Aalto: Architect of Emotions (2020) Movie Script
EUPHORIA FILM presents
My sweet Aino,
I'm comforted by the thought
that this period of travel
is coming to an end,
and a new period of work begins.
I've been drawing a lot,
it's reminiscent of the way you and I
and the other drawings.
Life's best moments.
That's what we will once again
we will strive for.
No more
no more chores.
We'll work together,
without being too exhausted;
you and me, alone, at home.
Alvar.
AALTO
Alvar Aalto is a Finnish architect,
one of the greatest masters
of twentieth-century modernist architecture.
He is unique in his ability
to achieve optimal
accommodation of their projects
socially, psychologically.
and environmental perspectives.
He had a knack for anticipating a customer's needs
and ensure that the person
a sense of comfort and well-being
in the spaces he created.
Of course, Alvar Aalto
was a complex personality.
He was obviously very attractive,
generous, very smart--
exceptional qualities.
I'm sure he possessed
a lot of charm.
Aino Marcio-Aalto
was, at her core.
a very modern woman.
Mother, architect, designer.
She has performed in all of these
in all of them.
I think Aalto was attractive
to people regardless of gender.
I'm sure Aino did, too.
And, you know,
as a couple, together.
they attracted
other coworkers.
Among the modernists.
there weren't many married couples.
That's why they were unique,
pioneers.
Aino Marcio and Alvar Aalto
studied architecture at the Polytechnic
University of Helsinki
around the same time.
Back then, architecture schools
were dominated by men.
There is a myth,
that Alvar Aalto
wasn't good at math,
and he was making up for it
through aptitude
drawing and drafting
and because of his colorful personality.
After graduation, Aalto
was looking for employees to join his firm.
ARCHITECTURAL
MONUMENTAL ARShe heard about the vacancy.
Later, in October, 1924.
they were married.
Right after the wedding, on their honeymoon,
they go to the continent.
He was very interested
in the complex structure of the city.
He knew that Italy was
the cradle of urban culture.
"Why don't we Finns learn a little something
from this ancient culture?"
"Why don't we improve
our cities
modeled after this ancient culture,
"where architecture so skillfully
blends into the landscape?"
CHURCH IN MUURAM,
1929 .
Aalto is in his early 20s.
in his work, it's like he's issuing a manifesto,
saying, "I see the essence."
We're trying to incorporate
our own distinctive Scandinavian style
WORKERS' HOUSE IN JYVSKYL,
1925 .
In the tradition of classical architecture,
dating back thousands of years.
There's an innate sense
of intuition,
not a perfect linearly rational
inquiring mind, speaking:
"How do we humanize
this space?
How do you make it special?"
SANATORIUM IN PAIMIO,
1933 .
Aalto, though only a few years old,
was a relatively pure
modernist.
That's when you created the sanatorium in Paimio.
and the Vyborg Library,
he found himself.
Having started work
on the sanitarium project,
he got sick and spent some time
and spent some time in the hospital.
It was there that he realized he was a patient
of a medical facility
sees the world differently
than a healthy person.
He wrote,
that he was setting up a sanitarium in Paimio.
for people
in a horizontal position.
There's even the smallest detail
I consider the sanitarium
the most inventive building
In the entire history of modernism.
His goal was to create
a highly holistic
a work of art.
Creating such a sanatorium
led him to design furniture.
PAYMYO CROSS,
1932 .
The Aalto couple was unique among architects
was unique among architects.
One of them is how they became
part of the modernist movement
and the international community
of modernist architects.
MARCEL.
In the summer of 1933.
"CONGRESS OF ARCHITECTS",
LSZL MOHOLY-NAGY, 1933.
Alvar Aalto went to an international
congress of modern architecture,
held on the Patrice,
that traveled from Marseilles to Athens
and back.
He was an easy member of the group
of the most famous
European architects,
met the right people.
LE CORBUSIER (PARIS)
The decision to hold the congress on a ship
was symbolic -
it was also located
in international waters.
In many ways, this one was
GENERAL SECRETARY
SIEGFRIED GIEDION (ZURICH)
The swan song of modern idealism
on the eve of war.
Siegfried Giedion,
one of the most influential architects,
became secretary general of Congress.
He and Aalto became friends.
My little Aino,
I'm still at Gidion's,
it was hard to write a letter
to write a letter.
Don't worry about Marseilles.
This is one of the most horrible
and most distorted city I've ever seen.
But I didn't return to the harbor alone.
I had a life jacket,
a young lady from congress,
so that Marseilles found me
out of my league.
Of course, it turned into
into a love affair,
but not at all dangerous
neither to the body nor to the soul.
In Marseille, every morning
I sat alone with Le Corbusier.
He was exceptionally kind to me.
I was gonna leave today,
but I still have a presentation to make.
They organized an exclusive reception
in the house of some
of some South American millionaire.
I'm leaving the next morning,
plane ticket's already bought.
Because that's the way I like it,
I'm madly in love with my Aino,
that he kisses me
in sensitive places.
Why are you texting me
that you'll be home in a couple days?
I've been waiting for you the whole time,
since Friday.
And then you tell me
you won't be in Stockholm until Wednesday.
Very original,
but that's typical of you.
Of course it's my fault,
because I know you.
I'm very upset.
And we've all been sick.
I didn't tell you because I wanted you
to make you go home happy.
I can't wait
for this to be over.
By the time you get back.
I'll try to calm down.
Aino.
CITY LIBRARY IN VYBORG,
1935 .
They had a very close relationship
with key figures of the architectural
and artistic avant-garde.
A man with no architectural training,
one of the people they met
through the Congress was Moholy-Nagy.
Photographer, cinematographer,
painter and graphic artist.
Whatever was the ignition spark
for friendship, they had it.
And so Moholy-Nagy comes to stay with Alvar and Aino
to visit Alvar and Aino.
And in the library in Vyborg.
this "grid" of round light fixtures.
Look at the movies
and pictures of Moholy.
He very often has this
metal construction
with circular slit openings
through which the light streams.
"PLAY OF LIGHT: BLACK-WHITE-GRAY",
LASZLO MOHOLY-NAGY, 1930.
And in a way, Aalto
are taking Moholy's work
artificially lighted
and do the same thing
with natural light.
Aalto started designing furniture
in the classical style as early as the 1920s.
STOOL 60,
1933 .
As talented as Alvar and Aino Aalto
Alvar and Aino Aalto,
these wooden reliefs
they would never have made on their own.
The trick is, they brought in
a professional carpenter.
At one point, almost all of Aalto's furniture
was shipped to London.
If you look at the production
of Otto Korhonen's company
between 1933 and 1939,
about 75 percent of all their furniture
from Turku went to London.
And the main clients in England
were architects.
They've specifically stated that
in their designs.
The modest design served
a broad social-democratic
model of society,
he was for everyone.
When you walk into the Artek store today.
you wouldn't believe it,
that furniture was incredibly cheap.
"Finmar was opened
to sell and promote
of Aalto furniture in the UK.
One of the main problems
at the time was
the lack of a system
in the handling of orders.
No one at the Turku factory spoke
English.
There were quality issues,
because the furniture was
experimental,
especially the glue.
