Alvar Aalto through the eyes of Shigeru Ban

(photo by georg)

The Architect Shigeru Ban has developed an exhibition of some 14 Alvar Aalto projects which will be showing at the Barbican in London (22 Feb ’07 – 13 May ’07). I hope this exhibition can be brought to Finland too so I can see it. I’ll have to make do with the review by Johnathan Glancey which is excellent, and one paragraph stands out in particular;

As for the Finn himself, he was no saint. Fond of the bottle, something of a philanderer, and certainly no soldier, even at a time when Finland needed all hands to hold back Stalin’s hordes, he nevertheless helped give his country something of the character of responsible inventiveness that continues to drive its economy and society today. (JG)

It’s a bit shallow to see one person in terms of a personality of a whole nation but somehow very tempting in this case, its also illuminating that Aatos work is sufficiently deep that it can out as exemplarary of many different, and contemporary subjects that people choose to read into it. I would also say that Sigeru Ban may come to be seen as fitting into this quite exclusive category of Architects in the future.

Comments

Lashie says:

23 Feb 07 at 7:12 pm

“As for the Finn himself, he was no saint”

Remarkable how Finns are so tolerant to personal shortcomings…maybe artists and like tend to play this reputation to their own advantage and maybe to their peril..

I heard a lecture by Australain architect Glenn Murcutt at the RIBA a few years back…I was amazed to hear how grateful he was to Aalto’s inpsiration in his work (GM recoined the phrase ‘touch the ground lightly’ which isn’t something that AA is likely to come out with)

Murcutt seemed to admire, amongst other things, the consistency of Aalto’s use of materials…something like where there is brick, keep it brick and work all the details in brick…don’t reach for profiled steel drip trays etc..

I seemed also that Murcutt found a sense of resolve in Aalto’s work, where the scheme made complete visual and practical sense and incorporated complete design down to the esential necesities of say; every resident in every room of every room.
lewism says:

26 Feb 07 at 1:12 pm

Lashie,
Thanks for your well written comment. I’m not really surprised that Murcutt got inspiration from Aalto. I think for many Architects Aalto freed them from the idea that modernism was only interpreted in a reductive structural way e.g. ‘form follows function’ and that it could be reinvested with a natural humanised interpretation.
lewism says:

28 Mar 07 at 10:53 am

Helsingin Sanomat has a review of the show now.