ALVAR AALTO
Hans Girsberger
Hans Girsberger (preface): ALVAR AALTO. Scarsdale, NY: Wittenborn & Co., 1963. First edition. Text in English, French, and German. A near-fine hardcover book in a very good dustjacket: wear along the dustjacket¹s fore edges and spine. Owner¹s stamp on the back right-hand flyleaf. Otherwise, interior unmarked and very clean. Out-of-print. 11 x 9.25 scarce hardcover book with 272 pages and 400 b/w illustrations and 6 color illustrations. Includes an essay by Goran Schildt and an index to Aalto¹s works. Aalto once said "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." His visionary glassware, furniture, and architecture whether residential, corporate, or cultural remain humane. Not something to be said about all great modernist architects.
Includes extensive coverage of Aalto's Designs from 1920 onward including: his Paimio Chair (1932); Three-legged stacking Stool 60 (1933); Four-legged Stool E60 (1933); Armchair 404 (a/k/a/ Zebra Tank Chair) (1935-6); Armchair 406 (1939); Floor lamp A805 (1954); Floor lamp A810 (1959); Bell tower of Kauhajärvi Church, Lapua, Finland (1921 1923); Municipal hospital, Alajärvi, Finland (1924 1928); Defence Corps Building, Jyväskylä, Finland (1926 1929); Municipal library, Viipuri, Finland (now Vyborg, Russia) (1927 1935); Turun Sanomat newspaper offices, Turku, Finland (1928 1929); Paimio Sanatorium, Tuberculosis sanatorium and staff housing, Paimio, Finland (1928 1929); Central University Hospital, Zagreb, Croatia (former Yugoslavia) (1931); Corso theatre, restaurant interior, Zürich, Switzerland (1934); Finnish Pavilion, 1937 World's Fair (1937); Villa Mairea, Noormarkku, Finland (1937 1939); Finnish Pavilion, 1939 World's Fair (1939) Baker House, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts (1947 1948); Helsinki University of Technology, Espoo, Finland (1949 1966); Säynätsalo Town Hall, 1949 competition, built 1952, Säynätsalo (now part of Jyväskylä), Finland (1949 1952); Kansaneläkelaitos (National Pension Institution) office building, Helsinki, Finland (1950 1957); House of Culture, Helsinki, Finland (1952 1958); The Experimental House, Muuratsalo, Finland (1957); Enso-Gutzeit Headquarters, Helsinki, Finland (1959 1962) and many others.
Finnish architect Alvar Aalto (18981976) was not only influenced by the landscape of his native country, but by the political struggle over Finland's place within European culture. After early neoclassical buildings, Alvar Aalto turned to ideas based on Functionalism, subsequently moving toward more organic structures, with brick and wood replacing plaster and steel. In addition to designing buildings, furniture, lamps, and glass objects with his wife Aino, he painted and was an avid traveler. A firm believer that buildings have a crucial role in shaping society, Aalto once said, "The duty of the architect is to give life a more sensitive structure."
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