I totally relate to the foreign feeling when hearing terms like critical regionalism and vernacular architecture - I never felt like there was a standard set of definitions for some of them and instead they felt like elusive concepts that only professors and starchitects understood.
And speaking of starchitects, I agree that Aalto is one of the few that I give allowances for. I think that he’s the last in an era that was so focused on the removal of ornamentation and a shift towards modernism, but still designed for emotional movement. And I can respect that.
definitely—I think even chasing down the original definition of certain terms (or an article explaining how the term has changed over time) has felt stressful at times!! but also very rewarding when I do make the effort
the interest that the Aaltos had in gentle forms & softer materials (bent plywood over tubular steel, for example) seems to resonate a lot more in 2024 than the extremely precise, machine age approach Le Corbusier had
it makes me want to think about other design celebrities from the past—who speaks to us now? whose work feels useful for our current challenges? (critical regionalism feels especially valuable in a world where climate concerns are more urgent & more buildings need to adapt to local conditions…and a world where people are so consumed by digital experiences that they want deeply tactile ones in the physical world)
thank you for reading! and yes—I think the obsession with designing every detail, and working across every medium/discipline, to make a great work…it's very inspiring
What a wonderful piece Celine! I love the Aaltos’ work and have always wanted to go see it in person so thank you for this deep dive and gorgeous photos. My husband studied architecture, so that has introduced me to a world I didn’t really know or think about before we met, and now of course I’m constantly thinking about how space and design inform our lives. We went to a Le Corbusier house once, back when I didn’t really have an understanding of how big of a deal he was. I remember telling my husband that I didn’t understand why everyone was so ga-ga over it. I didn’t like it at all, it made me feel so uncomfortable. His work as always felt so un-human to me, like forcing ideals onto a person. And the more I read about him the more I dislike that man. Was so horrified when I first learned of him defacing the walls of Eileen Gray’s E-1027 house in the south of France. All to say: give me the Aaltos any day!
Thank you, Anna! I always appreciate you reading. I've never seen Le Corbusier's homes (only some of the furniture in museum settings)…but I agree that it feels very cold; and James C. Scott would definitely agree with your description of Corbusier "forcing ideals onto a person."
Great article and such a solid observation that good architecture deserves to be touched! RE: design power couples, I also got fascinated by this topic after learning more about the dynamic between Gustav Klimt and Emilie Louise Flöge during my summer visit to Vienna. I found out there was an exhibition with this theme a few years ago at Barbican. All reviews complained it was overstuffed (you already get this feeling when you read the booklet https://www.barbican.org.uk/sites/default/files/documents/2019-01/Modern%20couples_A5%20booklet_glossary.pdf ), but I really want to get my hands on the art book (beautiful design too) highlighted at the end of this review of the exhibition. https://elephant.art/exploring-arts-modern-couples-with-a-relationship-expert/
The booklet link is so great—thank you! It's so interesting to read all the quotations and the different ways that the artists/writers included expressed their affection for each other. There's something very chilling and poignant about Dora Maar's words to Picasso: "What have I dared embark upon by entering your life?"
I love the book—the page with the list of all the couples included in red sans-serif all-caps text, with the image in the center, is really great. (Very dense! Not that much breathing room between the text and the image, which creates a kind of jumbled claustrophobic intensity.) Just wish they didn't use |'s to separate the couples, which is maybe my least favorite typographic separator… https://elephant.art/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Modern-Couples_Book_detail_6-1200x900.jpg
Thank you for reading! And Never Too Small is such a great YouTube channel…maybe the only one I genuinely follow with unswerving devotion. It feels more interesting than most architecture/interior design channels because the budget and space constraints are so intense!
no matter my level of familiarity, or unfamiliarity, with the topics of your essays, they are always such a pleasure to read!! as a very casual designer chairs fan (I keep a list of movies that have designer chairs i recognize as part of set design), I very much enjoyed learning about the Aaltos. Such a warm and inviting looking house. 😊
thank you Isabella, this is really kind!! it was amazing how cozy it felt to move around it (lots of thoughtfully designed details and textures), and it was so nice to see how the Aalto design philosophy contributed to such a comfortable environment
I am a Finn and grew up being told that the Aaltos are world famous, right up there with the Moomins. Yet it seems that outside Finland, they were only ever known in Japan - kind of like the Moomins!
I love how much Japan loves the Moomins—so many little cute sticker packs and tchotchkes 😭 I'm actually very curious why Finnish culture is so well-known in Japan
It's funny, the Aaltos are often considered as integral to early modernism as Le Corbusier, but I get the impression that Le Corbusier is much more well-known to non–architects/designers in the US?
Good question! And it isn’t reciprocal as Japanese design is not particularly well-known in Finland. There is a MUJI in Helsinki and it is funny how many of their items would not look out of place in a high-end Finnish design shop!
I guess there is something about the combination of functionalism and austerity with the use of natural materials, which we tend to associate with (mid-century) Finnish design, that just fits well with the more reserved Japanese aesthetic.
But the Moomins, though - no idea why they are so popular! I guess they are quite unique and hard to place. Some of the original stories are not quite as cuddly as the best-known ones. Moominpappa likes his whisky and has hangovers, for example!
I totally relate to the foreign feeling when hearing terms like critical regionalism and vernacular architecture - I never felt like there was a standard set of definitions for some of them and instead they felt like elusive concepts that only professors and starchitects understood.
