The Future of Ancient Collegiate Typologies

TheFutureofAncientCollegiateTypologies Monastic traditions and the relevance of Baker House over sixty years on...

Richard Winter

AR30039 History and Theory 4 Issues in Contemporary Architecture

University of Bath Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering

Richard Winter January 2011

“I would live my whole life in what they call their cells. It is the perfect solution to the working man’s house type, unique or rather an earthly paradise” Le Corbusier visiting the Charterhouse at Ema, 1911

Introduction Though over sixty years old, Alvar Aalto’s Baker House at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology remains highly relevant. It is an apposite example in the present day of the sociological achievements attainable through considered and humane architecture.

This essay will conduct an analysis of two key twentieth century works by Aalto and Le Corbusier, both utilising the collegiate typology. Of particular interest to me throughout this study is the way that architecture can enhance the relationship of the individual through an unmediated contact with nature.

I will begin by analysing the history of the collegiate typology, with particular reference to the monastic tradition. Both Aalto and Le Corbusier were influenced by this ancient typology, informing their specific relationships to nature. I will then evaluate the merits of Baker House, and how Aalto used architecture as a tool to foster a sense of community. Finally, I will conclude by looking at a recent example of student accommodation by Steven Holl at MIT, and the shortfalls of his scheme.

Having experienced living in various models of student housing, both in Britain and on the continent, I am interested in the typology of collegiate living with regard to student accommodation. This analysis will be used to inform my final degree project - the development of a student housing scheme in Bath.

The subject of collegiate architecture has been well documented in recent times. Of particular interest to me in researching this subject was the ARQ article The individual and mass housing: the delicate balance by Michael Trencher. His writing was key to informing the associations of the Pavillon Suisse and Baker House. This enabled me to understand the historical context of Baker House and its aim to influence the twentieth century housing model.

fig. 01 - “the lawn” at the University of Virginia - Thomas Jefferson’s Arcadian campus masterplan

1

BRAWNE, M. 1992. From Idea to Building Oxford: Butterworth Architecture

2

CURL, JS. 2006 Oxford Dictionary of Architecture 2nd ed. Oxford: OUP

3

MITCHELL, WJ. 2007 Imagining MIT – Designing a Campus for the Twenty-First

I. History and monastic roots A history of dwelling The idea of a college first originates in ancient Rome with the collegium, a group of persons living together under a common set of rules. In the UK, the term is first used in describing early learning establishments. Apart from living at home, students would historically have lodged either in colleges or halls of residences. Colleges originated from a functional association among a body of men, both students and teachers, who lived together under a common set of rules.1 Oxbridge colleges, defined by their enclosed quads, were founded as religious establishments, typified by King’s College Cambridge, founded in 1441 by Henry VI at the same time as Eton College.2 Former US president Thomas Jefferson’s pioneering design for the University of Virginia campus in 1822 aims to achieve an almost Arcadian reality in its treating of the natural environment. The master plan takes the form of a grassy rectangle with a rotunda at its head, flanked by colonnaded residential pavilion wings at its sides. The combination of living and teaching space around a unifying public space has been copied throughout the United States, recognised as the prototypical image of idyllic campus life.3

fig. 02 - Narkomfin housing collective in Moscow

fig. 03 - Charterhouse at Ema

4

MAGOMEDOV, K. 1987 Pioneers of Soviet Architecture New York: Rizzoli

5

LE CORBUSIER. 1924 Vers une Architecture Paris: G. Crès

6

CURL, JS. 2006 Oxford Dictionary of Architecture 2nd ed. Oxford: OUP

7

COLEMAN, N. Utopias and Architecture London: Routledge

8

BUCHANAN, P. 1987 La Tourette and Le Thoronet Architectural Review pp.48-59

9

COLEMAN, N. Utopias and Architecture London: Routledge

Russian pioneers of mass housing European modernism took cues from Russia in the 1920s, with both Aalto and Le Corbusier visiting Moscow to study innovative approaches to mass housing. Ivan Nikolaev’s 2000-room Experimental Student Hostel embodied communist ideals in a bold manner. The juxtaposition of an eight-storey residential slab against a low communal block ensured students could only find an identity within the totality of the community.4 Moisei Ginzburg’s Narkomfin Collective of 1932 proved influential on Le Corbusier, strongly influencing the development of his cinq points de l’architecture moderne.5

Monastic roots As a typology, the monastery embodies a series of spaces of varying scales.

