The Architecture in Finland has a 800 year old history - starting with the influence of its

two neighbouring countries - Russia and Sweden. It was in the early 19th century that
influences came from further afield - when foreign architects took up positions in the
country and later when the profession of an architect in Finland became established. The
works of the country’s most noted modernist architect Alvar Aalto have had significant
worldwide influence.

After the World War II, a new style of architecture called the modernist architecture
emerged. It was based upon new technologies of construction, particularly the use of
glass, steel and reinforced concrete and upon the rejection of the traditional neo-classical
architecture.

Alvar Aalto took the traditional and local method of using wood and brick and brought it
into modernism. He was popularly known for this kind of a transition from the modern to
the so called ‘Scandinavian modern’. He has been influential for the way he uses
construction techniques and materials and relates it to the vernacular architecture and the
traditions to create very simplistic - modern buildings.

Aalto had a phenomenological view - which showed that the rational and irrational
thought process of people could not be separated. This resulted in the Organic
Functionalism of Alvar Aalto’s work. He constantly would refer back to the human body to
orient his designs. While the human body may not be visually evident - like in Corbusier’s
work - Aalto’s writings and his approach to architecture prove that it was never forgotten.

Aalto writes - ‘Modern architecture has been rationalised mainly from the technical point
of view...but since architecture covers the entire field of human life, real functional
architecture must be functional mainly from the human point of view’. Instead of
approaching problems starting with the machine, Aalto argued rationalism should stem
from human needs, activities, and comfort.

I believe in the physical being of a human body in space, and it is until that moment when
one understands the space, or could connect to the architecture of the space. Aalto has
been very influential for me to create this kind of ideology and I would like to use this
opportunity to visit the architecture created by various modern Finnish architects like
Aalto, Erik Bryggman and Eliel Saarinen so as to experience the spaces and try to create
an idea library in my own head.

By the end of the residency program I expect myself to be able to talk about Alvar Aalto’s
works and philosophies and try to relook at the present pedagogical approach towards
architecture.

At this point of time, I believe that there is an absence of human scale in the architecture
that is being ‘manufactured’. It has become a product instead of a process where the
international wave of the modern has replaced the traditional and local forms of building.
The process of designing has been taken over by the production of buildings through a
mechanistic approach where things have started working like a machine.

There is a need to create a different approach towards architecture of the modern times,
especially the present generation where we could get back the intimate nature of
architecture.