In every attempt to get
guaranteed supply and quality
instead of a clear answer, they were expected
something vague.
In 1940, the Finmar office
in the United Kingdom
was destroyed in the German
"Blitz" bombing raids.
There's no paperwork
no paperwork at all.
Aalto furniture was popular
among educated people.
The most famous example is when she appears
in Alexander Korda's movie
based on the novel by H.G. Wells
"The Face of the Future."
The set designer for Evrytown
was Moholy-Nagy.
In Moholy-Nadia's mind,
such a chair would be appropriate
of Utopia 2036,
and this is Paimio's chair.
Aalto himself had Marcel Breuer's furniture
had Marcel Breuer's furniture in the living room.
It's amazing, because Aalto himself
was a great designer himself.
But he had great respect for the work
of the other designers.
Aalto had a complicated relationship
with the Bauhaus.
PROFESSOR GROPIUS SCHOOL,
BAUHAUS
He always said
he'd never been there.
Apartments in Paimio Sanatorium
could very well have been
designed by Gropius.
Aalto claimed to be familiar
with Le Corbusier's work
just from newspaper articles.
But that's not true.
VILLA STEIN,
LE CORBUSIER, 1928.
The building of the Turun Sanomat newspaper -
is purely the product
of Le Corbusier's ideological influence.
JEAN ARP,
Wooden Relief, 1930s
Alvar doesn't borrow an idea from anyone,
he develops that idea in his communication.
He was an opportunist
in the best sense of the word.
He was ambitious, and if given the opportunity.
given the opportunity,
grabbing for it.
In October 1935.
4 people organized the company,
they called Artek.
From the merging of the words "art"
and "technology."
Apstrm is a family of wealthy
of the timber industry,
this industry was very important
in Finland.
She married
to Harry Gullicksen,
that's how these two wealthy dynasties
these two wealthy dynasties.
Niels-Gustav Hal, writer,
intellectual and journalist.
And Cheta Aalto.
The emergence of Artek
created a structure.
An opportunity has arisen
of furniture distribution.
A brand has emerged.
Aino was leaving the house to go to work.
She was the art director.
Alvar stayed home,
sitting in his office.
In the late 1930s, Alvar Aalto
worked in a tiny workshop.
When a job was dragging on,
or there weren't enough clients,
"Artek and the furniture trade
gave them extra income.
Discussing the opening of Artek,
Niels-Gustav Hal said,
that it allowed Alvar Aalto
to maintain his bohemian spirit.
Dear Daddy and the little ones,
I'm insanely tired.
Left Turku last night,
and went straight to sleep in the cabin.
And then when I got undressed,
I couldn't sleep a wink all night.
I'll have to take sleeping pills.
I'm desperate to work.
I'll give you the name of the hotel in Oslo
so you can telegraph,
whether you're coming or not.
I hope you do.
I've thought it over
from every angle.
And I've come to a conclusion:
we have each other,
we have our jobs and healthy children.
You couldn't ask for more.
I'll write to you from Oslo.
Tired to death. Aino.
My dear Aino, you're a liar.
Oslo, I guess,
made herself at home.
A letter came from Norway.
The company wants to sell the rights.
While you're at it, get on it.
Tell me you're
one of the furniture designers,
and make a deal with them.
I'll take care of the kids,
we'll be fine.
In order for us to get even,
you're gonna have to do a lot of bad things.
I've even picked up
I've even picked up someone on the street.
And all you have is petty adventures
amongst pious families,
so I'm not sure we're
we'll ever match up.
I like you as a human being,
not some high-minded creature.
And forget those stupid
coffee meetings.
Dear Daddy,
it's a good thing I went alone.
Not a single erotic encounter.
It would be terrible
if you hooked up with someone here.
You're already so far behind,
that I'm gonna be out of the race soon.
Don't get cocky,
but I like you the best.
I think their relationship in the marriage
were very special,
though not without its problems.
It seems to me
there was
amazing devotion to family.
It gave them some kind of
faith in your own home,
that helped them
to be successful together.
VILLA FLORA,
1926 .
Aino Aalto was a necessary
balancing element
in Alvar's bohemian and promiscuous
of Alvar's life.
I remember he always had
endless amounts of time.
YOHANNA ALANEN,
AALTO'S DAUGHTER
He always worked from home.
Taking coffee breaks,
humming something to himself,
then I'd go back to the office,
draw a line or two
And back again.
Alvar believed that Aino's business
to take care of him first and foremost,
then came the children,
and then her work.
I think that's what happened.
Aalto was well understood,
what it means to be protected
or openness to nature.
Surely the feeling of Aalto
and being infused with nature,
and at the same time a horror of it
was partly due to the fact
that he lost his mother as a child,
who he was very close to.
It's a severe trauma
for any human being.
But Aalto didn't overcome this
not with the help of a psychiatrist.
He grew up overcoming that
through his art.
In 1937.
at the World's Fair in Paris
Finland's pavilion has attracted
close attention
of the most prominent critics
and architectural journals.
It had nothing to do
with horrible neoclassical fascist
architecture that frightened people.
The bentwood furniture
had a fresh feel
as opposed to products
of steel construction,
of Bauhaus products.
Modern or not modern.
is not a question of material,
but how it's used.
A modern approach might be.
AINO AND ALVAR AALTO EXHIBITION
I saw Morton Shand's article,
HARMON GOLDSTONE,
ARCHITECTOR
either about Paimio or about
the library in Viborg.
And I was shocked.
John McAndrew was the curator
of the architecture department
at the Museum of Modern Art.
And he said: "Talk to him.
Maybe,
he might want to put on an exhibit."
So I went to Helsinki
and I just went to see him.
His office was small,
and he said:
"I'm going to show you my new house,
it's not finished yet."
AALTO HOUSE,
1936 .
And I took a picture of him
in the doorway.
Took some pictures of the house.
I kept trying to say:
"Would you like to have an exhibition
at the Museum of Modern Art?"
And so I came back to New York.
Lawrence Rockefeller
was an old friend of mine.
So he says:
"You know, I'm building me a house."
I'm like, "I've recently seen
the finest
modern furniture.
I just don't know if it's easy
to negotiate with these people.
If you send them an order,
what will they say back."
When the furniture arrived,
I was working for Wallace Harrison,
one of the architects
of Rockefeller Center.
That's where Harrison and Fuyu
Harrison and Fuyu.
We opened the boxes.
It exceeded all expectations.
The first buyer of Aalto furniture
in the United States was Lawrence Rockefeller.
The first distributor
in the States
short-lived,
but very powerful company
called New Furniture,
of which Lawrence Rockefeller
was Lawrence Rockefeller.
The popularity of Aalto furniture
crossed borders.
Alvar Aalto
was honored with a solo exhibition
at the Museum of Modern Art
in New York.
at the Museum of Modern Art
are trying to find
definition of modernism,
and they find it in the work
of the Aalto couple.
In 1935, Otto Korhonen dies,
the carpenter.
You could say,
the experimental quality
of Aalto furniture is at an end.
Anything that appears at Artek
since Korhonen's death
beautiful furniture,
but it's no longer the same kind of innovation,
technical experimentation,
who, in the 1930s and '35s.
distinguished Aalto's work
with Korhonen.
