Alvar Aalto
Alvar Aalto
Hugo Alvar Henrik Aaltowas a Finnish architect and designer, as well as a sculptor and painter. His work includes architecture, furniture, textiles and glassware. Aalto's early career runs in parallel with the rapid economic growth and industrialization of Finland during the first half of the twentieth century and many of his clients were industrialists; among these were the Ahlström-Gullichsen family. The span of his career, from the 1920s to the 1970s, is reflected in the styles of his work, ranging...
ProfessionArchitect
Date of Birth3 February 1898
CityKuortane, Finland
Architecture belongs to culture, not to civilization.
Objects are made to be completed by the human mind.
Beauty is the harmony of purpose and form.
Our time is so specialised that we have people who know more and more or less and less.
The very essence of architecture consists of a variety and development reminiscent of natural organic life. This is the only true style in architecture
Nothing old is ever reborn but neither does it totally disappear. And that which has once been born, will always reappear in a new form
Modern architecture does not mean the use of immature new materials; the main thing is to refine materials in a more human direction.
We should work for simple, good, undecorated things, but things which are in harmony with the human being and organically suited to the little man in the street.
God created paper for the purpose of drawing architecture on it. Everything else is at least for me an abuse of paper.
Form must have a content, and that content must be linked with nature.
The ultimate goal of the architect...is to create a paradise. Every house, every product of architecture... should be a fruit of our endeavour to build an earthly paradise for people.
Human life is a combination of tragedy and comedy. The shapes and designs that surround us are the music accompanying this tragedy and this comedy.
Building art is a synthesis of life in materialised form. We should try to bring in under the same hat not a splintered way of thinking, but all in harmony together.
Nothing is as dangerous in architecture as dealing with separated problems. If we split life into separated problems we split the possibilities to make good building art.