These are designed specifically: for the individual (cell), the few (chapter house) and the collective (chapel/refectory). Monastic living necessitates voluntary confinement. The individual is diminished whilst the collective is celebrated.6 The fourteenth century monastery at Ema (1341) is a walled complex on Monte Acuto outside Florence. The unadorned building housing monastic life sits in the Florentine hills as meditative retreat for Carthusian monks.7 Documented by John Ruskin during his travels through Italy, the monastery incisively captures a broad range of social life at differing scales - the complex embodies a reconciliation of the individual and the collective.8 The positioning of the charterhouse at Ema provides a setting in which the monks can enjoy an unmediated contact with nature. It is through this that a deeper relationship with God can be developed.9 The idea of being at one with nature is longstanding, and was highly influential to the work of both Aalto and Le Corbusier.

fig. 04 - Monastery of Sainte Marie de La Tourette

10

WESTON, R. 2004 Key buildings of the twentieth century London: Laurence King

11

COLEMAN, N. Utopias and Architecture London: Routledge

12

WESTON, R. 2004 Key buildings of the twentieth century London: Laurence King

13

O’CONNOR, H. 2007 To preserve it in aspic is to deny it life Architects Journal pp.26-34

14

Ibid.

15

COLEMAN, N. Utopias and Architecture London: Routledge

16

BUCHANAN, P. 1987 La Tourette and Le Thoronet Architectural Review pp.48-59

The complex structure of the charterhouse at Ema was evident to Le Corbusier on visiting in 1907 10. The impact of the graceful repetition of the monks’ cells ultimately proved an inspiration for the cellular organisations in his buildings, in particular the monastery at La Tourette, as well as later urban planning works. “(T)o solve a large proportion of human problems you need locations and accommodation. And that means architecture and town planning. The Ema charterhouse was a location, and the accommodation was there, arranged in the finest architectural biology. The Ema charterhouse is an organism. The term organism had been born in my mind” 11 Although not specifically student residences, I will explore the collegiate nature of three key works of the twentieth century, including a sanatorium, a monastery and a student dormitory.

Monastery of Sainte Marie de La Tourette (1956-60) Le Corbusier was commissioned to design a Dominican monastery at Eveux-sur-Larbresle by Father Alain Couturier, a great believer in modern design12. On completion, the monastery at La Tourette became an icon of late Modernism, paradoxically communicated through an almost outmoded building type. The striking building sacrifices the polished machine aesthetic of his earlier works, replacing it with a more human aesthetic derived from an “economy of means”13.

The influence of Le Corbusier’s visit to Ema comes through strongly in at La Tourette14; the repetition of the monks’ cells are suggestive of those at Ema, which jut out over the striking olive groves of the Monte Sacro15. Raised on pilotis atop a grassy hillside, the monastery maintains an intense relationship with its environment; nature provides a natural setting for “meditative perambulation”16. Through this dialogue with nature, the building empowers the monks to create a potent relationship with God.

fig. 05 - loggias and arcades of pure stone beauty at Le Thoronet

17

BAKER, G. 1996 Le Corbusier: An Analysis of Form 3rd ed. New York: Spon Press

18

WESTON, R. 2004 Key buildings of the twentieth century London: Laurence King

19

BUCHANAN, P. 1987 La Tourette and Le Thoronet Architectural Review pp.48-59

20

RAY, N. 2001 Cambridge Composition ARQ 6(1) pp.32-46

21

WESTON, R. 2004 Key buildings of the twentieth century London: Laurence King

A variety of scales of spaces, from the mundane to the highly spiritual, are evocative of those seen at Ema. There is also a strong separation between individual and collective spaces, which actually enforces reconciliation and brings the monks closer together. This was also derived from Le Corbusier’s formative trip to the monastery fifty years previously17.