These are difficult times in Europe,
especially for figures
of the avant-garde.
From this dystopian continent
I wanted to run away.
But for the Aalto couple.
and for their firm.
the situation was completely different.
Finland was still defending itself.
They were still working in Sunil,
when many other architects
had already emigrated to the United States.
CBC COMPLEX IN SUNIL,
1938, 1954 .
Between the founding of Artek in 1935.
SAVOY RESTAURANT,
1937 .
And the order for the World's Fair
in 1939
they were working in Finland,
putting modernism into practice,
more than any of their counterparts
on the continent,
because
change is in the air,
it's coming.
VAZA AALTO,
1936 .
Aalto has found
their biggest customers.
MAIRA'S VILLA,
1939 .
The Gullicksen family.
Aalto was an excellent
storyteller.
One room has one atmosphere,
the one next door is completely different.
It's like books have chapters,
and plays have actions.
We northern peoples,
especially the Finns,
tend to dream of the forest.
And Aalto breathed these forest dreams
into his architecture.
I had the honor of being one of the first
to be one of the first tenants of this house.
My father is Harry Gulliksen,
and my mother is Maire Gulliksen.
For a 7-year-old boy
it's been very exciting
living here.
The whole house was for me
a territory of adventure.
When I went to school,
the other kids stared at me.
I was no ordinary boy.
I was an outsider,
that lives in this strange house.
Everyone in Noormarkku marveled,
to see such an ugly house,
built on Havulinna Hill.
It didn't even have a roof!
People thought he was ugly.
They thought the roof
really wasn't there.
But she was,
and she still is.
Aino brought a final touch of humanity
the final touch of humanity.
The selection of fabrics, the specifics
lighting and landscaping.
Those were Aino's touches,
that completes the essence
of the Aalto couple's work.
It doesn't matter whose signature
on the drawings and blueprints,
they worked
like a real team.
She was an architect,
a practicing architect.
An exceptionally difficult task,
especially for a woman of her generation.
COMPRESSED GLASS TUMBLERS,
AINO AALTO
We'll never know
where the boundary between the two of them was.
We can only speculate.
Aino was definitely
a skilled carpenter.
Alvar didn't.
Aino wasn't a housewife.
She did not wish to be tied down.
She was always at work.
The house was taken care of by a cook and a nanny.
They created a whole new
style of furniture.
Aino was responsible for designing hundreds
of Aalto's products for Artek.
A lot of people said,
that she was only creating
something similar to Alvar's work.
But that's not true, she made her own contribution to Artek.
her own contribution to Artek.
Her vision, her ideas, in a way.
created the very essence of Artek.
TICKET.
NEW YORK - CHICAGO
Aalto's name has become a brand.
Aalto Furniture was
the most popular brand
of modern furniture in the United States
until the late 1940s.
WORLD'S FAIR IN NEW YORK,
1939 .
The MoMA project made Aalto's work
popular in the United States.
But it was the World's Fair
in New York
has altered and intensified
the very notion of that popularity,
making it unprecedented.
He gave a lecture at Yale,
at the Museum of Modern Art
in San Francisco.
at the Museum of Modern Art
in San Francisco.
They were mostly about
the humanization of architecture.
For the American press.
Aino Marcio-Aalto has become an icon.
It wasn't just the popularity
Alvar Aalto, there was also Aino.
In California, he met
William Wurster, a lot of people.
Aalto was very social.
He had an easy way of making contacts
with important people.
Aalto was completely changed
meeting Frank Lloyd Wright,
who has always been characterized
for his impeccable costume.
Alvar had
a wonderful sense of humor.
CAROLA GIDION-WELKER,
CLOSE FRIEND
When Aino and I were in America
were in America,
Alvar kept flirting,
and then he said:
"I'll hire a gigolo for Aino,
"and let him dance with her all night.
"Aino is worthy of anything
and anyone."
I don't know if poor Aino was dancing
with the gigolo that night.
But that wasn't her style.
Alvar had an erotic approach
to both life and work.
There was a warmth to him that was perhaps,
was born of sexuality, eroticism.
When war broke out in late November 1939.
war broke out
between Finland and the USSR,
Alvar, a reserve officer, was drafted
and assigned to Kuopio.
Alvar himself told
a story like this.
He was ordered to sort out the portcullis.
Then he wrote to his friend
Lawrence Rockefeller in New York
and asked for help,
to send airplanes.
Rockefeller sent the foreign ministry
a check for a million dollars
and said hello to Aalto.
Of course,
Alvar often exaggerated.
ROCKEFELLER GIVES FINNS 100,000:
"GLAD TO HELP SUCH A FEARLESS PEOPLE."
But he's soon to be transferred
to the state news agency
in Helsinki.
He'd already fought
in the civil war in 1918.
He was on the white side then
and ended the war in Tampere,
where he participated
in the Battle of Lnkinpohja.
He never
ever recovered from that,
that I saw in Tampere.
Aalto was very interested
the problem of post-war development.
He was hoping to do
a demonstration project,
where he would implement his principles
of standardized development.
During the war, Finnish architects
worked hard.
They were working on plans to rebuild
of destroyed cities,
standardized
standardized housing projects, etc.
That's when the
Building Standards Committee.
STANDARDIZED HOUSE BUILDING
1937-1941 YEARS.
Speer's ministry
even invited Aalto to Germany,
to see their work
on architectural standardization.
Alvar didn't really want to go,
but eventually agreed
when the German Foreign Ministry
sent a military plane after him.
At the farewell banquet.
he decided to give a speech.
He began: "We Finns -
are neither Nazis nor Bolsheviks.
"We are the forest monkeys
from Eskimo country."
He also said he didn't know much
the architecture of the Third Reich,
because my work took me
I've been in America more often.
But one day at the Harvard Club.
he was waiting for Lawrence Rockefeller.
And I noticed on his desk
a book with a red cover.
He picked it up and saw it,
that the author
not the most famous writer,
Adolf Hitler.
Aalto opened the book at random.
And a phrase caught his eye:
"Architecture is
"the lord of the arts,
and music is their queen."
He didn't need
to read any further.
He closed the book
and put it back.
This story received
a standing ovation.
BAKER HOUSE, CAMPUS MIT,
1949, USA
Baker House and Aalto's relationship with MIhas its origins
right after Walter Gropius moved to Harvard
Walter Gropius in 1937.
Gropius brought to Harvard and America
European modernism.
MIT, for its part, has endeavored
to make sense of it in their own way,
and they saw in Alvar Aalto
it's that human-centered
approach to modernism,
that they advocated for themselves.
When Wurster was named dean of MIwas appointed dean of MIT,
the first person he thought of
was Aalto.
He said himself that he was the first person
to call Alvar Aalto.
If you look
at the Baker House plan
and a plan for the waterfront along the river,
you'll see that they're
very similar to the plan
of the World's Fair pavilion
in New York.
This is a theme that Aalto continued
in his work.
He wanted every student
thanks to this wavy line.
I could see the river from my room.
So you can see the river from all the windows
upstream or downstream,
but none of them face
directly onto the river.
