Alvar Aalto : A Critical Study

Malcolm Quantrill

ISBN 10: 9511073680 / ISBN 13: 9789511073680

Published by Otava, 17, 1983

About this Item

Text in English. 307 pp. Minor scratching on dust jacket. Both as an architect and an industrial designer Alvar Aalto was exceptional in the scope of his influence; in the breadth of his inventiveness he was extraordinary A deep understanding of his native Finnish tradition inspired in him an approach to space and form that was intensely idiosyncratic. In common with other great masters, his expression was not confined within a single idiom. But if we seek one main tendency in Aalto's raison d'être it will be found in his command of modern technology and his integration of it with a humanized style of building. Throughout his long career Nature was his essential point of reference even while another lasting influence was his education in the classical mode. Within the disciplines imposed by limited ranges of materials, his achievements were alluring in their variety; and in the steps of Eliel Saarinen and Frank Lloyd Wright he also sought an organic synthesis of his buildings with their surroundings. In this definitive appreciation of Aalto's oeuvre, Professor Quantrill assesses its development against the background of both the Finnish National Romantic and the Modern movements in architecture. His critique of all Aalto's most significant buildings and furniture designs is complemented by a selection of photographs that penetratingly displays the working of his subject's mind in every stage of creativity, from spontaneous exploration in the initial sketches to the fitness of the completed detail. There is a comprehensive list of buildings designed by Aalto, or designs to which he contributed, and an extensive bibliography. Professor Quantrill first met Alvar and Elissa Aalto at Muuratsalo in June 1953 and he has been studying and photographing Aalto's buildings ever since. As a consequence, this study offers an arresting insight into one of the century's greatest architects and, as a work of reference for all serious students of architecture, it is indispensable.

Seller Inventory # 4678

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Alvar Aalto : A Critical Study
• Publisher: Otava, 17
• Publication Date: 1983
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 9511073680
• ISBN 13: 9789511073680
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition.
• Condition: Near Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine
• Seller catalogs:
  • Architecture

About this title

Synopsis

This is a much needed and lively study of the still insufficiently known Finnish modern master Alvar Aalto, whose sensitive and increasingly revelant architectural legacy will surely only increase in stature as the years unfold.--Kenneth Frampton

About the Author

Malcolm Quantrill is currently the Distinguished Professor of Architecture at Texas A&M University. His previous positions include Director of the Architectural Association, London, Dean of the Department of Environmental Design in the the Polytechnic of North London, and Professor of Architecture and Urban Design at the University of Jordan in Amman. Among his many publications is a book on another of Finland's leading architects, Reima Pietila.