A great inspiration in La Tourette can be drawn from the nearby Cistercian abbey of le Thoronet, which Le Corbusier was told to visit by Father Couturier to understand the essence of the building type required. Conceived as being analogous to stone18, the complex forms are carved from Corbusian béton brut. The internal atmosphere again uses the history of le Thoronet for guidance, Le Corbusier describing it as “a harmonious arrangement of pure forms, providing a luminous internal harmony”.

Between machine and nature - Pavillon Suisse (1932) Anticipating his later more organic work, the Pavillon Suisse (1932) can be seen to have both classical modernist as well as Arts and Crafts influences19.

Conceived as a series of layers20 between nature and the city, the hostel for Swiss students at the Cité Universitairé in Paris enabled Le Corbusier to demonstrate his five points of architecture on a larger scale than the previously influential Villa Savoye.

A rectilinear steel-framed slab on pilotis is juxtaposed against a curved single-storey communal block in a way reminiscent of Nikolaev’s student hostel in Moscow. Inside, a variety of spaces develop, progressing from the organic hall to monastic, cell-like rooms, as nature vies with the machine to be the metaphor of efficient design.21

figs. 06,07 - Paimio Sanatorium is nestled deep in the forest, affording fresh air and distant views

22

CAMPBELL, M. 2005 What Tuberculosis did for Modernism Thesis, University of Edinburgh

23

WESTON, R. 2004 Key buildings of the twentieth century London: Laurence King

24

BAN, S. 2007 Alvar Aalto – Through the eyes of Shigeru Ban London: Black Dog

25

Ibid.

Institutional collectivism - Paimio Sanatorium (1932) Before the introduction of antibiotics in the 1950s to combat tuberculosis, rising numbers of TB cases informed the construction of numerous sanatoria around Europe, often opened in remote alpine regions to promote the ‘health-giving’ properties of ‘sun, space and greenery’22. This happened to coincide with the onset of the Modern movement. Whilst science had no cure, architecture invariably did; the mantra ‘Licht und Luft’ was in line with the ideals of the Modernist movement, and therefore sanatoria became an ideal proving ground to represent the architectural zeitgeist of the early twentieth century.

Aalto’s seminal functionalist sanatorium at Paimio (1932) was a development of Duiker and Bijoet’s Zonnestraal (literally ‘Sunbeam’) Sanatorium in Hilversum23 (1926-28). Aalto accepted aspects of the Russian housing model, but alterations produced a more human response to form a building as ‘an instrument for healing’ 24. Fundamental to the sanatorium at Paimio was its secluded location in a pine forest; the tall, single loaded rooms formed a slab in which every patient’s southeast facing room enjoyed a spectacular view over the surrounding pine forest. Self-curing was encouraged with private balconies for every room, complemented by a roof terrace and vast gardens with set ‘exercise pathways’ leading through the forest. Whilst residency came about through enforced means, Aalto’s aim was to deinstitutionalise the sanatorium.

Highly thought out rooms at Paimio were conceived after research by Aalto in to the ‘psychological requirements of the horizontal person’ 25 - indirect lighting, radiant heating in the ceiling and anti-splash sinks are just some of the devices incorporated to imbue a domestic atmosphere. Similar qualities have been developed as the basis for modern day hospices, such as in the design of ‘Maggie’s Centres’. This humanist mentality is a driving philosophy of Aalto’s throughout his career.

fig. 08 - the serpentine form of Baker House

26

FIXLER, D 32 2001 The Renovation of Baker House at MIT APT Bulletin, (2/3) pp.3-11

27

WESTON, R. 2004 Key buildings of the twentieth century London: Laurence King

28

TRENCHER, M. 2000 The individual and mass housing – the delicate balance ARQ, 4(3) pp.247-256

29

MITCHELL, WJ. 2007 Imagining MIT – Designing a Campus for the Twenty-First TRENCHER, M.

30

2000 The individual and mass housing – the delicate balance ARQ, 4(3) pp.247-256

With patients enjoying uninterrupted forest views, fresh air and plenty of sunlight, Aalto understood the psychological impact of man’s relationship with nature. Even through a highly functionalist design, Aalto’s consideration for the needs of the ‘little man’ is prevalent in his earlier work, present here at Paimio.