For the Baker House, he used
a special brick,
which is only made
only in New England.
It's very hard and uneven,
Aalto loved it.
Called it the lousiest
brick in the world.
Precisely because
because I loved him so much.
Already after construction began.
MIT wanted to add
another 50 rooms or seats.
Aalto said:
"I'll put on a fresh shirt."
I mean, I'm gonna dump the old one,
and I'll start over.
But it's his partner,
the lava that spews from the volcano,
Aino Aalto came to the rescue,
saying: "We'll sort it out."
When Aalto was teaching at MIT,
he would bombard the students
with stories.
The stories were endless,
Aalto could even drink a little,
but they always made sense.
I mean, sometimes they'd hang out
at the local bar,
talked until late at night.
And the next day Aalto
came in very late.
And everything would start all over again.
He was a real entertainer,
so it was a pleasure to listen to him.
With just two or three words,
he was already mesmerizing the audience.
Wallace Garrison was the head
of a group of architects
on the U.N. building project.
At the top of the list was Aalto.
But that's where politics intervened.
Finland was seen
as an enemy country,
because originally the Finns
asked for help from the Germans
in the fight against the Soviets
in World War II,
and they were a defeated country
or one of the non-allied countries.
And it's like Kaufman knew
that Aalto wasn't involved in the project.
of the U.N. conference rooms,
and vice versa said:
EDGAR KAUFMAN CONFERENCE ROOM,
1964 .
"I'll give Aalto an order in New York."
And Kaufman ordered him conference rooms.
I'm continuing this letter already in New York.
I just flew here.
I'm sitting in the bar at the Plaza Hotel.
Two beers. (Thirsty.)
And an omelet with port.
(No cocktails.)
And then to bed. (Alone.)
Jack Sweeney came by yesterday.
Asked me to design a poetry room
in the new Harvard library.
We had an agreement,
that the job was yours,
you're gonna have to design
every inch of it.
WOODBERRY POETRY HALL,
1949, USA
All furniture can be different.
Dear Daddy,
Lately.
I've been a little cranky,
but I'm sure
no matter what you do,
it's gonna work out great.
You are the kindest and smartest
person in the world,
and you don't wish bad things
you wouldn't wish it on anyone.
You're too attractive
to be gone so long.
But I'm trying to keep my spirits up
and hope that there won't be any more tragedies.
That's awful.
I'm the luckiest person in the world
because I have a house like this,
you and I have beautiful children
and a common cause.
How could such good fortune fall
to one man?
Despite all of this, lately, ".
' ," "I don't feel so good. . . . '
I'm gonna miss you terribly.
In the mornings in the upper hall,
and in the evenings by your side.
I won't say, "None," I'll say:
"Not so many cocktails now."
I'm sure you understand.
But I'd love it if you wouldn't forget
my one wish.
Take care of yourself, I wish you
all the best, sweet daddy. Aino.
There's nothing more beautiful in the world
than you and me as a team.
That makes me very happy.
It's only because of you
that everything is so natural and clear.
Just like the world's greatest
architecture.
You exude confidence and peace,
heavenly warmth.
It brings balance to all,
in which we live and work.
My dear Aino,
I want to know how you sleep now.
You, the most beautiful man
in the world.
I love you terribly
and I have faith in your ability
to make our lives perfect.
You are a wise, honorable,
amazing man.
For your sake, by all means.
I must mature mentally.
It's sad that it's the little things
are keeping me
to focus on the things
that's more important than myself,
And distractions from great thoughts--
something that you've always
you've always been good at.
I hope you remember
what I wrote about cocktails.
I love you more than ever.
Aino.
In 1947, Aino and Alvar Aalto
traveled to Italy.
For the first time since I spent
honeymoon.
As it turned out, it was
Aino's last trip abroad.
That picture still stands
in my mind's eye.
LORENZ MOSER,
ARCHITECTOR
It was such a contrast between
the quiet and reserved Aino
And Alvar Aalto,
very lively and radiant.
I think he didn't fully understand,
how serious the situation is,
how sick Aino is.
He was an optimist, and he probably
he thought she was gonna be okay.
Aino died a month later,
in early January.
His wife's death must have been something
he felt
the deepest thing in your life.
It was probably
a whole range of emotions,
including guilt,
in many ways.
What could Aalto be doing
at a time like this?
How do we deal
with the death of a spouse?
She died of cancer in 1949,
as a young woman.
Alvar Aalto was left
with two children.
And he did what was natural for him
naturally.
Drawing.
After Aino's death.
Aalto rarely traveled to the States.
At that moment, there was a lot of work
there was a lot of work to do.
And he's very withdrawn.
But I also think the States,
maybe,
reminded him of her.
Surprisingly, that same spring.
he participated in a design competition
of the university complex
in Otaniemi.
His pseudonym speaks volumes:
"Morituri te salutant."
the motto of the Roman gladiators.
"Those who go to their deaths
salute you."
That's not the only thing that led
to a dramatic change
in Aalto's work.
One could say
that Aino's death
has been something of a catalyst
of this change.
OTANIEMI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY
1949 / 1964 .
But the reasons behind these changes,
have always been present
or accumulated
little by little.
After Aino's death, he won the competition
with his Otaniemi project,
of the Pension Board
and Xiayunyatsalo.
He was probably already under the influence
by his relationship with Elissa.
Around 1950.
a young female architect
a young female architect.
She worked on a project
for the city center in Xiayunyatsalo,
and that's when the two of them
started a relationship.
Her name was Elsa Mkiniemi.
In a way, Elissa was herself
a creation of Aalto's workshop.
Whether it was her initiative or Alvar's,
we'll never know.
It was like she was born again,
a new woman with a new name.
THE MUNICIPAL CENTER IN SIYUNYATSALO,
1952 .
The municipal center in Xiayunyatsalo
is not just a public building.
It's more like a small
town in Northern Italy.
Very strong community spirit.
It was as if he felt it was his duty
before classical, historic.
Italian architecture.
He was particularly drawn to Romanesque
and other medieval architecture.
To him, she was
"the height" of a man.
The size of this town was
was just right.
The scale is always determined
by the person.
FROM A RADIO INTERVIEW
ALVARA AALTO
Humans are part of nature,
like pine trees or birch trees.
Hence the scale.
I can't ignore that by turning
people into giants or dwarfs.
I must maintain
true human dimensions.
When construction began
in Xiayunyatsalo,
Aalto bought a plot of land a couple of kilometers
from the municipal center.
And he designed a summer villa,
which he called the experimental house.
His primary motivation
was the opportunity
deduct construction costs
from your taxes.
But this house became
one of Aalto's most beautiful works.
EXPERIMENTAL HOUSE,
1954 .
He wanted to try
to build a house without a foundation.
The foundations used were
rock and stone in the soil.
The priority in Alvar Aalto's life
has always been creative work.
FROM A RADIO INTERVIEW
ELISSA AALTO
The most fortunate circumstance
was that
that I was also an architect and could
in that area of his life.
Otherwise, I'd feel like
an outsider.
But my first and foremost demand
that I accept his priorities.
You could say
that the villa in Muuratsalo
and his relationship with Elissa
kind of saved him in a way.
from boredom after Aino's death.
