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My dear Aino,

I am comforted by the thought

that this period of travel is ending,

and a new period of work begins.

I drew a lot

this is reminiscent of how you and I competed, and other drawings.

The best moments of life.

We will strive for this again.

No more routine work.

Let's work together without being too exhausted;

You and I, together, are at home.

Alwar.

AALTO

Alvar Aalto - Finnish architect,

one of the greatest masters of modernist architecture of the twentieth century.

He is unique in his ability to achieve optimal

accommodation of his projects from a social,

psychological and environmental point of view.

He knew how to anticipate the needs of the customer and provide the

person with a sense of comfort and well-being in the spaces he created.

Of course, Alvar Aalto was a complex person.

He was clearly very

attractive, generous, very

intelligent - exceptional qualities.

He must have had a strong charm.

Aino Marcio-Aalto was

essentially a very modern woman.

Mother, architect, designer.

She performed in all these guises.

I think Aalto was attractive to people regardless of gender.

I'm sure Aino does too.

And, you see, as a couple,

together they attracted other colleagues.

Among the modernists there

were few married couples.

That's why they were unique pioneers.

Aino Marcio and Alvar Aalto studied

architecture at the Helsinki

Polytechnic University at about the same time.

Back then, architecture schools were dominated by men.

There is a myth that Alvar Aalto

was bad at mathematics, and he

made up for this deficiency

through his ability to draw and sketch.

and thanks to his bright personality.

After graduating, Aalto was looking for employees for his company.

ARCHITECTURAL AND MONUMENTAL

ART She ??heard about the vacancy.

Later, in October 1924 They merried.

Right after the wedding, on the honeymoon, they are going to the continent.

He was very interested in the complex structure of the city.

He knew that Italy - cradle of urban culture.

"Why don't we Finns learn from this ancient culture?"

"Why don't we improve our cities?

modeled after this ancient culture, where the

architecture blends so masterfully into the landscape?�

CHURCH IN MUURAM, 1929

Already in his early 20s, Aalto seems to be issuing

a manifesto in his work, saying, "I see the point."

We are trying to incorporate our own special

Scandinavian style into the WORKERS' HOME IN JYV�SKYLA, 1925

In the tradition of classical architecture, dating back thousands of years.

There is an innate sense of intuition

here, not an ideal linear rational

inquisitive mind saying: �How to humanize this space?

How can I make it special?"

SANATORIUM IN PAIMIO, 1933

Aalto, although only for a few

years, was a relatively pure modernist.

It was then, creating a sanatorium in Paimio

and the Vyborg library, that he found himself.

Having started work on the sanatorium project,

he fell ill and spent some time in the hospital.

There he realized that the patient of the medical

institution looked at the world differently, than a healthy person.

He wrote, that he created a sanatorium in

Paimio for people in a horizontal position.

Here even in the smallest details

I consider the sanatorium the most inventive

building in the entire history of modernism.

His goal was to create a

highly complete work of art.

The creation of such a sanatorium forced him to take up furniture design.

PAIMIO CHAIR, 1932

The Aaltos were unique among architects for many reasons.

One of them is how they became part of the modernist

movement and the global community of modernist architects.

MARSEILLES.

In the summer of 1933, the "CONGRESS OF

ARCHITECTS", LASZLO MOHOLY-NAGY, 1933

Alvar Aalto went to the international congress

of modern architecture, held on the ship

Patrice, which sailed from Marseille to Athens and back.

He easily entered the group of

the most famous European

architects and met the right people.

LE CORBUSIER (PARIS)

The decision to hold the congress on the

ship was symbolic - it was in international waters.

In many ways this was the SECRETARY

GENERAL SIEGFRID GIEDION (ZURICH)

The swan song of modern idealism on the eve of the war.

Siegfried Giedion, one of the most influential architects,

became the General Secretary of the Congress.

She and Aalto became friends.

My little Aino,

I'm still with Gidion,

it was difficult to write a letter calmly.

Don't worry about Marcel.

This is one of the most terrible and distorted cities I have ever seen.

But I did not return to the port alone.

I had a life jacket one young lady from the congress,

so I was too tough for Marcel.

Of course it turned into a love affair

however, it is not at all dangerous to either the body or the soul.

In Marseille I sat alone with Le Corbusier every morning.

He was extremely kind to me.

I wanted to leave today but we still need to make a presentation.

They organized an exclusive reception

in the house of some South American millionaire.

I'll leave the next morning The plane ticket has already been purchased.

Because I love so much

I love my Aino madly,

who kisses me in sensitive places.

Why are you writing that you will be home in a couple of days?

I've been waiting for you all the time starting Friday.

And then you say that you will only be in Stockholm on Wednesday.

Very original,

but that's typical for you.

Of course it's my own fault because I know you.

I'm very upset.

Moreover, we were all sick here.

I didn't tell you because I wanted to so that you go home with joy.

Can not wait, when will it end.

By the time you return, I will try to calm down.

Aino.

CITY LIBRARY IN VYBORG, 1935

They had close relationships with

key figures of the architectural and artistic avant-garde.

A man without an architectural background, one of the

people they met through the Congress was Moholy-Nagy.

Photographer, cinematographer, artist and graphic artist.

Whatever sparked the friendship, they had it.