II. Aa-preciating Baker Historical context of Baker House After the widespread acclaim of the Finnish Pavilion at the 1939 World’s Fair in New York, Aalto gained notoriety in the States as a forward thinking European Modernist26. This landed him a teaching job at MIT during the war through the dean of the school, William Wurster27. Wartime research and development at MIT enabled rapid expansion, along with a new philosophical approach, guided by the Lewis Report of 1949, which promoted a “new mission to encourage initiative and the spirit of free and objective enquiry”28.

A deep fan of Aalto’s humanist mentality, Wurster was keen for MIT to move away from the grandiose neo-classicism of the existing main campus buildings, particularly after its widespread adoption by Albert Speer in Nazi Germany29. Aalto was thus commissioned in designing a new residential dormitory to promote these ideals at a time when the possibilities for the future and a modern way of life seemed unlimited.

In both the design of Baker House and his teaching at MIT, Aalto was keen to address personal agendas seen as critical to him, namely: “new forms of flexible standardisation” and the working towards “a delicate relationship between collectivity and individualism on both a building and city scale” 30.

The proposed design was also informed by MIT research on the relationship of spatial design to friend formation31, aiming to encourage sociability through architecture.

fig. 09 - one of the twenty two unique rooms

fig.10 - corridors generate informal meetings

31 SPECK, L. 1999 Amid a flurry of accolades MIT rededicates Aalto’s Baker House

Architectural Record, 11 pp.43 32 WESTON, R. 2004 Key buildings of the twentieth century London: Laurence King 33 REED, P. ed. 2002. Alvar Aalto – Between Humanism and Materialism 2nd ed. New

York: Museum of Modern Art 34 TRENCHER, M. 2000 The individual and mass housing – the delicate balance ARQ,

4(3) pp.247-256 35 Ibid.

Serpentine slab A far cry from the rationality of Le Corbusier’s Pavillon Suisse, Baker House is seen as the first building of Aalto’s ‘red brick’ period, a series of monumental civic works influences by his time in Italy in the 1940s.

32.

Conceived as a single loaded, six-storey modernist block, the design of

Baker House was supposedly developed through a feasibility study exploring variations on the slab, analysing each proposal’s virtues with regard to sunlight, views and privacy33. In reality this was nothing more than postrationalisation to keep the project’s sponsors happy.

The serpentine form negotiates its narrow site, relating to the neo-classical main campus buildings on a diagonal axis. The prime location afforded every room in the slab with unbroken views of the Charles River. This can be seen as a direct development of the monastic relationship with the surrounding environment originating at Ema. The sinuous plan brings about twenty two different and varying sized room configurations. This stands in strong opposition to le Corbusier’s typological duplication, or even Nikolaev’s minimalist redundancy. The opposite to the Pavillon Suisse, Baker House residents enjoy a sense of liberation in their unique rooms as opposed to being controlled in their ‘cells’ 34.

Social people The interiors in Baker House evoke the character of an Italian hill town; two cantilevered stairs cascade down the façade, being enveloped on each floor as the building rises 35. These extra spaces become light-filled communal areas in the wide corridors, creating informal meeting points throughout the dormitory. Baker House offers different grades of meeting space throughout, from the privacy of the rooms to smaller lounges on each floor, all the way

fig.11 - the ‘Moon Garden’ dining hall, bathed in light from Aalto’s signature conical skylights

36

REED, P. ed. 2002. Alvar Aalto – Between Humanism and Materialism 2nd ed. New York: Museum of Modern Art

37

O’CONNOR, H. 2007 To preserve it in aspic is to deny it life Architects Journal pp.26-34

38

BAN, S. 2007 Alvar Aalto – Through the eyes of Shigeru Ban London: Black Dog Publishing

39

TRENCHER, M. 2000 The individual and mass housing – the delicate balance ARQ, 4(3) pp.247-256

40

ROBERTS, J. 2004 Creating Life from a Sponge: the pre-history of Simmons Hall http:// simmons.mit.edu/prehistory/sh_prehistory_3architect.html [accessed 12 Jan 2011]

41

PALLASMAA, J. ed.1998. Villa Mairea Helsinki: Alvar Aalto Foundation

to the dining hall 36. A single point of entry, the main entrance, acts as both control point and social funnel, again encouraging informal encounters between students37. The idea of a complete range of well-scaled, naturally lit social spaces, originating in Paimio, is finally achieved here.