How to build something modern,
combining both continuity
and close connection
with a way of life that has changed,
that's constantly changing.
Historical continuity
gives life meaning.
To him, every building
is an obviousness.
Obviousness,
gained in the course of the game.
UNIVERSITY OF JYVSKYL,
1951 / 1956 .
If you bring a child
into the room,
whatever is in this room,
the child will play with it.
In a way, that was
Aalto's method.
You take what you have,
what's possible,
and you make art out of it.
And it's a game.
Aalto's genius is
that whatever the circumstances,
whatever the constraints are,
he makes a project based on them.
And seeks out the creativity
in the situation itself.
A typical modernist aspiration.
smoothness and transparency.
But the university in Jyvskyl
is a very closed building.
It looks like
like it was built in the Middle Ages,
And stood for millennia.
The plot overlooks Tiilimki.
That's where they built
a new studio.
AALTO STUDIO,
1955 .
It's a beautiful garden,
almost like a small theater.
It's as if Aalto is exploring,
how the ruins of the amphitheater
flow into the landscape, into nature.
Aalto was convinced from the very beginning
he was sure,
that only architects
only architects.
That you only hire equals
or potential equals.
The creative studio is based
on trust.
You let people do what
what they want, they do it.
within the framework of a clear understanding
of the core ideas.
Absolute freedom, but in a way.
absolute control.
FINNISH PAVILION,
1956, ITALY
Aalto's studio was like a workshop
of the Renaissance.
FEDERICO MARCONI,
ARCHITECTOR
The master would sketch,
and the apprentices finalized the details.
The atmosphere was,
like a Renaissance workshop.
or even a convent.
He was an appealing personality.
I remember him saying to me:
"When you present a project to a client,
You should be like a boxer,
punching right under the breath.
So the client can't say
not a word," that's what he used to say.
One morning, two English professors
two English professors,
KARL FLIIG,
ARCHITECTOR
without prior arrangement.
Aalto said: "I see.
And their costumes must be needlepoint."
And he asked Sisko to tell him
to wait,
that Aalto himself is still in the bedroom.
He goes upstairs
and a little while later he comes down.
Hair disheveled, wearing a robe.
HOUSE OF CULTURE,
1958 .
In the '60s, if Aalto
gave me a sketch plan of the project,
amazingly, this plan has always been
completely accurate in terms of dimensions.
Aalto possessed
an intuitive sense of scale,
no matter how rough
sketch, even 6B.
The most important plans
Alvar Aalto always drew them himself.
LORENZ MOSER,
ARCHITECTOR
If one of the employees was working,
he was always there.
It doesn't matter if it's morning, afternoon,
evening or night.
Sometimes he would moan, cough,
clearing his throat.
Or even sang.
And when he did,
the staff always giggled,
laughing.
I was later told,
that his songs were mostly
weren't very decent.
He wasn't working purely intellectually
or functional,
like other architects.
KARL FLIIG,
ARCHITECTOR
I have to say, he had
a great relationship with his subordinates.
He always said,
JORAN SHIELDT,
WRITER, FRIEND OF AALTO
how important workers
and construction workers.
And he always praised
about those two craftsmen,
about Korhonen, who made furniture,
and Hirvonen, who made lamps.
Always emphasized that these people
were much more important,
than all the businessmen at Artek
or anywhere else.
He really had
sympathy for the working class.
At Aalto's workshop, no one tried
to reinvent the wheel.
Gather the archive, gather the understanding,
knowing what you can do,
and what you can't use
from earlier projects.
SEINJOKI CITY CENTER,
1962 .
Elissa Aalto
She came to the workshop in 1950.
In '52, they got married.
The construction industry around the world
is very sexist.
Anyone can easily say:
"You only became Alvar Aalto's partner
just because you're his wife."
Even though he himself has emphasized
that he and Elissa were partners,
not everyone liked it.
I remember in the beginning.
Elissa always had curls.
Alvar made her wash her hair
and comb her hair smooth.
MARIA PAATELA-POIRI,
ARCHITECTOR
I had a friend who was a dressmaker.
I took Elissa with me,
and she ordered a brown suit.
No one had ever seen that suit.
Alvar liked black and white.
He had, to a great extent.
"molded Elissa into his ideal woman.
I'd say that's the best compliment
I've ever gotten from my husband,
FROM A RADIO INTERVIEW
ELISSA AALTO
were the words "my girl."
For my part, I can say,
I never had to question
of his loyalty.
I think Elissa
even looks a little like Aino.
Yes, she really does.
PENSION BOARD,
1949 / 1956.
Pension Administration Building
pension administration building
has gotten an undeservedly
a bad reputation.
I think it's, uh,
it's too fancy.
It doesn't have to be that way.
It's too luxurious.
This is the same department
of retirement benefits.
For his employees.
it's like a five-star hotel.
It doesn't have to be
so luxurious.
A simple brick building would have sufficed.
brick building.
A more modest structure
and would have cost less.
A lot of people
at the Aalto studio think
that the Office
of the Pension Board is
in a way.
the pinnacle of Aalto's self-expression.
In architecture, hierarchy
hierarchy.
It's wrong to assume that all projects
are equal to each other.
Architecture is a branch
of human endeavor,
creating a basic hierarchy
and categories
between secular and religious,
for example.
Sometimes architecture immortalizes
and ennobles.
CHURCH OF THE THREE CROSSES,
1958 .
If there's nothing to beautify,
there's no architecture.
The Church of the Three Crosses
is a temple of doubt.
Aalto wasn't religious
in the traditional sense.
There's no division of space
between inside and outside.
There's a space outside,
inside, and something in between.
I think it's a very literal
architectural interpretation
Trinity themes.
Perhaps it has something to do
to the theology of doubt as well.
You don't have to choose
one or the other,
both options
are possible at the same time.
Aalto was experienced both politically,
and religiously,
to stay a little bit
on everyone's side,
but in reality.
no one's.
You're not just inside or outside,
you're not just religious
or not religious.
You're both,
or neither
at the same time.
That's what it is.
Aalto's intermediate space -
and his personality,
and in his architecture.
So at the most inevitable
political moment
of West Germany's recovery
after the war
Aalto has been commissioned to build
a cultural center in Wolfsburg.
Industrial City
for construction
"the people's car."
Volkswagen.
"Your job is to.
to build a counterbalance
to today's monotonous life."
CULTURAL CENTER IN WOLFSBURG,
1962, GERMANY
FROM A RADIO INTERVIEW
ALVARA AALTO
90 percent of everything that exists today
is vulgar functionalism.
We have to respect the function.
We have to start with an idea,
which must always be
connected to the function.
Nr we must preserve life,
and not just create
different shapes.
LIBRARY IN ROVANIEMI,
1965 .
Much of
of today's architecture
is marked by a kind of
inhuman formalism.
I think I can quote
Professor Erik Lundberg
from Sweden.
He once told me:
"Architecture, every
architectural creation
must contain
a certain quality,
that give it the ability to grow.
Its modulated form
must be able to grow
and create a community."