And so Moholy-Nagy comes to Alvar and Aino for a whole month.

And in the library in Vyborg this �lattice� of round lamps appears.

Look at Moholy's films and photographs.

He very often has such a metal structure with

slotted round holes, through which light streams.

"PLAY OF LIGHT: BLACK-WHITE-GRAY", LASZLO MOHOLY-NAGY, 1930

And in a sense, the Aaltos are taking

Moholy's work with artificial light and

doing the same thing with natural light.

The Aaltos began designing classical-style furniture already in the 1920s.

CHAIR 60, 1933

No matter how talented you are Alvar and Aino Aalto,

they would never have made these wooden reliefs themselves.

The trick was that they hired a professional carpenter.

At one point, almost all of Aalto's furniture was sent to London.

If you look at the production of Otto

Korhonen's firm between 1933 and 1939, about 75

percent of all their furniture from Turku went to London.

And the main customers in England were architects.

They specifically stipulated this in their projects.

The modest design served a

broad social democratic model

of society; it was for everyone.

Walking into the Artek store today you won't believe this

that furniture was incredibly cheap.

Finmar was opened

to sell and promote Aalto furniture in the UK.

One of the main problems at that moment was

lack of a system in working with orders.

No one spoke English at the Turku plant.

There were quality problems

since the furniture was experimental,

especially the glue.

In every attempt to obtain guaranteed supply and quality

instead of a clear answer awaiting them

something vague.

In 1940, the Finmar office in Great Britain

was destroyed during the German Blitz bombing.

There are no documents left at all.

Aalto's furniture was popular among educated people.

The most famous example is that she appears in the film by

Alexander Korda based on the novel by H. Wells "The Shape of the Future."

Everytown's set was designed by Moholy-Nagy.

According to Moholy-Nagy, such a chair is fully

consistent with the utopia of 2036, and this is Paimio's chair.

Aalto himself had furniture from Marcel Breuer in his living room.

This is amazing because Aalto was a great designer himself.

But he had great respect for the work of other designers.

Aalto had a difficult relationship with the Bauhaus.

SCHOOL OF PROFESSOR GROPIUS, BAUHAUS

He always said that I had never been there.

The apartments in the Paimio sanatorium

could well have been designed by Gropius.

Aalto claimed to be familiar with Le

Corbusier's work only through newspaper publications.

But this is not true.

VILLA STEIN, LE CORBUSIER, 1928

The building of the newspaper "Turun Sanomat" is in its

purest form a product of the ideological influence of Le Corbusier.

JEAN ARP, WOODEN RELIEF, 1930s Alvar

does not borrow an idea from anyone,

he develops this idea in communication.

He was an opportunist in the best sense of the word.

He was ambitious, and if an

opportunity presented itself, he grabbed it.

In October 1935

4 people organized a

company called "Artek".

From the merger of the words "art" and "technology".

Apstr�m is a family of wealthy timber

merchants, this industry was very important in Finland.

She married Harry Gulliksen, thus

uniting these two rich dynasties.

Niels-Gustav Hahl, writer, intellectual and journalist.

And the Aalto couple.

The appearance of "Artek" created a structure.

The opportunity to distribute furniture arose.

A brand has appeared.

Aino left home for work.

She was an art director.

Alvar stayed at home sat in his office.

In the late 1930s, Alvar Aalto worked in a tiny workshop.

When the work was delayed, or there

were few clients, Artek and the furniture

trade provided them with additional income.

Talking about the opening of Artek, Niels-Gustav Hall said

that this allowed Alvar Aalto to maintain his bohemian spirit.

Dear daddy and kids,

I'm incredibly tired.

Last night I left Turku and immediately

fell asleep in the cabin.

And then, when I undressed, I couldn't sleep a wink all night.

You'll have to take sleeping pills. I desperately want to work.

I'll tell you the name of the hotel in Oslo, so that you can

telegraph whether you will come or not. I hope you will come.

I thought about everything from all points of view.

And I concluded: we have each other,

We have our jobs and healthy children.

You couldn't wish for more.

I will write to you from Oslo.

I'm tired to death. Aino.

My dear Aino, you are a liar.

In Oslo, probably I made myself at home.

A letter arrived from Norway.

The company wants to sell the rights.

While you're there, do it.

Say that you are one of the furniture

designers and make an agreement with them.

I'll look after the children We'll be fine.

So that we can get even, you will have to sin a lot.

Sometimes I even picked on someone on the street.

And you only have small adventures among pious

families, so I�m not sure that we will ever be equal.

I love the person in you and not some highly moral creature.

And forget these stupid coffee meetings.

Dear daddy,

It's good that I went alone.

Not a single erotic encounter.

It would be terrible if you picked up someone here.

You already have such a head start, that I will soon leave the race.

Just don't get carried away but I like you the most.

I think their relationship is married

were very special although not without problems.

I think, existed between them

amazing devotion to family.

This gave them some faith in

their own home, which helped

them be successful together.

VILLA FLORA, 1926

Aino Aalto was a necessary balancing

element in Alvar's bohemian, promiscuous life.

I remember he always had an infinite amount of time.

JOHANNA ALANEN, AALTO'S

DAUGHTER He always worked at home.

Arranged coffee breaks, hummed something

under his breath, then went back to the

office, drew one or two lines and returned again.

