Alvar Aalto was a Finnish architect from the 1930's. Born on February 3, 1898 in Bothnia, Alvar grew up as a very creative child. He was the oldest of three boys and a girl. The Aalto family fostered a love for nature and forests. He suffered from dyslexia but overcame his difficulties to earn the highest grades in grammar school for both of his German and Finnish classes. He apprenticed to an architect, Salvero, who discouragingly advised him, "You wouldn't make a good architect, but go ahead and try becoming a newspaper editor!"
After Studying at the Helsinki Institute of Technology, he worked as an architect, establishing the Alvar Aalto Office for Architecture and Monumental Art in a basement of a hotel in Jyvaskyla, Finland in 1923. Here he published texts for the newspaper along with designing buildings. He soon met Aino Marsino who would become his wife in 1925. The couple was inspired by Italy and the Mediterranean and thus their design has hints of Italian style such as their furniture. It is rumored that Aino and Alvar actually resided in a nudist camp!
Alvar is noted for his designs of the University of Jyvaskyla campus; dorms at the Massachusettes Institute of Technology; his residence the Villa Mairea in Noormarkku, Finland; the Institute of Technology in Espoo, Finland; Pedagogical University in Jyvaskyla, Finland; the town center for Seinajoki, Finland; and the Church of the Three Crosses in Finland. These are just a handful of the many amazing and fabulous buildings Alvar constructed in his lifetime.
Alvar Aalto's style was very modern for the 1930's. He was part of the genre "Nordic modernism." His design style progressed through three stages: functionalism, experimentation, and monumentalism. He also designed furniture, lights, and lamps. One particularly remembered chair design is covered with reindeer fur! Additionally, Alvar was always careful to include interesting and unique door handles in all of his masterpieces.
Villa Mairea House
MIT Dorms
Summer House in Aalto's experimental phase
Sources: Aalto by Louna Lahti. Taschen, 2004; Germany.
