape and orientation.[1] The landscape that surrounded it, a territory of heaths and pine forest in which some gardens were adapted, was part of the project, although it has changed over the years.[18] The sanatorium, with its asymmetrical distribution, its horizontal volumes, its systematically repeated continuous windows and the white paint on the elevations, responds largely to the rationalism of the International Style. The structure is not continuous and is almost never guessed from the outside. Although it is porticoed&action=edit&redlink=1 "Portico (structure) (not yet written)") in most cases, the volume of rooms is supported by large central pillars of reinforced concrete that allow the terraces to be left as cantilevered slabs, with a screen wall on the opposite side that acts as a tie "Tie (construction)").[1].
Aalto also designed the doctors' homes, separated from the sanatorium and arranged in a row. These are four two-story white volumes with a flat roof. Each one has two entrances, the main one and the service one. The service areas are all located on the lower floor, so that on the upper floor, above these areas, each home has a terrace that separates it from the rest. The garages are external.[8].
Villa Mairea
This house (1937) was built for a wood businesswoman, so this material played an important role in its construction. Formally, it is an L-shaped building with an independent body, the sauna, somewhat separated and linked to an outdoor pool. It is located in the middle of a forest, to which the project pays special care. The main entrance occurs at the vertex of the L, so that, roughly, the largest spaces are in one of the wings and the most compartmentalized in the other. The relationship of the spaces is carried out among themselves, as zones within an admirable object in itself. Its conception represents a break with the architecture of its time.[8].
The layout of the second floor is similar, but the structure, which maintains the positions, revealing the logical rhythm with which it is arranged, changes dimensions and multiply into pillars.[8] This desire for subtlety is found throughout the project; Thus, the house maintains relationships of squares and proportions (Platonic and modern figure) that are not noticeable at first glance.[8].
Finnish pavilion for the 1939 New York World's Fair
Aalto won the competition held in 1937 for the building that would represent Finland at the 1939 New York World's Fair. country.[21].
The building was characterized by three planes inclined inwards and parallel, built of wood and blind - the lighting is from above -,[1] which allowed distant objects located several floors above to be seen with the eye, thereby establishing horizontal and vertical relationships. The architect's intention was to return to the traditional concept of the bazaar through juxtaposed (horizontal relationship on the same level) and overlapping (horizontal relationship
vertical of several levels) of the objects, generating the greatest possible concentration.[21] The external volume is however unitary, so that it does not allow us to guess what the interior is like.[1].
The success and appeal of the pavilion was such that it allowed the architect to maintain certain contacts in the United States, which he took advantage of during World War II to establish himself in the country. The pavilion even earned the praise of genius from Frank Lloyd Wright, known among other things for disdaining many great architects.[1].
Baker House
In 1947 Alvar Aalto built this student residence for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Aalto used different resources to break the monotony of the required length and program. He even curved the façade, so that the rooms could enjoy the view of the Charles River without seeing the entire building (that is, its great extension) from their windows. He also alternated the capacity and shape of the rooms and combined the shapes and layouts of the common spaces, including the stairs, which protrude from the rear façade; Thus, all the rooms are different and while some look upstream, others look downriver.[22] Despite the curve, the façade of the rooms is an uninterrupted rhythm. Functionally, you enter through the back and from there you can choose to go to the dining room or other rooms that, on the ground floor, protrude from one side of the sinusoidal figure of the rooms as independent bodies, or access the rooms up the stairs. On each floor there are common rooms smaller than the main ones, located on the ground floor.[23].
Säynätsalo Town Hall
Spatially, the Säynätsalo Town Hall") (1952) is a kind of open cloister with four sides, of which one is the library and the others are offices. The patio that joins the bodies is artificially elevated, distinguishing itself from the plain that surrounds the building, and the body considered main - in which the most important meeting room is located - stands out in height above the others. The central open space communicates with the plain by two stairs, one of them made of wood that contain grass terraces. The main material of the entire building is brick.[24].
Helsinki Polytechnic University
Alvar and Elissa Aalto were in charge of the project for the main building of this technological university, located in Espoo, since 1949.[25] In 1955 the Aaltos already had the project ready, which was to be built in a wooded area ten kilometers from the capital.[15] The building was built between 1953 and 1966 in exposed brick,[26] and the main building between 1961 and 1964.[21].
The campus design was complemented by other buildings designed by the Aaltos such as the Sports Center. Other important Finnish architects also participated in the campus project: Raili and Reima Pietilä (who designed the Student Center and Kaija and Heikki Siren (who designed the Lutheran Chapel).[27]
A large part of the project is occupied by auditoriums created in the style of amphitheaters. The student areas are opposite the administration areas, whose area is located at one end. The classrooms are organized around patios, which also serve to separate the different study areas. On one side of two of them, one completely interior and the other open, are the areas dedicated to the study of geography and geodesy. On the other side, and separated from the architecture school by two other open patios, there is a general area. The architecture school, located at one end, is arranged around another open courtyard. The layout in open patios allows each area to be expanded without the works affecting the others, so that a restructuring of the functions of the building as a whole is not necessary.[21].
The work, which was designed at the same time as the road infrastructure that was to connect it with the city,[15] perfectly separates road traffic from pedestrian traffic, which descends on terraces,[21] so that residents can move from classes to homes without having to cross roads. The homes, forming part of the same complex, are located on the highest floors.[28].
Apartment tower in Bremen
Alvar Aalto designed this building (Bremen, Germany; 1958-62) with the characteristic fan shape. With this shape, each apartment is unique,[1] so that they are all different even without losing the same properties (a façade, exit to the same space, the same layout of the spaces). Furthermore, the fan layout may have a functional origin in terms of communications, since these, when found at their vertex, are shortened, avoiding long corridors.[14].
Rovaniemi Library
In 1963 Aalto designed the Rovaniemi library, one of several that were commissioned from him. The building was built between 1965 and 1968 as the first phase of a cultural and administrative center for the city.[21].
It consists of a bass guitar plus a floor from which a fan-shaped body protrudes, which receives light from the north through a plaza. This body contains children's and adult libraries, a museum and a study room. The surveillance and loan desk is located in the center of the room, so that all wings can be monitored from there. The tablet has various functions; mainly, from libraries and thematic museums. The project is carried out so that these uses can be exchanged.[21].
For the windows, Aalto designed sunshades.[29].