Alvar believed that Aino's case was first of all, take

care of him, then came the children, and then her work.

I think that's exactly what happened.

The Aaltos understood well what it

meant to be protected or open to nature.

Definitely an Aalto feeling

and nourishment with nature, at the same time, his

horror of her was partly explained by the fact that he

lost his mother as a child, with whom he was very close.

This is a serious injury for any person.

But Aalto did not overcome this with the help of a psychiatrist.

Growing up, he overcame this through his art.

In 1937 At the World Exhibition in Paris, the

Finnish pavilion attracted close attention from

the most famous critics and architectural magazines.

It had nothing to do with it

with terrible neoclassical fascist architecture that scared people.

Furniture made from bentwood gave off a fresh feel

as opposed to products made from steel structures,

Bauhaus products.

Modern or not modern - this is not a question of material,

but how it is used.

The approach may be modern.

EXHIBITION BY AYNO AND ALVAR AALTO

I saw Morton Shand's article,

HARMON GOLDSTONE, ARCHITECT

either about Paimio, or about the library in Vyborg.

And I was shocked.

John McAndrew was curator of architecture

at the Museum of Modern Art.

And he said, "Talk to him.

Maybe, he'll want to put on an exhibition.

" And I went to Helsinki and just came to him.

His office was small and he says:

"I'll show you my new home, it's not finished yet."

AALTO HOUSE, 1936

And I took a photo of him in the doorway.

Took a few photos of the house.

I kept trying to say, �Would you like to

have an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art?�

And so I returned to New York.

Lawrence Rockefeller was an old friend of mine.

And so he says: "You know, I'm building myself a house."

I told him: �I recently saw

the best modern furniture.

I just don�t know if it�s easy to come to an agreement with these people.

If you send them an order, what will they answer?" When the furniture arrived I worked for Wallace Harrison, one of the architects Rockefeller Center.

They worked there

then Harrison and Fuyu.

We opened the boxes.

.. It exceeded all expectations.

The first buyer of Aalto furniture in the United States was Lawrence Rockefeller.

First distributor in the States -

short-lived, but a very

influential company called "New

Furniture", whose founder was Lawrence Rockefeller.

The popularity of Aalto furniture transcended boundaries.

Alvar Aalto was awarded a personal exhibition

at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

at the Museum of Modern Art they are trying to find

definition of modernism,

and find it in the work of the Aalto couple.

Otto Korhonen died in 1935.

the same carpenter.

You could say

The experimental quality of Aalto's furniture is finished.

Everything that appears in Artek after Korhonen's death -

beautiful furniture,

but there are no longer those innovations technical experiment,

which in 1930-35 distinguished

the work of Aalto with Korhonen.

These are difficult times in Europe,

especially for avant-garde figures.

I wanted to run away from the dark continent.

But for the Aaltos and their company

the situation was completely different.

Finland was still defending itself.

They were still working in Sunil when many other

architects had already emigrated to the United States.

PPM COMPLEX IN SUNILE, 1938, 1954

Between the founding of "Artek" in

1935, the "SAVOY" RESTAURANT, 1937

And with a commission for the

World's Fair in 1939, they worked

in Finland, introducing modernism

into practice, more than all their

colleagues on the continent,

because change is in the air, they are coming.

AALTO VASE, 1936

Aalto found their biggest buyers.

VILLA MYRA, 1939

The Gulliksen family.

Aalto was a great storyteller.

One room has one atmosphere, the next

one has a completely different atmosphere.

It's like in books - chapters, and in plays - actions.

We, the northern peoples, Finns in

particular tend to dream about the forest.

And Aalto breathed these forest dreams into his architecture.

I had the honor of becoming one of the first residents of this house.

My father Harry Gulliksen, and mother - Maire Gulliksen.

It was very exciting for a

7-year-old boy to live here.

The whole house was an adventure territory for me.

When I went to school other children stared at me.

I was not an ordinary boy.

I was a stranger living

in this strange house.

Everyone in Noormarkku was surprised, looking

at such an ugly house built on Havulinna Hill.

It didn't even have a roof!

People thought he was ugly.

They thought that there really was no roof.

But she was and still is.

Aino brought the final touch of humanity to everything.

Selection of fabrics, lighting and landscape features.

These were Aino's touches,

completing the essence of the entire work of the Aalto couple.

It doesn�t matter whose signature is on the drawings and drawings,

they worked like a real team.

She was an architect practicing architect.

An exceptionally difficult task

especially for a woman of her generation.

COMPRESSED GLASS GLASSES, AYNO AALTO

We'll never know where was the border between the two.

We can only guess.

Aino was definitely an experienced carpenter.

But Alvar is not.

Aino was not a housewife. She didn't want to be tied up.

She was always at work.

The house was occupied by a cook and a nanny.

They created a completely new style of furniture.

Aino was responsible for the design of hundreds of Aalto pieces for Artek.

Many said

that she only created something similar to Alvar's work.

But this is not true, she contributed to Artek your own contribution.

Her vision, her ideas, in a sense, created the very essence of Artek.

TICKET NEW YORK - CHICAGO

The Aalto name has become a brand.

Aalto furniture was the most popular brand

modern furniture in the USA until the late 1940s.

WORLD'S EXPO IN NEW YORK, 1939

The MoMA project made Aalto's works popular in the United States.