The key space in the composition, the ‘Moon Garden’ dining hall, is nestled between the residential slab and the Charles River 38. Almost reminiscent of classical antiquity39, the rectilinear double height pavilion is modern in material and detail, providing a sense of community whilst non-monumental in character. It is a celebration of the collective whilst not asserting the dominance of the institution.

Filled with light by Aalto’s signature conical skylights, the dining hall utilises large dining tables, an element which is reported by students to be popular due to their social implications.

“Dinner time was probably the most important and dependable element of my life at MIT. It was over the large, round tables of the Baker House dining hall, which forced people to sit in large groups and face one another, that I was able to make friends, exchange jokes and ideas, and generally unwind from a difficult day of work, class and study” 40 Although succinctly different in many ways to the Pavillon Suisse, the dialogue created with nature follows an identical approach. Students inhabit a porous wall plane permeated by a rich, outdoor space, again, of almost monastic approach. Aalto originally intended for the building to be wrapped with a trellis system, similar to those developed a decade previously for the Villa Mairea41. This would have allowed for a softening of the transition between built environment and nature through planting, moderating the light entering students’ rooms to give a dappled quality. Conclusively, budgetary constraints ultimately did not allow for this.

fig.12 - the influence of Baker House has been profound. Interlocking serpentine forms are used by Richard Meier for undergraduate housing at Cornell University

42

WESTON, R. 2004 Key buildings of the twentieth century London: Laurence King

43

FIXLER, D 32 2001 The Renovation of Baker House at MIT APT Bulletin, (2/3) pp.3-11

44

WESTON, R. 2004 Key buildings of the twentieth century London: Laurence King

Flexible standardisation Referred to throughout the twentieth century, the theme of repeatable units was a common theme. Aalto’s developments in ‘flexible standardisation’ were an attempt to “subdue the machine without destroying it 42”. Research carried out with students whilst teaching at MIT aimed to investigate this matter further. As well as the unique floor plans, Aalto embodied this belief through the material choices at Baker House; a standard New England clinker brick was chosen by the project architect due to it being the last foot-kneaded brick in the area 43. The retention of burnt as well as misshapen bricks also bring depth to the façade, instilling a human touch unusual for the machine age.

Aalto would recall this idea in later civic buildings such as the town hall at Säynätsalo. This aesthetic was strongly influenced by Aalto’s interest in ruins, materials and their historical associations, a synthesis of which contributes to give a monumental but humanist character.

Baker House is successful not through a Platonic ideal about perfection (as attempted by Le Corbusier), but through careful attention to the needs and aspirations of its users. This can be described as fundamental to Aalto’s humanist Modernism. Wurster was thrilled with the outcome, describing it as reminiscent of Florence44. For Aalto, the powerful narrative of Baker House was a modern reconstruction of the balance between the group and the individual. This marked the beginning of possibly the most innovative stage of his career.

fig.13 - initial concept image in watercolour by Steven Holl

45

MITCHELL, WJ. 2007 Imagining MIT – Designing a Campus for the Twenty-First Century Cambridge: MIT Press

46

Ibid.

47

Ibid.

48

ROBERTS, J. 2004 Creating Life from a Sponge: the pre-history of Simmons Hall http:// simmons.mit.edu/prehistory/sh_prehistory_3architect.html [accessed 12 Jan 2011]

49

MITCHELL, WJ. 2007 Imagining MIT – Designing a Campus for the Twenty-First Century Cambridge: MIT Press

50

ROBERTS, J. 2004 Creating Life from a Sponge: the pre-history of Simmons Hall http:// simmons.mit.edu/prehistory/sh_prehistory_3architect.html [accessed 12 Jan 2011]

III. Simm-ply inadequate “The Sponge” Simmons Hall represents MIT’s most expensive investment in to student accommodation, completed hugely over budget and two years overdue in 2002. The hiring of Steven Holl was part of a new direction taken by the university in campus branding, recently featuring works by famous architects including Charles Correa, Fumihiko Maki, Kevin Roche and Frank Gehry45.