CHURCH OF THE HOLY SPIRIT,
1962, GERMANY
Aalto understood the need
to write and debate
about his interpretation
of modern architecture.
He's always been seen
as a "nuisance" creator
very strong tendencies
to rationalize production.
That's why Aalto came up with the idea
of flexible standardization.
GANZAFIERTEL RESIDENTIAL BUILDING,
1957, GERMANY
For him, rationality existed
on a cellular or molecular level.
He initially held
to this philosophy, as if to say:
we realize that when building
large architectural complexes
APARTMENT HOUSE IN BREMEN,
1958-1962, GERMANY
a certain
a degree of standardization.
But what's also needed
some minor changes as well,
that will bring the structure
to the "genius of place."
in a very special way
will fit him into this place.
SUNILA APARTMENT COMPLEXES,
1938, 1947, 1954.
You can create
standard elements,
but these elements must be
flexible at the edges.
In the 1950s, someone asked him
what his dimensional tolerances were.
He replied, "One millimeter."
So he wasn't
a rational designer.
Alvar has told me many times
about it.
VELI PAATELA,
ARCHITECTOR
He had the idea of creating
a cozy little lab.
A couple of architects,
a physicist and a doctor.
He even picked the right island
He even found the right island.
That's where he wanted to study
an architectural humanistic approach
to human existence.
How do we build a humane
human environment?
The unit of standardization is.
not four meters, not one,
or whatever.
It's on a molecular level.
The building is quite modest.
It's in the suburbs of Paris,
FROM A RADIO INTERVIEW
ALVARA AALTO
Between Versailles and Chartres Cathedral,
45 kilometers from Notre Dame.
It's a private structure.
The customer is Louis Carr.
He's a famous art collector
of art.
Naturally, a private home
should be quite modest,
although it does contain a collection
works of art
of an exceptional level
by European and international standards.
THE HOUSE OF LOUIS CARR,
1959, FRANCE
Louis Carr met
Alvar Aalto
at the Venice Biennale
June 1956.
Louis Carr gave Alvar Aalto
complete freedom.
Originally, Louis Carr didn't want
any stairs in the house.
He was limited physically.
But Aalto felt that in order to get
a beautiful walkway down to the living room,
since the house is on a hillside,
a ladder is essential.
And they designed special
very low steps,
like the Palace of Versailles.
The story goes that at the time
Louis Carr was living in Paris
in a building designed
and built by Le Corbusier.
They've lived in the neighborhood
living next door to each other.
Carr didn't want to commission Le Corbusier
to Le Corbusier.
He wanted the project
to be more personal,
Warmer, cozier.
Carr's chain was getting a cozy,
simple home,
whose main purpose
would be to display the collection.
That's why Aalto was required
to design the house,
that would look small on the outside
but would be very spacious on the inside.
And in the end, Carr made up his mind,
that Aalto would design
the whole setting as well,
and the house should be a masterpiece,
that will frame
the other masterpieces--
paintings by Braque, Lger, Picasso,
Bazaine, Gromer, Dufy,
Bonnard and others.
Elissa always kind of stayed
in Aino's shadow,
Because Aino is seen more
as an original partner, as an equal.
But I think what was great about Elissa
the wonderful thing was
that she has taken
full responsibility
for the artistic side
of the workshop,
and carried it for at least 10 years
until Alvar Aalto's death.
I want to create a center,
who, uh.
for all residents
would be comfortable.
Because all the important buildings
are right next to each other.
It's a principle of all old
Italian cities.
HELSINKI CITY CENTER PLAN
His most ambitious plan
was, of course,
Helsinki city center project.
To design the center of the capital
not every
an architect.
But only part
of the plan, the Finlandia Palace.
Aalto was very worried about it.
FINLAND PALACE,
1971 .
Naturally, I'm going to say
a few words.
But the problem is,
that I can't talk
about my own building like that,
to explain everything in it.
The most important role
is always subjectivity.
I can't list
either the pros or the cons.
You don't need that here.
Beautiful, but not very appealing.
Looks like a butcher shop.
- What's the reason?
- Marble.
All walls,
every surface is white.
The benches in the lobby
also look uncomfortable.
It's better to just walk on by.
I tried to sit down once,
but I was told that the skin
would be stained.
There's a whole arrival ritual,
you take off your coat
and it's like you're hatching
out of your shell.
Everyone takes off their dark coats
and heavy hats,
And they stay in their colorful
and bouffant outfits.
And then there's the magnificent staircase.
And you find yourself in a foyer carpeted
with a gorgeous gray Axminster carpet.
The color patches are only people,
other citizens.
And you blend in,
you talk to them.
Then you enter the hall.
And it's such a huge space,
imbued with the grandeur of culture.
A space of music and all that.
The avalanche of change in the 1960s
knocked us all off our feet.
Every young architect,
who believed
that he could make a career out of it,
was supposed to be fighting
against Aalto.
He was so dominant that anyone
who followed in the same direction,
was considered an addict,
a follower of Aalto.
It was a difficult time for Aalto.
In the 1920s and 1930s.
he was a radical,
provoking others.
And in the late 1960s, he was
an old architect,
Sufficiently
undervalued.
He was looked at as a conservative,
like a dinosaur.
I think his feelings of bitterness
was psychologically explained by the fact
a kind of cocoon
that he's created around himself.
In recent years, he's just locked himself away
in the cramped confines of his workshop.
STORA ENSO OFFICE BUILDING,
1962 .
The left probably considered Aalto
a capitalist architect,
and he was, indeed, a capitalist architect.
He designed banks, factories,
corporate headquarters.
Ironically, even though Aalto had been
in his home country of Finland,
has been heavily criticized,
his reputation in the world
continued to grow.
Let's be blunt.
Aalto hadn't been
had not been feeling very well.
He developed a problem
with alcohol.
The building boom,
which has lasted since about 1949,
by the mid-1960s was over,
and new projects
there weren't many.
In addition, in Finland.
already felt
a kind of protest
against Alvar Aalto's work.
If you're a shark
in a goldfish tank,
it will inevitably
it will inevitably lead to protests.
Aalto received an order from Beirut
for the design of a banking
and administrative complex.
ALFRED ROTH,
ARCHITECTOR
And from Finland, he went
straight to Beirut.
Alone, without Elissa.
Apparently, Aalto was already on the plane.
on the plane.
On exiting the airplane, he stated:
"I don't want to meet anyone,
Let's go straight to the hotel."
I knocked gently on the door.
There was no answer.
I opened the door.
He was lying in bed
and slept soundly,
there were empty bottles
empty bottles.
It was a disaster.
In the fall of 1975, Aalto
received a call from Bologna.
VECIO NAVA,
ARCHITECTOR
They wanted to build
a church in Riola.
Aalto got very excited.
He died the following spring,
without ever seeing the project completed.
PARISH CHURCH IN RIOLA,
1978, ITALY
Another person with a strong faith
in this church was the priest.
He recounted,
that he once put a roof on
in the place where they had
where they had mass.
He slipped,
and when he fell,
he prayed to the Virgin Mary
for his salvation,
because he still has to finish
Riola's church.
And that's what happened.
He broke his leg but survived.
He didn't die until 1980,
Two years
after the church opened.