But it was the New York World's Fair

changed and strengthened the very concept of this popularity,

making it unprecedented.

He gave lectures at Yale and at the

Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco.

at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

They were mainly devoted to the humanization of architecture.

For the American press Aino Marcio-Aalto became an icon.

It wasn't just popularity Alvar Aalto, there was also Aino.

In California he met William Wurster and many others.

Aalto was very sociable.

He easily made contacts with important people.

Aalto was completely changed by his meeting with Frank Lloyd

Wright, who was always distinguished by the impeccability of his costume.

Alvar had a great sense of humor.

KAROLA GIDION-WELKER, CLOSE FRIEND

When Aino and I were in America, Alvar kept

flirting, and then says: �I�ll hire a gigolo

for Aino, let him dance with her all evening.

Aino deserves anything and anyone."

I don't know if poor Aino danced with the gigolo that evening.

But that wasn't her style.

Alvar had an erotic approach to both life and work.

There was a warmth about him that perhaps... born from sexuality, eroticism.

When at the end of November 1939 War

broke out between Finland and the USSR,

Alvar, a reserve officer, was called up and assigned to Kuopio.

Alvar himself told such a story.

He was ordered to sort the footcloths.

Then he wrote to his friend Lawrence Rockefeller in New York

and asked for help, send airplanes.

Rockefeller sent a check for a million dollars to the Foreign Ministry

and said hello to Aalto.

Certainly, Alvar often exaggerated.

ROCKEFELLER GIVES THE FINNS 100,000: "HAPPY TO HELP SUCH A FEARLESS PEOPLE"

But soon he is transferred

to the State Information Bureau in Helsinki.

He had already fought during the Civil War in 1918.

Then he was on the side of the whites and ended the war in

Tampere, where he participated in the Battle of Lankipohje.

He never recovered from

what he saw in Tampere.

Aalto was very interested in the problem of post-war development.

He hoped to do a demonstration project where he

would implement his principles of standardized development.

During the war, Finnish architects worked hard.

They developed plans for the development of destroyed

cities, projects for standardized housing construction, etc.

Then he appeared Building Standards Committee.

STANDARDIZED HOUSE CONSTRUCTION 1937-1941.

Speer's ministry even invited Aalto to Germany,

to see their work on architectural standardization.

Alvar didn�t really want to go, but in the

end he agreed, when the German Foreign

Ministry sent a military plane to pick him up.

At the farewell banquet, he decided to give a speech.

He started like this: �We Finns - not Nazis and not Bolsheviks.

We are forest monkeys from the land of the Eskimos.

" He also said that he doesn�t know much about the architecture

of the Third Reich, since he visited America more often for work.

But one day at the Harvard Club he was waiting for Lawrence Rockefeller.

And I noticed a book with a red cover on his table.

He took it and saw it that the author -

not the most famous writer, Adolf Gitler.

Aalto opened the book at random.

And a phrase caught his eye:

"Architecture - mistress of the arts,

and music is their queen."

He didn't need to read further.

He closed the book and put it back.

This story received thunderous applause.

BAKER HOUSE, MIT CAMPUS, 1949, USA

Baker House and Aalto's relationship with MIT begins

immediately after moving to Harvard Walter Gropius, in 1937.

Gropius brought European modernism to Harvard and America.

MIT, for its part, sought to understand this

in its own way, and in Alvar Aalto they saw

precisely the humanocentric approach to modernism that

they themselves advocated.

When Wurster was appointed dean of MIT in

1945, the first person he thought of was was Aalto.

He himself said that he was the first to call Alvar Aalto.

If you look at the plan for Baker House

and the plan for the riverfront, you will

see that they are very similar to the

plan for the New York World's Fair pavilion.

Aalto continued this theme in his work.

He wanted every student to see the

river from his room thanks to this wavy line.

That is, from all the windows you can see the river up or downstream, but none of

them looks directly onto the river.

For the Baker House, he used a special

brick that is made only in New England.

It is very hard and uneven, Aalto adored him.

Called it the lousiest brick in the world.

Precisely because that he loved him so much.

After construction began, MIT wanted

to add another 50 rooms or spaces.

Aalto said: �I�ll put on a fresh shirt,� that is, I�ll

throw off the old one, and I'll start all over again.

But here is his partner, the lava that pours out of the volcano,

Aino Aalto came to the rescue, saying, "We'll work it out.

" When Aalto taught at MIT, he

bombarded his students with stories.

The stories were endless Aalto could even

drink a little, but they always had a meaning.

That is, sometimes they would sit in

a local bar and talk until late at night.

And the next day Aalto came very late.

And everything started all over again.

He was a real artist so they listened to him with pleasure.

Having said only 2-3 words, he was already captivating listeners.

Wallace Garrison was the head of the

team of architects on the UN building project.

At the top of the list was Aalto.

But then politics intervened.

Finland was seen as an enemy country because the

Finns initially asked for help from the Germans in

the fight against the Soviets in World War II, and

they were a defeated or one of the non-allied countries.

And Kaufman seemed to know that Aalto

was not involved in the UN conference

rooms project, and on the contrary said:

EDGAR KAUFMAN CONFERENCE HALL, 1964

"I'll give Aalto an order in New York." And Kaufman ordered conference rooms for him.