The ten-storey building, referred to by students as “the sponge”, is conceived as a permeable slab mediating the flow from the academic and athletic sectors of the campus with a new residential neighbourhood. Biomorphic ‘lungs’ traverse an otherwise rectilinear block, providing communal spaces throughout the porous slab46. Due to fire regulations however, the smaller built reality of these spaces is underwhelming and not as originally intended.

Situated near to the river and the university playing fields, Simmons Hall does not foster a contextual relationship with its surroundings in the same way as Baker House or the Pavillon Suisse. The freestanding block stands up against a main road, with the dense lattice façade bringing up serious questions regarding its ambiguities of scale47.

Throughout the design process, Holl was said to be averse and dismissive of suggestions made by the student bodies; his seemingly self-indulging conceptual ideas seem to run entirely roughshod over the inhabitable qualities of the building48.

The building’s passive concrete solar façade, comprising 5,500 tiny windows, twelve per room, is reported to be ineffective, with problematic seasonal heating issues49. The pre-cast concrete facade also unintentionally creates a Faraday cage, ensuring little or no mobile phone signal for students throughout50. Additional complaints are of cracked plasterboard, and Holl’s

fig.14 - Simmons Hall

fig.15 - one of the ‘lungs’ incorporating communal space

51 BERNSTEIN, F. 2003 Full of Holes RIBA Journal pp.46-56 52 DARWENT, C. 1998 Alvar Aalto Rules the Waves The Independent on Sunday 18 Jan 1998

furniture is reportedly substandard. In dining rooms, Holl also chose to go against the precedent of Baker House, by employing small two and fourseater tables as opposed to Aalto’s proven and sociable eight-seaters.

Throughout the troubled construction process, Holl employed a bespoke façade system utilising pre-cast concrete. Again, Holl could have learned a lesson from his Finnish predecessor. Whereas a single standard brick formed the module to create flexibility in Baker House, the 291 unique pre-cast components51 at Simmons proved somewhat complicated, bringing delays and further expense.

On a larger scale, Simmons Hall is simply part of a campus master plan for a university run as a business. Almost like a theme park, universities such as MIT see buildings as a form of branding in our commercial age, in which case Holl has completed a great piece of marketing.

Monastic relevace in the tweny first century Through studying Baker House, it is evident how Aalto has employed an ancient monastic archetype to incorporate a relationship between the students and nature in a modernist slab. In this sense it is a twentieth century reinterpretation of the collegiate lives of monks in Ema. Both Le Corbusier and Aalto were masterful in enabling their architecture to further a relationship with nature, Le Corbusier through his visits to Ema and Aalto from his inherent understanding of Italian hill towns. The varying sized social spaces at Baker House inspired by these Italian journeys are testament to its success52.

Comparatively, the application of the slab typology by Holl is handled relatively poorly, lacking the conviction to create a successful collegiate community. Aalto’s offering is ironically more permeable than the self-styled

fig.16 - the bell tower at Ema

‘porous’ offering from Holl. Nevertheless, it could be said that Simmons Hall is ambitious in its aims, in the same way that Jefferson was with his design for the University of Virginia, or even Aalto in the 1950s with Baker House.

Conclusion Through first hand experience of both good and bad student accommodation, I understand firsthand the effect that pleasurable living conditions can have on the student experience.

In the midst of an economic downturn and with tuition fees set to rise, commercial pressures will inevitably affect the design of student accommodation. Although construction techniques and products have changed greatly since the 1950s, I feel that Baker House proves that successful collegiate architecture can be derived from the careful adaptation of an ancient archetype, regardless of the technology available. Both Aalto and Le Corbusier had a deep understanding of how man should relate to one another, as well as with his natural environment. As these twentieth century masters both showed, we must understand the past to design for the future.

If we acknowledge this, there is no reason why we cannot all experience a small piece of that monastery at Ema.