The priest felt he'd been favored
twice. First, he did not die,
and secondly, he was able to finish the church
that he believed in so much.
Alvar had a heart attack
on his way to work.
He was taken to the hospital.
Schildt said that Aalto
complained about the crappy wine,
and he was only given
berry juice.
Alvar said to Elissa:
CHRISTINE SCHILDT,
CLOSE FRIEND
"Bring a bottle of Campari.
Let's have a drink, the four of us, all together."
Elissa brought a bottle, but it was, of course,
of course, it was just juice.
Alvar thought
it tasted great.
THERE IS NO PROPHET IN HIS OWN WORLD.
When he died,
the nurse asked Elissa,
what kind of occupation
on the paperwork. Is he a pensioner?
Elissa became furious.
Eventually, the architect
died on his way to work.
My beloved Aino,
I'm gonna focus
on "forest life" with you.
I'm gonna build a whole institute,
and we can do whatever we want there.
Aalto Institute
or Aino Institute.
All these big institutions,
like the Rockefeller Center,
the MIT complex or Harvard,
it's too complicated.
Frank Lloyd Wright told me:
"My America is already gone.
England, Germany, Japan,
that I loved, they're gone.
Democracy is lost...
America is now much more
imperialistic than in our time.
And a little more smug,
I mean,
that our cultural friends
don't matter as much as they used to.
Flowers in the garden of creation
Aino and Alvar Aalto.
That's what this trip
this trip.
This is where I regained
my confidence.
Harvard is nothing, MIT is nothing.
Power over the world is nothing.
There is nothing but ourselves.
The most important thing is the creative power
in little Aino.
And in ourselves.
A thousand kisses,
I love my babies a thousand times over.
Your Alvar.
THERE ARE ABOUT 300 COMPLETED
AALTO'S CREATIONS.
OVER 200 OTHER PROJECTS
WERE NEVER REALIZED.
AALTO
Storytellers:
Special thanks to the AALTO FAMILY,
ALVAR AALTO FOUNDATION
MUSEUM COLLECTIONS
ALVARA AALTO
FONDU KRISTIN and JORNA SHIELDTOV,
FONDU MAYRE
Director
WIRPI SUUTARI
Screenplay by VIRPI SUUTARI,
JUSSI RAUTANIEMI
Operators
HEIKKI FRM, JANI KUMPULAINEN
TUOMO HUTRI, MARITA HELLFORS,
JANI HKLEY
Montage
JUSSI RAUTANIEMI
OLLI HUHTANEN
SANNA SALMENKALLIO
We express our gratitude:
Translation
LARISSA GALANOVA
OCR: rbt2008
My sweet Aino,
I'm comforted by the thought
that this period of travel
is coming to an end,
and a new period of work begins.
I've been drawing a lot,
it's reminiscent of the way you and I
and the other drawings.
Life's best moments.
That's what we will once again
we will strive for.
No more
no more chores.
We'll work together,
without being too exhausted;
you and me, alone, at home.
Alvar.
AALTO
Alvar Aalto is a Finnish architect,
one of the greatest masters
of twentieth-century modernist architecture.
He is unique in his ability
to achieve optimal
accommodation of their projects
socially, psychologically.
and environmental perspectives.
He had a knack for anticipating a customer's needs
and ensure that the person
a sense of comfort and well-being
in the spaces he created.
Of course, Alvar Aalto
was a complex personality.
He was obviously very attractive,
generous, very smart--
exceptional qualities.
I'm sure he possessed
a lot of charm.
Aino Marcio-Aalto
was, at her core.
a very modern woman.
Mother, architect, designer.
She has performed in all of these
in all of them.
I think Aalto was attractive
to people regardless of gender.
I'm sure Aino did, too.
And, you know,
as a couple, together.
they attracted
other coworkers.
Among the modernists.
there weren't many married couples.
That's why they were unique,
pioneers.
Aino Marcio and Alvar Aalto
studied architecture at the Polytechnic
University of Helsinki
around the same time.
Back then, architecture schools
were dominated by men.
There is a myth,
that Alvar Aalto
wasn't good at math,
and he was making up for it
through aptitude
drawing and drafting
and because of his colorful personality.
After graduation, Aalto
was looking for employees to join his firm.
ARCHITECTURAL
MONUMENTAL ARShe heard about the vacancy.
Later, in October, 1924.
they were married.
Right after the wedding, on their honeymoon,
they go to the continent.
He was very interested
in the complex structure of the city.
He knew that Italy was
the cradle of urban culture.
"Why don't we Finns learn a little something
from this ancient culture?"
"Why don't we improve
our cities
modeled after this ancient culture,
"where architecture so skillfully
blends into the landscape?"
CHURCH IN MUURAM,
1929 .
Aalto is in his early 20s.
in his work, it's like he's issuing a manifesto,
saying, "I see the essence."
We're trying to incorporate
our own distinctive Scandinavian style
WORKERS' HOUSE IN JYVSKYL,
1925 .
In the tradition of classical architecture,
dating back thousands of years.
There's an innate sense
of intuition,
not a perfect linearly rational
inquiring mind, speaking:
"How do we humanize
this space?
How do you make it special?"
SANATORIUM IN PAIMIO,
1933 .
Aalto, though only a few years old,
was a relatively pure
modernist.
That's when you created the sanatorium in Paimio.
and the Vyborg Library,
he found himself.
Having started work
on the sanitarium project,
he got sick and spent some time
and spent some time in the hospital.
It was there that he realized he was a patient
of a medical facility
sees the world differently
than a healthy person.
He wrote,
that he was setting up a sanitarium in Paimio.
for people
in a horizontal position.
There's even the smallest detail
I consider the sanitarium
the most inventive building
In the entire history of modernism.
His goal was to create
a highly holistic
a work of art.
Creating such a sanatorium
led him to design furniture.
PAYMYO CROSS,
1932 .
The Aalto couple was unique among architects
was unique among architects.
One of them is how they became
part of the modernist movement
and the international community
of modernist architects.
MARCEL.
In the summer of 1933.
"CONGRESS OF ARCHITECTS",
LSZL MOHOLY-NAGY, 1933.
Alvar Aalto went to an international
congress of modern architecture,
held on the Patrice,
that traveled from Marseilles to Athens
and back.
He was an easy member of the group
of the most famous
European architects,
met the right people.
LE CORBUSIER (PARIS)
The decision to hold the congress on a ship
was symbolic -
it was also located
in international waters.
In many ways, this one was
GENERAL SECRETARY
SIEGFRIED GIEDION (ZURICH)
The swan song of modern idealism
on the eve of war.
Siegfried Giedion,
one of the most influential architects,
became secretary general of Congress.
He and Aalto became friends.
My little Aino,
I'm still at Gidion's,
it was hard to write a letter
to write a letter.
Don't worry about Marseilles.
This is one of the most horrible
and most distorted city I've ever seen.
But I didn't return to the harbor alone.
I had a life jacket,
a young lady from congress,
so that Marseilles found me
out of my league.
Of course, it turned into
into a love affair,
but not at all dangerous
neither to the body nor to the soul.
In Marseille, every morning
I sat alone with Le Corbusier.