I am continuing this letter in New York. I just arrived here.

I'm sitting in the bar of the Plaza Hotel.

Two beers. (I am thirsty.)

And an omelette with port wine. (No cocktails.)

And then to bed. (One.)

Jack Sweeney came yesterday.

I asked to make a project for a poetry hall in the new Harvard Library.

We have agreed to, that the work is

yours, you will have to design every inch.

WOODBERRY POETRY HALL, 1949, USA

All furniture may be different.

Dear Daddy, Lately I

was a little capricious,

but I'm sure whatever

you do will turn out great.

You are the kindest and smartest person in the

world, and you wouldn�t wish anything bad on anyone.

You're too attractive to leave for so long.

But I try not to lose heart and hope that

there will be no new tragedies. This is terrible.

I am the happiest in the world because I have such a

home, you and I have wonderful children and a common cause.

How can such happiness fall to the lot of one person?

Despite all this, recently�� ' ,� � I don�t feel very well. . '

I'll miss you terribly.

In the mornings in the upper hall, and in the evenings next to you.

I won�t say: �None,� I will say: "Not many cocktails these days."

I'm sure you understand.

But I would be glad if you did not forget about this my only desire.

Take care of yourself, I wish you all the best, dear daddy. Aino.

There is nothing more beautiful in the world than our team.

This makes me very happy.

It�s only thanks to you that everything is so natural and clear.

Just like the world's greatest architecture.

You exude confidence and peace, heavenly warmth.

It gives balance to everyone, in which we live and work.

My dear Aino, I want to know how you sleep now.

You are the most beautiful person in the world.

I love you terribly and believe in

your ability to make our lives flawless.

You are wise, noble, amazing person.

For your sake, at all costs, I must mature mentally.

It's sad that some little things don't allow me to focus on.

.. what is more important than

myself, And distracts me from great

thoughts - something that you have always done very well.

I hope you remember what I wrote about cocktails.

I love you more than ever. Aino.

In 1947, Aino and Alvar Aalto went to Italy.

For the first time since my honeymoon there.

As it turned out, this was Aino�s last trip abroad.

This picture is still before my eyes.

LORENZ MOSER, ARCHITECT It was such a

contrast between the quiet and reserved

Aino and Alvar Aalto, very lively and shining.

I don't think he fully understood how

serious the situation was, how sick Aino is.

He was an optimist, and, for sure, I thought she would get better.

Aino died a month later at the beginning of January.

He probably felt the death of

his wife most deeply in his life.

It was probably a range of emotions,

including guilt, IN many respects.

What could Aalto do at such a moment?

How do we cope with the death of a spouse?

She died of cancer in 1949 still a very young woman.

Alvar Aalto was left with two children.

And he did what came naturally to him.

Drew.

After Aino's death Aalto rarely traveled to the States.

At this moment there was a lot of work in Finland.

And he was very withdrawn into himself.

But I also think that the

States may reminded him of her.

Surprisingly, that same spring he participated in a

design competition for the university complex in Otaniemi.

His nickname says a lot: "Morituri te

salutant", the motto of Roman gladiators.

"Those who go to their death greet you.

" Not only this led to dramatic

changes in Aalto's work.

One could say that Aino's death

became a catalyst for these changes.

OTANIAMI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY 1949 / 1964

But the reasons that led to these changes were

always present or accumulated little by little.

After Aino's death, he won the competition with his

project Otaniemi, the Pension Administration and S�yn�tsalo.

He may have already been influenced by his relationship with Elissa at that time.

Around 1950, a young female

architect appeared in the studio.

She worked on the S�yn�tsalo town center project,

and at that time they began a relationship.

Her name was Elsa M�kiniemi.

In a sense, Elissa herself was a creation of Aalto�s workshop.

Was it her initiative or Alvar�s, we'll never know.

It's like she was born again a new woman with a new name.

MUNICIPAL CENTER IN SAYUNATSALO, 1952

Municipal center in S�yn�tsalo - not just a public building.

It's more like a small town in Northern Italy.

Very strong community spirit.

He seemed to feel his duty

in front of classical, historical Italian architecture.

In particular, he gravitated towards Romanesque and other medieval architecture.

For him she was "according to the height" of a person.

The size of such a city was just right.

The scale is always determined by the person.

FROM RADIO INTERVIEW ALVARA AALTO

People are part of nature, like pine or birch trees.

Hence the scale.

I cannot ignore this, turning people into giants or dwarfs.

I must maintain truly human dimensions.

When construction began in S�yn�tsalo, Aalto bought a

plot a couple of kilometers from the municipal center.

And developed a project for a summer villa, which he called an experimental house.

His main motivation was the ability to

deduct construction costs from taxes.

But this house became one of Aalto�s most beautiful works.

EXPERIMENTAL HOUSE, 1954

He wanted to try to build a house without a foundation.

Rock and stone in the soil were used as the foundation.

Alvar Aalto's priority in life has always been creative work.

FROM RADIO INTERVIEW ELISSA AALTO The happiest

circumstance was that I was also an architect

and could participate in this area of ??his life.

Otherwise I would feel like an outsider.

But the first and main requirement was, that I accept his priorities.

One could say that the villa in Muuratsalo

and the relationship with Elissa, in a sense,

saved him from melancholy after Aino�s death.