And speaking of starchitects, I agree that Aalto is one of the few that I give allowances for. I think that he’s the last in an era that was so focused on the removal of ornamentation and a shift towards modernism, but still designed for emotional movement. And I can respect that.
definitely—I think even chasing down the original definition of certain terms (or an article explaining how the term has changed over time) has felt stressful at times!! but also very rewarding when I do make the effort
the interest that the Aaltos had in gentle forms & softer materials (bent plywood over tubular steel, for example) seems to resonate a lot more in 2024 than the extremely precise, machine age approach Le Corbusier had
it makes me want to think about other design celebrities from the past—who speaks to us now? whose work feels useful for our current challenges? (critical regionalism feels especially valuable in a world where climate concerns are more urgent & more buildings need to adapt to local conditions…and a world where people are so consumed by digital experiences that they want deeply tactile ones in the physical world)
Imagine the societies we could build if we approached the way we live as a "Gesamtkunstwerk".
Loved the piece. Thanks!
thank you for reading! and yes—I think the obsession with designing every detail, and working across every medium/discipline, to make a great work…it's very inspiring
What a wonderful piece Celine! I love the Aaltos’ work and have always wanted to go see it in person so thank you for this deep dive and gorgeous photos. My husband studied architecture, so that has introduced me to a world I didn’t really know or think about before we met, and now of course I’m constantly thinking about how space and design inform our lives. We went to a Le Corbusier house once, back when I didn’t really have an understanding of how big of a deal he was. I remember telling my husband that I didn’t understand why everyone was so ga-ga over it. I didn’t like it at all, it made me feel so uncomfortable. His work as always felt so un-human to me, like forcing ideals onto a person. And the more I read about him the more I dislike that man. Was so horrified when I first learned of him defacing the walls of Eileen Gray’s E-1027 house in the south of France. All to say: give me the Aaltos any day!
Thank you, Anna! I always appreciate you reading. I've never seen Le Corbusier's homes (only some of the furniture in museum settings)…but I agree that it feels very cold; and James C. Scott would definitely agree with your description of Corbusier "forcing ideals onto a person."
The Eileen Gray story is wild…some links for anyone else who's curious: https://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/26/arts/design/The-Tortured-History-of-Eileen-Grays-Modern-Gem.html and https://metropolismag.com/viewpoints/e1027-villa-eileen-gray-crowdfund-preservation/
Great article and such a solid observation that good architecture deserves to be touched! RE: design power couples, I also got fascinated by this topic after learning more about the dynamic between Gustav Klimt and Emilie Louise Flöge during my summer visit to Vienna. I found out there was an exhibition with this theme a few years ago at Barbican. All reviews complained it was overstuffed (you already get this feeling when you read the booklet https://www.barbican.org.uk/sites/default/files/documents/2019-01/Modern%20couples_A5%20booklet_glossary.pdf ), but I really want to get my hands on the art book (beautiful design too) highlighted at the end of this review of the exhibition. https://elephant.art/exploring-arts-modern-couples-with-a-relationship-expert/
The booklet link is so great—thank you! It's so interesting to read all the quotations and the different ways that the artists/writers included expressed their affection for each other. There's something very chilling and poignant about Dora Maar's words to Picasso: "What have I dared embark upon by entering your life?"
I love the book—the page with the list of all the couples included in red sans-serif all-caps text, with the image in the center, is really great. (Very dense! Not that much breathing room between the text and the image, which creates a kind of jumbled claustrophobic intensity.) Just wish they didn't use |'s to separate the couples, which is maybe my least favorite typographic separator… https://elephant.art/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Modern-Couples_Book_detail_6-1200x900.jpg
I really loved this piece on the Aaltos, and am very curious about Never Too Small. Thank you!
Thank you for reading! And Never Too Small is such a great YouTube channel…maybe the only one I genuinely follow with unswerving devotion. It feels more interesting than most architecture/interior design channels because the budget and space constraints are so intense!
no matter my level of familiarity, or unfamiliarity, with the topics of your essays, they are always such a pleasure to read!! as a very casual designer chairs fan (I keep a list of movies that have designer chairs i recognize as part of set design), I very much enjoyed learning about the Aaltos. Such a warm and inviting looking house. 😊
thank you Isabella, this is really kind!! it was amazing how cozy it felt to move around it (lots of thoughtfully designed details and textures), and it was so nice to see how the Aalto design philosophy contributed to such a comfortable environment
I am a Finn and grew up being told that the Aaltos are world famous, right up there with the Moomins. Yet it seems that outside Finland, they were only ever known in Japan - kind of like the Moomins!
I love how much Japan loves the Moomins—so many little cute sticker packs and tchotchkes 😭 I'm actually very curious why Finnish culture is so well-known in Japan
It's funny, the Aaltos are often considered as integral to early modernism as Le Corbusier, but I get the impression that Le Corbusier is much more well-known to non–architects/designers in the US?
Good question! And it isn’t reciprocal as Japanese design is not particularly well-known in Finland. There is a MUJI in Helsinki and it is funny how many of their items would not look out of place in a high-end Finnish design shop!
I guess there is something about the combination of functionalism and austerity with the use of natural materials, which we tend to associate with (mid-century) Finnish design, that just fits well with the more reserved Japanese aesthetic.
But the Moomins, though - no idea why they are so popular! I guess they are quite unique and hard to place. Some of the original stories are not quite as cuddly as the best-known ones. Moominpappa likes his whisky and has hangovers, for example!
celine what is that chair in the first photo. 😂
YOU could be sitting in that chair…if you befriend an intrepid industrial design student and/or win a usefully generous writing fellowship…
Looks like a custom-made 45. The mass-produced ones were wooden.
sorry im chair illiterate! - is 45 a brand? a type? etc.
I think it's this https://homeunionnyc.com/products/1960s-model-45-alvar-aalto-arm-chair-for-icf (and here's a lot of 2 https://www.chairish.com/product/13354524/model-45-armchairs-by-alvar-aalto-for-artek-1970s-set-of-2)
thank you!