Alvar Aalto - Case study

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Alvar Aalto. Paimio Chair. 1931–1932

Alvar Aalto, Untitled, 1945 Oil, 44.5 x 67 cm.

Savoy Glass Bowl by Alvar Aalto, 1960s

Alvar Aalto, Untitled, 1946-47 Oil, 32.5 x 39.5 cm.


Säynätsalo Town Hall,1949 Alvar Aalto


A BUILDING IS LIKE AN INSTRUMENT, IT HAS TO ABSORB ALL THE POSITIVE INFLUENCES AND INTERCEPT ALL THE NEGATIVE INFLUENCES THAT MIGHT AFFECT PEOPLE. A BUILDING CANNOT DO THAT UNLESS IT IS TREATED WITH SAME FINESSE AS THE ENVIRONMENT IT STANDS IN.

-ALVAR AALTO


The town of Säynätsalo, located on a small island in central Finland’s Lake Päijänne, was first laid out in 1945. A few years later, the community organized an architectural competition to find a design for a town hall to complete their new municipality which was, by then, the home to around 3000 people. The civic complex was to comprise a council chamber, local government offices, a community library, staff apartments, and retail space that would ultimately allow the functions of the town hall to expand beyond their original parameters. Taking advantage of his good relations with the town council and the support of the business the winner was Alvar Aalto.


Alvar Aalto considered that nature and buildings are two ingredients of a single landscape they are not in opposition they are inter-permeable, they are part of the same composition because of the materials and the colors of course and also in the progression of spaces. Alvar Aalto is making land art before it was invented a skillful graduation of states of nature, the forests kept in its original state surrounding the community center


Alvar Aalto created an artificial hill that he surrounded by four main buildings. He flattened this mound to make a raised central patio a square tower topped this quadrilateral.Two stairways gave access to the patio.

On the side of the main street was a large set of granite steps making a majestic entrance to the Town Hall premises,on the other side was a grass covered earthen stairway this empty space at the heart of the building the raised patio transformed a simple municipal building into an urban constituent like a little district without streets or avenues.


This image was emphasized by the singular treatment of the volumes, each wing of the building was given an irregular geometry by the use of setbacks cantilevers or oblique walls so that the whole design evokes the tensions and complexity of an urban landscape.


7 Dwellings for civic employes

5 Shops

A Community Library

N 5 Offices and 2 Meeting rooms

Each element of this program occupies one side of the quadrilateral single-story buildings that can be walked around on the outside, the shops and offices, dwellings then the library.


Shops are arranged on the periphery of the quadrilateral , so that it easily accessible from outside

Dwellings for the civic employes

GROUND FLOOR


FIRST FLOOR


COUNCIL CHAMBER It was the council chamber that provoked the most controversy when Aalto proposed his design to the people of Säynätsalo. The municipal board members in charge of the building were unconvinced that a town as small as theirs could justify the construction of a 17-meter tall council chamber, especially given the high price of the brick specified for the project. Aalto, however, reportedly replied “Gentlemen! The world’s most beautiful and most famous town hall, that of Siena, has a council chamber 16 meters high. I propose we build one that is 17 meters.” Alto wanted to assert the superiority of civic buildings.

N


In Aato’s preparatory sketches the lines of force and the rays of light that shine on the counselors seem to form a strange hourglass shape as if once combined the forces became a radiance that enlightened the decisions. The splendor of the place is in its height it is not the volume of a council chamber but that of a church, more than 10 meters to the roof held up by two huge beams.


The council-chamber is quite simple it is square, the mayor's desk faces three rows of tables the public sits at the back. Decisions made after mature reflection for which Alto devised a careful set-up with furniture made of wood and black leather and tables aligned classroom fashion, each chair carried the names of the counselors who sat in it as if to emphasize the responsibility and dignity of this duty nobody would forget who decided what.


The large square bay opening to the north are masked by interior wooden openwork shutters like stained-glass windows in a church they obscure the view and keep the place in half light an additional way of creating mystery and solemnity.

This cantilevered gallery gives access to the council chamber with a long horizontal loophole through which the sun marks its passage across the inside walls. Opposite the loophole is a half ceiling with open work to make a long cornice with concealed lighting this ensures a sophisticated play of light by both day and night


Originally the architect had designed a series of half trusses the traditional framework for a pitched roof. Here he invented the butterfly beam a main beam combining the effect of 16 secondary side beams; the prowess of a carpenter but also a lesson in how to combine the strengths of all in a common effort.


LIBRARY The other main facility of the community center is the long library which is on the contrary totally transparent a glass facade with wooden framing a facade turned towards the sunlight it has a long open plan without any interior partitions.


The sloped roof sits on concrete beams the only place where Alvar Aalto shows the convictions of the modern movement.

The only-through space opens on the south side toward the trees and on the north towards the raised terrace. The variations in opacity and transparency, the diversity of the volumes, the work with proportions, all give a particular richness to the building. It is still a modest project by the municipality of Saynatsalo but it is imbued with all of Alvar Aalto ambitions.This monument also embodies urban complexity and the dignity of a public effort and the architect did not allow the least slight on his building.

N


The patio planted with grass and to brick pavements The pond that recalls the lake

The potted plants that make a winter garden in the two passages along the patio

The grass and earth steps indicating a mastery of nature


These passages that are mostly open to the outside give citizens access to the town hall offices. It is a generous public space protected from wind and snow and cold, it also shows how practical the architect was. This brick bench alongside the window, a narrow gap divides it into and separates the part that acts as a seat from the facade the radiators are concealed beneath it. Citizens sitting beside the window are kept warm people sitting against the wall are not forgotten the lights are turned toward the outside and their reflections light the passage the community center is a total creation that demonstrates the talent of Alto.

This designer and creator of furniture he preferred natural materials like wood and leather the door handles are a masterpiece of fine strips of leather plated around twin brass stems.


Villa Mairea , 1939 Alvar Aalto












Bibliography 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12.

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