How to build something modern,

combining and continuity, and a close connection with a

lifestyle that has changed, which is constantly changing.

Historical continuity gives meaning to life.

For him, every building is this is obvious.

Obviousness acquired during the game.

UNIVERSITY OF JYVASKYLA, 1951 / 1956

If you bring a child into a room, whatever is

in that room, the child will play with it.

In a sense, this was Aalto's method.

You take what you have what is possible, and

from this you create art. And this is a game.

Aalto's genius is that whatever the circumstances,

whatever the limitations, he makes a project based on them.

And seeks creativity in the situation itself.

The typical aspiration of modernism is smoothness and transparency.

But the university in Jyv�skyl� - very closed building.

He looks like this as if it was built in

the Middle Ages, and stood for millennia.

The plot faces Tiilim�ki.

Here they built a new studio.

AALTO STUDIO, 1955

Beautiful garden, almost like a small theater.

Aalto seems to be exploring how the ruins of the

amphitheater flow into the landscape, into nature.

Aalto was convinced from the very

beginning that only architects could be hired.

That you only hire equals or potentially equals to yourself.

The creative studio is based on trust.

You let people do what they want, and they do it within

the framework of a clear understanding of the main ideas.

Absolute freedom, but, in a sense, absolute control.

FINNISH PAVILION, 1956, ITALY

Aalto's studio was like a Renaissance workshop.

FEDERICO MARCONI, ARCHITECT The master

made sketches, a students finalized the details.

The atmosphere was like in a Renaissance

workshop or even in a monastery.

He was an attractive personality.

I remember he told me: "When you present a project to a

client, you must be like a boxer, hitting you right in the gut.

So that the client cannot say a word,� that�s what he said.

One morning two English professors

appeared, CARL FLEIG, ARCHITECT

without prior agreement.

Aalto said: �I see. And their suits are probably brand new."

And asked Sisko to say, to wait that

Aalto himself was still in the bedroom.

He went up and came down a little later.

Hair tousled, wearing a robe.

HOUSE OF CULTURE, 1958

In the 60s, if Aalto gave a sketch plan for a project,

surprisingly, this plan was always absolutely accurate in terms of dimensions.

Aalto had an intuitive sense of scale,

no matter how rough the sketch, even 6B.

The most important plans Alvar Aalto always drew himself.

LORENZ MOSER, ARCHITECT If any of

the employees worked, he was always there.

It doesn't matter, morning, afternoon, in the evening or at night.

Sometimes he moaned, coughed, cleared his throat.

Or even sang. And when he did this,

the employees always giggled, laughed.

Later they told me that his

songs were mostly not very decent.

He did not work purely intellectually

or functionally, like other architects.

KARL FLEIG, ARCHITECT

I must say, he had excellent relationships with his subordinates.

He always said, G�RAN

SCHILDT, WRITER, AALTO'S

FRIEND how important workers and builders are.

And he always spoke with praise about those two artisans,

about Korhonen, who made furniture, and Hirvonen, who made lamps.

I always emphasized that these people were much more

important than all the businessmen at Artek. and wherever.

He really felt sympathy for the working class.

No one in Aalto's workshop tried to reinvent the wheel.

Collected an archive - collected understanding,

knowing what you can and can't use from earlier projects.

SEINJOKI CITY CENTER, 1962

Elissa Aalto Came to

the studio in 1950.

In '52 they got married.

Construction industry around the world - very sexist.

Anyone can easily say: �You became Alvar

Aalto�s partner only because you are his wife.�

Even though he himself emphasized, that she

and Elissa were partners, not everyone liked it.

I remember at the very beginning Elissa always had curls.

Alvar made her wash her hair and comb her hair smoothly.

MARYA PAATELA-POYRI, ARCHITECT

And I had a friend - a dressmaker.

I took Elissa with me and she ordered a brown suit.

No one has ever seen this suit. Alvar loved black and white.

To a great extent he seems �cast� his ideal woman from Elissa.

I would say the best compliment what

I received from my husband, FROM RADIO

INTERVIEW ELISSA AALTO said "my girl".

For my part, I can say that I

never had to doubt his loyalty.

I think Elissa is even somewhat similar to Aino.

Yes, it's true, it's similar.

PENSION SECURITY BOARD, 1949 / 1956

The Pension Administration building has

acquired an undeservedly bad reputation.

I think, it's too pretentious.

It shouldn't be like this.

Too luxurious.

This is the pension administration.

For its employees, it's

like a five-star hotel.

It shouldn't be so luxurious.

An ordinary brick building would be enough.

A more modest structure would have cost less.

Many people in the Aalto studio believe

that the Pension Administration is in some

sense the pinnacle of Aalto's self-expression.

Hierarchy is vital in architecture.

It is wrong to assume that all projects are equal.

Architecture is a branch of human activity that

creates a basic hierarchy and categories

between the secular and the religious, For example.

Sometimes architecture perpetuates and ennobles.

CHURCH OF THREE CROSSES, 1958

If there is nothing to improve, then there is no architecture.

Church of Three Crosses - it is a temple of doubt.

Aalto was not religious in the traditional sense.

There is no division of space into inside and outside.

There's space outside inside and something in between.

I think this is a very literal

architectural interpretation of the Trinity theme.

