ALVAR AALTO
THE COMPLETE CATALOGUE OF ARCHITECTURE, DESIGN, AND ART
Göran Schildt
Göran Schildt: ALVAR AALTO: THE COMPLETE CATALOGUE OF ARCHITECTURE, DESIGN, AND ART. New York: Rizzoli, 1994. Reprinted 1995. Quarto. Gray cloth decorated in black. Photo illustrated dust jacket. 317 pp. 577 black and white and color illustrations. Jacket lightly rubbed, but a nearly fine copy in a nearly fine dust jacket.
9.25 x 11.75 hardcover book with 317 pages and black and white and color illustrations. “One of the masters of modern architecture, Alvar Aalto (1898-1976) was a prolific and influential architect, a gifted painter, and a talented world-renowned designer. In this comprehensive catalogue all his known works from the early 1920s to his final designs in the 1970s are presented and described.”
“With the full cooperation of the Alvar Aalto Foundation, Goran Schildt has explored its archives, and some 20,000 letters, memoranda and contemporary newspaper cuttings as well as many building models, to ensure that every work is included in this volume. It contains full descriptions, accompanied by abundant illustrations, of all of Aalto's realized and unrealized architectural projects: regional and urban plans, churches, theaters, libraries, museums, office and factory buildings, public housing, and private residences. Aalto's design skill is prominently featured in his furniture, light fixtures, glass, objets d'art, textiles, jewelry, graphic design, and stage sets.
“Göran Schildt has previously examined the life and work of Alvar Aalto in his acclaimed, award~winning three volume biography. The present volume catalogues Aalto's vast oeuvre, including many projects never before seen by the public, and uncovers information about Aalto's competition entries, his clients and colleagues, that is crucial to a complete understanding of Aalto's visionary impact on modern architecture, art, and design. Schildt was a personal friend of Aalto's and an interpreter of his works for almost thirty years. He was the Alvar Aalto Foundation's first chairman and has served the Foundation indefatigably for decades. He is uniquely qualified to carry out the Herculean labor of cataloguing Aalto's entire life's work.”
- Planning
- City and District Centers
- Religious Buildings
- Buildings For Physical Health
- Cultural Buildings
- Office Buildings
- Industrial And Commercial Buildings
- Housing
- Interior Design
- Design and Art: Furniture; Lighting; Glass Objects; Textiles; Painting; Sculpture; Jewellery; Stage Design; Book Art, Typography, and Billboards
- Aalto exhibitions
- Bibliographic notes
- Chronological list of Aalto's major works
- Location of Aalto's works
- Employees at Alvar Aalto's office, 1923 – 1992
Aalto 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.
Finnish architect Alvar Aalto (1898 – 1976) 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.”
”Modern architecture does not mean using immature new materials; the main thing is to work with materials towards a more human line.” - Alvar Aalto