Bibliography BAKER, G. 1996 Le Corbusier: An Analysis of Form 3rd ed. New York: Spon Press BAN, S. 2007 Alvar Aalto – Through the eyes of Shigeru Ban London: Black Dog Publishing BRAWNE, M. 1992. From Idea to Building Oxford: Butterworth Architecture COLEMAN, N. Utopias and Architecture London: Routledge CURL, JS. 2006 Oxford Dictionary of Architecture 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press DARWENT, C. 1998 Alvar Aalto Rules the Waves The Independent on Sunday 18 Jan 1998 LE CORBUSIER. 1924 Vers une Architecture Paris: G. Crès MAGOMEDOV, K. 1987 Pioneers of Soviet Architecture New York: Rizzoli MITCHELL, WJ. 2007 Imagining MIT – Designing a Campus for the Twenty-First Century Cambridge: MIT Press PALLASMAA, J. ed.1998. Villa Mairea Helsinki: Alvar Aalto Foundation REED, P. ed. 2002. Alvar Aalto – Between Humanism and Materialism 2nd ed. New York: Museum of Modern Art ROBERTS, J. 2004 Creating Life from a Sponge: the pre-history of Simmons Hall http://simmons.mit. edu/prehistory/sh_prehistory_3architect.html [accessed 12 Jan 2011] SCHILDT, G. 1986. Alvar Aalto: The Decisive Years New York: Rizzoli WESTON, R. 2004 Plans, Sections and Elevations – Key buildings of the twentieth century London: Laurence King CAMPBELL, M. 2005 What Tuberculosis did for Modernism Thesis, University of Edinburgh BERNSTEIN, F. 2003 Full of Holes RIBA Journal pp.46-56 BUCHANAN, P. 1987 La Tourette and Le Thoronet Architectural Review pp.48-59 FISHER, T. 2002 Conversation with Steven Holl ARQ 6(2) pp.121-129 FIXLER, D 32 2001 The Renovation of Baker House at MIT APT Bulletin, (2/3) pp.3-11 MONEO, R. 1978 On Typology Oppositions, 13 Cambridge: MIT Press O’CONNOR, H. 2007 To preserve it in aspic is to deny it life Architects Journal pp.26-34 RAY, N. 2001 Cambridge Composition ARQ 6(1) pp.32-46 SPECK, L. 2000 Back to School Architecture, 1 pp.39-42 SPECK, L. 1999 Amid a flurry of accolades MIT rededicates Aalto’s Baker House Architectural Record, 11 pp.43 TRENCHER, M. 2000 The individual and mass housing – the delicate balance ARQ, 4(3) pp.247-256

Illustrations Fig.01 - COLEMAN, N. Utopias and Architecture London: Routledge Fig.02 - MAGOMEDOV, K. 1987 Pioneers of Soviet Architecture New York: Rizzoli Fig.03 - COLEMAN, N. Utopias and Architecture London: Routledge Fig.04 - BAKER, G. 1996 Le Corbusier: An Analysis of Form 3rd ed. New York: Spon Press Fig.05 - Flickr Fig.06 - Personal photo Fig.07 - Personal photo Fig.08 - REED, P. ed. 2002. Alvar Aalto – Between Humanism and Materialism 2nd ed.

New York: Museum of Modern Art

Fig.09 - Ibid.

Fig.10 - Ibid.

Fig.11 - Ibid.

Fig.12 - Ibid.

Fig.13 - ROBERTS, J. 2004 Creating Life from a Sponge: the pre-history of Simmons Hall http://simmons.mit.edu/prehistory/sh_prehistory_3architect.html

[accessed 12 Jan 2011]

Fig.14 - MITCHELL, WJ. 2007 Imagining MIT – Designing a Campus for the Twenty-First Century Cambridge: MIT Press

Fig.15 - Ibid.

Fig.16 - COLEMAN, N. Utopias and Architecture London: Routledge Front cover - Personal photo Inside covers - HOLL, S. 2007 Architecture Spoken New York: Rizzoli

Acknowledgements Many thanks to: Mr. Rob Gregory Mr. Martin Gledhill Dr. Harry Charrington