Perhaps this is also due to the theology of doubt.

There is no need to choose one or the other,

both options are possible at the same time.

Aalto was also experienced in politics, and

in a religious sense, to remain a little on

everyone's side, but really on no one's side.

You are not just inside or outside,

you are not just religious or not religious.

You are both, or

neither, at the same time.

This is the intermediate space of Aalto -

and in his personality, and in its architecture.

Therefore, at the most inevitable political moment

of the reconstruction of West Germany after the war

Aalto received an order for construction Cultural center in Wolfsburg.

Industrial city for the construction

of the "people's car" Volkswagen.

�Your task is to build as a

counterbalance to today�s monotonous life.�

CULTURAL CENTER IN WOLFSBURG, 1962, GERMANY

FROM RADIO INTERVIEW ALVARA AALTO 90 percent of

everything that exists today is vulgar functionalism.

We must respect function.

We must start with an idea, which

must always be related to a function.

We have to save lives

rather than just creating different shapes.

LIBRARY IN ROVANIEMI, 1965

Much of today's architecture

marked by a certain inhumane formalism.

I think I can quote

Professor Eric Lundberg from Sweden.

One day he told me:

"Architecture, every architectural creation

must contain certain qualities

giving him the ability to grow.

Its modulated form must be capable of growing

and create society."

CHURCH OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, 1962, GERMANY

Aalto understood the need to write and debate

about his interpretation of modern architecture.

He was always seen as a creator of "interference"

very strong trends towards rationalization of production.

Therefore, Aalto put forward the idea of ??flexible standardization.

RESIDENTIAL BUILDING GANZAFIRTEL, 1957, GERMANY

For him, rationality existed at the cellular or molecular level.

He initially adhered to this philosophy, as if to say: we

understand that during the construction of large

architectural complexes RESIDENTIAL HOUSE IN BREMEN,

1958-1962, GERMANY a certain degree of standardization is necessary.

But minor changes are also needed that will bring

the structure closer to the �genius of the place�

and fit it into this place in a very special way.

RESIDENTIAL COMPLEXES IN SUNIL, 1938, 1947, 1954.

You can create standard elements, but these

elements must be flexible around the edges.

In the 1950s, someone asked him What are its dimensional tolerances?

He replied: "One millimeter."

So he was not a rational designer.

Alvar talked about this more than once.

VELI PAATELA, ARCHITECT

He had an idea to create a small, cozy laboratory.

A couple of architects physicist and doctor.

He even found a suitable island.

There he wanted to study the architectural

humanistic approach to human existence.

How can we build a humane human environment?

The unit of standardization is not 4

meters, and not 1, and not just there.

This is at the molecular level.

The building is quite modest.

This is in the suburbs of Paris, FROM RADIO

INTERVIEW ALVARA AALTO Between Versailles

and Chartres Cathedral, 45 km from Notre Dame.

This is a private building.

Customer - Louis Carr�.

He is a famous art collector.

Naturally, a private house should be quite modest,

although it contains an art collection

exceptional level according to European and world standards.

HOUSE OF LOUIS CARRE, 1959, FRANCE

Louis Carr� met Alvar Aalto

at the Venice Biennale in June 1956

Louis Carr� gave Alvar Aalto complete freedom.

Initially, Louis Carr� did not want any stairs in the house.

He was physically limited.

But Aalto believed in getting a beautiful descent into the

living room, since the house is on a hillside, a ladder is needed.

And they designed special very low

steps, like in the Palace of Versailles.

They say that at that time Louis Carr� lived in

Paris in a building designed and built by Le Corbusier.

They lived next door for 7 years.

Carre did not want to entrust the villa project Le Corbusier.

He wanted the project to be

more personal, warmer, more cozy.

Carre's chain was getting cozy, a simple house

whose main purpose would be to display a collection.

Therefore, Aalto was required to design a house that would

look small from the outside, a would be very spacious inside.

And in the end, Carr� decided that

Aalto would also design the entire

furnishings, and the house should

become a masterpiece that would

frame other masterpieces -

paintings by Braque, L�ger,

Picasso, Bazin, Gromer, Dufy, Bonnard and others.

Elissa always seemed to remain in Aino's shadow,

because Aino is seen more as an original partner, as an equal.

But I think what was great about

Elissa was that she took full

responsibility for the artistic side of the workshop,

and carried it for at least 10 years until the death of Alvar Aalto.

I want to create a center

which...

for all residents

would be comfortable.

Because all important buildings

are nearby.

This is the principle of all old Italian cities.

HELSINKI CENTER PLAN

His most ambitious plan was, of course,

Helsinki city center project.

Design the center of the capital

Not every architect gets it.

But only part of this plan came true - the Finlandia Palace.

Aalto was very worried about this.

PALACE "FINLAND", 1971

Naturally, I will say a few words.

But the problem is that I can't

talk about my own building in a

way that explains everything about it.

Subjectivity always plays the most important role.

I can't list either the advantages or disadvantages.

Yes, this is not needed here.

Nice, but not very attractive.

Looks like a butcher's shop.

- What is the reason? - Marble.

All the walls all surfaces are white.

The benches in the lobby also look uncomfortable.

It's better to just pass by.

I once tried to sit down,

but I was told that there would be spots on the skin.

