ALVAR ALTO

Submitted by –
ANSHUL
75186002
B.arch, 3rd Sem.

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Introduction
 Hugo
Alvar
Henrik
Aalto
was born in

Kuortane, Finland.
 His father, Johan Henrik Aalto, was a Finnish-speaking land-surveyor and his
mother, Selly Matilda was a Swedish-speaking postmistress.
 When Aalto was 5 years old, the family moved toAlajärvi, and from there to
Jyväskylä in Central Finland. Aalto studied at the Jyväskylä Lyceum school,
completing his basic education in 1916.
 In 1916 he then enrolled to study architecture at the Helsinki University of
Technology. His studies were interrupted by the Finnish Civil War, which he
fought in.
 He built his first piece of architecture while still a student, a house for his
parents, at Alajärvi.
 Afterwards, he continued his education, graduating in 1921.

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CAREER
 Aalto's career spans the changes in style
from (Nordic Classicism) to purist
International Style Modernism to a more
personal, synthetic and idiosyncratic
Modernism.

 Aalto's wide field of design activity ranges

from the large scale of city planning and
architecture to interior design, furniture
and glassware design and painting.

 It has been estimated that during his entire

career Aalto designed over 500 individual
buildings, approximately 300 of which
were built, the vast majority of which are
in Finland.

 He also has a few buildings in France,

Germany, Italy and the USA.

PHILOSOPHY
 His design philosophy was influenced by nature and organic materials, unlike
other furniture of the same period with materials as tubular steel, which were
quite modern at the time.

 With his innovative designs and natural forms he changed the course of design
towards organic Modernism.

 The beauty of his work is hidden in his design approach of Functionalism but
with a strong connection to the organic relationship between man, nature and
buildings. He coordinated these three components and created a synthesis of
life in materialized form. He designed in very different scales – ranging from
buildings, town plans, furniture, glassware, jewellery and other forms of art.

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Architectural work
WORKERS CLUB (1924)
GROUND FLOOR PLAN
 It was a two-storey building
situated on the corner of two
streets in the centre of the town,
and with a café and restaurant on
the ground floor.

 From the street level one entered

an impressive entrance hall that
led upstairs to the auditorium
floor comprising a theatre space
and foyer.

 In the basement floor spaces were

reserved for, among other things,
a kitchen, storage and washing
and toilet facilities.

 Aalto also designed the lamps for the building as well as the decorative
paintings and part of the furniture.

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PAIMIO SANATORIUM
 Uses RCC frame with infill being an
insulating brick cavity wall which is then
rendered and painted white.

 Sun trapped balconies are cantilevered

from the tapering RCC frame.

 Exposed lift shaft on the external wall.

 Free form cantilevered canopy. PAIMIO

SANATORIUM (1929-33).

 Orientation: south of the balconies and the roof top sundeck was determined
by the dedication to the supposed “healing “ powers of the sun.

 West: doctors houses; North : staff flats.

 Plan was meant to be functionally zoned and

biodynamical aligned to the compass so that
the direction of each wing was defined
according to its requirements for sunshine
and view. GROUND FLOOR PLAN.

 A continuous sundeck that runs over the

patient wing is protected with RCC canopy to
reduce solar gain.

 Dining room was an enclosed mezzanine

suspended from steel hangers form above.

 It had a lot of natural light due to double height windows, the sun blinds
outside prevented glare.

 Main staircase has natural light which is further enhanced by the yellow color
of the stairs.

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VILLA MAIREA (1924)
FEATURES: EXTERIOR:

 The courtyard of the villa was inspired by the organization of vernacular

farmstead.

 The massing was inspired by the falling waters by Frank Lloyd Wright.

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 A – Dining room

 B – Sauna

 C – Living room

 D- Library

 E - Studio

 F - Staff

 G - Kitchen

 H- Restroom

 I – children play area

 J – Guest wing

 K – Children’s room

 L - Master bedroom

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BAKERS HOUSE (1947-48)
 Baker house is a dormatory for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
designed in 1946.

 Aalto was assisted by three finish architects –veli paatela with his wife kaija
and olav hammarstrom ,in addition to Aino.

 It was named baker house in 1950 after Everett moore BAKER , MIT’s dean
of students, who was killed in plane crash that year.