The whole ritual of arrival you take off your coat

and it's like you're breaking out of your shell.

Everyone takes off their dark coats and heavy

hats, and remains in their bright and magnificent outfits.

And then a magnificent staircase.

And you find yourself in a foyer covered in luxurious gray Axminster carpet.

Color spots are only people, other citizens.

And you merge with them, talking.

Then you enter the hall.

And this is such a huge space, imbued with the

greatness of culture. The space of music and all that.

The avalanche of change in the 1960s knocked us all off our feet.

Every young architect who

believed that he was capable of

making a career, had to fight against Aalto.

He was such a dominant that anyone who followed in the

same direction was considered dependent, follower of Aalto.

It was a difficult time for Aalto.

In the 1920s and 1930s he was

a radical, provoking others.

And in the late 1960s he was an

old architect, Quite underrated.

They looked at him as a conservative like a dinosaur.

It seems to me that his feeling of bitterness was psychologically

explained by that kind of cocoon, which he created around himself.

In recent years, he simply locked himself in the cramped world of his workshop.

OFFICE BUILDING STORA ENSO, 1962

The left probably thought Aalto

capitalist architect and he really was.

He designed banks, factories, main offices of companies.

Ironically, although Aalto was heavily

criticized in his home country of Finland,

his reputation around the world continued to grow.

Let's speak directly.

Aalto has not been doing well in recent years.

He developed problems with alcohol.

Building Boom, which lasted

around 1949, ended by the

mid-1960s, and there were not many new projects.

Moreover, in Finland one could already feel

a kind of protest against the work of Alvar Aalto.

If you're a shark in a goldfish bowl,

this will inevitably cause protests.

Aalto received an order from Beirut

for the development of a project for a banking and administrative complex.

ALFRED ROTH, ARCHITECT

And from Finland he went straight to Beirut.

Alone, without Elissa.

Apparently, Aalto was already completely drunk on the plane.

As he exited the plane, he said:

"I don't want to meet anyone Let's go straight to the hotel."

I knocked carefully on the door. There was no answer.

I opened the door.

He was lying in bed, fast asleep,

with empty bottles lying around.

It was a disaster.

In the autumn of 1975, Aalto received a call from Bologna.

VECIO NAVA, ARCHITECT

They wanted to build a church in Riol.

Aalto was very happy.

He died the following spring never seeing the completion of the project.

PARISH CHURCH IN RIOL, 1978, ITALY

Another person with strong faith in this church was a priest.

He told,

that I once installed a roof

in the place where they held mass.

He slipped and when he fell,

then he prayed to the Virgin Mary for his salvation,

because he still needs to finish Riola's church.

And so it happened.

He broke his leg, but survived.

He died only in 1980, two years

after the opening of the church.

The priest believed that he had received mercy twice. Firstly, he didn�t die,

and secondly, he was able to finish the church, in which I believed so much.

Alvar suffered a heart attack on his way to work.

He was taken to the hospital.

Schildt said Aalto complained about the

bad wine and was only given berry juice.

Alvar said to Elissa:

CHRISTINE SCHILDT, CLOSE

FRIEND �Bring me a bottle of Campari.

The four of us will have a drink, all together."

Elissa brought a bottle, but it's... Of course it was just juice.

It seemed to Alvar that the taste is great.

THERE IS NO PROPHET IN HIS FATHERLAND

When he died, the nurse asked Elissa,

what type of occupation should be indicated in the documents. Is he retired?

Elissa was furious.

In the end, the architect died on his way to work.

My beloved Aino, I will

focus on �forest life� with you.

I'll build a whole institute and we will do whatever we want there.

Aalto Institute or Aino Institute.

All these big institutions like

Rockefeller Center, MIT complex

or Harvard, it's too complicated.

Frank Lloyd Wright told me:

�My America is already gone.

England, Germany, Japan, that I loved - they are no longer there.

Democracy is lost...

America is now much more imperialistic than in modern times.

And a little more smug in the sense that our cultural

friends no longer matter as much as they used to.

Flowers in the garden of creation Aino and Alvar Aalto.

That's why this trip was needed.

This is where I regained my confidence.

Harvard is nothing, MIT is nothing.

Power over the world is nothing.

There is nothing but ourselves.

The most important thing is the creative power in little Aino.

And in ourselves.

I kiss you a thousand times,

I love my babies a thousand times.

Yours Alvar.

IN THE WORLD - ABOUT 300 COMPLETED AALTO CREATIONS.

MORE THAN 200 PROJECTS THEY WERE NOT IMPLEMENTED.

AALTO

Narrators:

Special thanks to the AALTO FAMILY, FOR THE ALVAR AALTO FOUNDATION

MUSEUM COLLECTIONS ALVARA AALTO

TO THE CHRISTINE AND JORN SCHILDT FOUNDATION, MAYRE FOUNDATION

Director VIRPI SUUTARI

Scriptwriters VIRPI SUUTARI, JUSSI RAUTANIEMI

Operators HEIKKI F�RM, JANI KUMPULAINEN

TUOMO HUTRY, MARITA HELLFORS, YANI H�KLI

Installation JUSSI RAUTANIEMI

OLLIE HUCHTANEN

SANNA SALMENKALLIO

Preuzeto sa www.titlovi.com