"The site is located on a heavily-trafficked street along the Charles River. In order to
avoid as much as possible the disturbing view out onto this street, a curving plan
form was chosen. By this means, no room was oriented at right angles to the street
and its traffic. An attempt to make use of this phenomenon was made with the form
of the building: the windows face diagonally to the passing automobiles and thus
afford a quieter environment for the person within the room. The stairway system is
housed in a paneled structure rising up the north side of the building which allows an
unobstructed view along its entire length from the lowest landing."

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  The stairway system is housed in a paneled structure rising up the north side of
the building which allows an unobstructed view along its entire length from
the lowest landing."
 The free form of rooms were built with ‘rustic’ bricks-indeed he went to find
the dark red reject bricks that were rough textured and included clinkers-but
clad the orthogonal main common room in limestone.

FEATURES:
The sets of rooms can be seen as an illustration of what aalto might mean by ‘flexible
standardisation’.

Each cell is essentially identical, but because of the shaped curve on plan 22 different
room shapes are created on a typical floor of 43 rooms.

The ground floor social area was ‘ORGANIC’,and related to the landscape in both
geometry and use of materials.

The lower floor is lit by virpuri like rooflights while the upper level has nearly
contionous views towards the river.

Columns on the ground floor are simple plastered cylinder but on the upper level
their connection with the trees beyond is emphasised by a splayed shape and timber
cladding.

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OTHER WORKS OF ALVAR ALTO

CONCEPT OF FURNITURE DESIGNING

 His design concepts were organic and using the human form.
 His buildings and chairs were first prompted by the user.
 The seats and handles were moulded to the human form.
 Of all architectural furniture, his is the closest to humanity.
 Alvar Aalto designed laminated timber furniture.
 He saw that tubular steel lacked human qualities.
 He used local Birchwood as a substitution for steel tubing.

FURNITURE WORKS

 He concluded that standardization and mass production could not be sustained

in Finland's small economy.
 His chairs were the result of great study and investigation into, posture,
laminated wood, aesthetic considerations and efficient mechanical methods of
mass production.

Alvar Aalto’s furniture included:

 The Paimio Chair

 The Viipuri Stacking Stools
 Cantilevered Chair

PAMIO CHAIR
 Paimio Chair is said to have been influenced
by the curved contours of the Finnish lakes.
 It is one of the most elegant modern chairs.
 The frame is laminated birch bent into a
closed curve with solid birch cross-rails.
 The seat is molded from one piece of birch
plywood.
 The springy plywood fixed on a closed
frame was Aalto’s brainstorm for making a
wooden chair “soft”.

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 The Paimio Chair is constructed from both two dimensional molded plywood
and laminated timber.
 The curves are made by clamping layers of veneer and glue over a form to
achieve the desired curved shapes.
 It was supported by cantilevered continuous arm and leg frame of laminated
Birch plywood steam bent in the shape of a "C" and had horizontal braces to
the back.
 The frame was thicker from the front of the seat down as there was more stress
on the frame there.
 He constructed the frame with 7 layers of lamination and less for the arms and
back as they required less reinforcement.

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VIIPURI STACKING STOOLS
The Viipuri collection of furniture complemented Aalto's forward thinking design.

The stacking stool - this was made up of only four wooden parts, three Aalto Legs
and a round seat.

These three legged stools are versatile and functional.

The stack ability means that they are ideal for large gathering areas with small
storage spaces.

The legs were attached to the seat at 120 degree angles which meant they could
interlock and stack easily.

They then take up a minimal storage space so are ideal for schools, meeting rooms or
offices.

They were available in children and adult sizes.

The legs were varnished natural Birch timber and the seats were made from natural
Birch timber, primary and white laminates.

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CANTILEVER CHAIR
 A Cantilever chair is a chair whose seating and framework are not supported
by the typical arrangement of 4 legs.
 Instead is held erect and aloft by a single leg or legs that are attached to one
end of a chair’s seat and bent in an L SHAPE.
 Otherwise known as the Cantilever chair no.31; Made of Bent laminated and
solid birch frame with bent plywood seat section; has a more subtle curved

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Conclusion
 His design concepts were organic and using the human form.
 His buildings and chairs were first prompted by the user.
 The seats and handles were moulded to the human form.
 Of all architectural furniture, his is the closest to humanity.
 Alvar Aalto designed laminated timber furniture.
 He saw that tubular steel lacked human qualities.

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