He was exceptionally kind to me.
I was gonna leave today,
but I still have a presentation to make.
They organized an exclusive reception
in the house of some
of some South American millionaire.
I'm leaving the next morning,
plane ticket's already bought.
Because that's the way I like it,
I'm madly in love with my Aino,
that he kisses me
in sensitive places.
Why are you texting me
that you'll be home in a couple days?
I've been waiting for you the whole time,
since Friday.
And then you tell me
you won't be in Stockholm until Wednesday.
Very original,
but that's typical of you.
Of course it's my fault,
because I know you.
I'm very upset.
And we've all been sick.
I didn't tell you because I wanted you
to make you go home happy.
I can't wait
for this to be over.
By the time you get back.
I'll try to calm down.
Aino.
CITY LIBRARY IN VYBORG,
1935 .
They had a very close relationship
with key figures of the architectural
and artistic avant-garde.
A man with no architectural training,
one of the people they met
through the Congress was Moholy-Nagy.
Photographer, cinematographer,
painter and graphic artist.
Whatever was the ignition spark
for friendship, they had it.
And so Moholy-Nagy comes to stay with Alvar and Aino
to visit Alvar and Aino.
And in the library in Vyborg.
this "grid" of round light fixtures.
Look at the movies
and pictures of Moholy.
He very often has this
metal construction
with circular slit openings
through which the light streams.
"PLAY OF LIGHT: BLACK-WHITE-GRAY",
LASZLO MOHOLY-NAGY, 1930.
And in a way, Aalto
are taking Moholy's work
artificially lighted
and do the same thing
with natural light.
Aalto started designing furniture
in the classical style as early as the 1920s.
STOOL 60,
1933 .
As talented as Alvar and Aino Aalto
Alvar and Aino Aalto,
these wooden reliefs
they would never have made on their own.
The trick is, they brought in
a professional carpenter.
At one point, almost all of Aalto's furniture
was shipped to London.
If you look at the production
of Otto Korhonen's company
between 1933 and 1939,
about 75 percent of all their furniture
from Turku went to London.
And the main clients in England
were architects.
They've specifically stated that
in their designs.
The modest design served
a broad social-democratic
model of society,
he was for everyone.
When you walk into the Artek store today.
you wouldn't believe it,
that furniture was incredibly cheap.
"Finmar was opened
to sell and promote
of Aalto furniture in the UK.
One of the main problems
at the time was
the lack of a system
in the handling of orders.
No one at the Turku factory spoke
English.
There were quality issues,
because the furniture was
experimental,
especially the glue.
In every attempt to get
guaranteed supply and quality
instead of a clear answer, they were expected
something vague.
In 1940, the Finmar office
in the United Kingdom
was destroyed in the German
"Blitz" bombing raids.
There's no paperwork
no paperwork at all.
Aalto furniture was popular
among educated people.
The most famous example is when she appears
in Alexander Korda's movie
based on the novel by H.G. Wells
"The Face of the Future."
The set designer for Evrytown
was Moholy-Nagy.
In Moholy-Nadia's mind,
such a chair would be appropriate
of Utopia 2036,
and this is Paimio's chair.
Aalto himself had Marcel Breuer's furniture
had Marcel Breuer's furniture in the living room.
It's amazing, because Aalto himself
was a great designer himself.
But he had great respect for the work
of the other designers.
Aalto had a complicated relationship
with the Bauhaus.
PROFESSOR GROPIUS SCHOOL,
BAUHAUS
He always said
he'd never been there.
Apartments in Paimio Sanatorium
could very well have been
designed by Gropius.
Aalto claimed to be familiar
with Le Corbusier's work
just from newspaper articles.
But that's not true.
VILLA STEIN,
LE CORBUSIER, 1928.
The building of the Turun Sanomat newspaper -
is purely the product
of Le Corbusier's ideological influence.
JEAN ARP,
Wooden Relief, 1930s
Alvar doesn't borrow an idea from anyone,
he develops that idea in his communication.
He was an opportunist
in the best sense of the word.
He was ambitious, and if given the opportunity.
given the opportunity,
grabbing for it.
In October 1935.
4 people organized the company,
they called Artek.
From the merging of the words "art"
and "technology."
Apstrm is a family of wealthy
of the timber industry,
this industry was very important
in Finland.
She married
to Harry Gullicksen,
that's how these two wealthy dynasties
these two wealthy dynasties.
Niels-Gustav Hal, writer,
intellectual and journalist.
And Cheta Aalto.
The emergence of Artek
created a structure.
An opportunity has arisen
of furniture distribution.
A brand has emerged.
Aino was leaving the house to go to work.
She was the art director.
Alvar stayed home,
sitting in his office.
In the late 1930s, Alvar Aalto
worked in a tiny workshop.
When a job was dragging on,
or there weren't enough clients,
"Artek and the furniture trade
gave them extra income.
Discussing the opening of Artek,
Niels-Gustav Hal said,
that it allowed Alvar Aalto
to maintain his bohemian spirit.
Dear Daddy and the little ones,
I'm insanely tired.
Left Turku last night,
and went straight to sleep in the cabin.
And then when I got undressed,
I couldn't sleep a wink all night.
I'll have to take sleeping pills.
I'm desperate to work.
I'll give you the name of the hotel in Oslo
so you can telegraph,
whether you're coming or not.
I hope you do.
I've thought it over
from every angle.
And I've come to a conclusion:
we have each other,
we have our jobs and healthy children.
You couldn't ask for more.
I'll write to you from Oslo.
Tired to death. Aino.
My dear Aino, you're a liar.
Oslo, I guess,
made herself at home.
A letter came from Norway.
The company wants to sell the rights.
While you're at it, get on it.
Tell me you're
one of the furniture designers,
and make a deal with them.
I'll take care of the kids,
we'll be fine.
In order for us to get even,
you're gonna have to do a lot of bad things.
I've even picked up
I've even picked up someone on the street.
And all you have is petty adventures
amongst pious families,
so I'm not sure we're
we'll ever match up.
I like you as a human being,
not some high-minded creature.
And forget those stupid
coffee meetings.
Dear Daddy,
it's a good thing I went alone.
Not a single erotic encounter.
It would be terrible
if you hooked up with someone here.
You're already so far behind,
that I'm gonna be out of the race soon.
Don't get cocky,
but I like you the best.
I think their relationship in the marriage
were very special,
though not without its problems.
It seems to me
there was
amazing devotion to family.
It gave them some kind of
faith in your own home,
that helped them
to be successful together.
VILLA FLORA,
1926 .
Aino Aalto was a necessary
balancing element
in Alvar's bohemian and promiscuous
of Alvar's life.
I remember he always had
endless amounts of time.
YOHANNA ALANEN,
AALTO'S DAUGHTER
He always worked from home.
Taking coffee breaks,
humming something to himself,
then I'd go back to the office,
draw a line or two
And back again.
Alvar believed that Aino's business
to take care of him first and foremost,
then came the children,
and then her work.
I think that's what happened.
Aalto was well understood,
what it means to be protected
or openness to nature.
Surely the feeling of Aalto
and being infused with nature,
and at the same time a horror of it
was partly due to the fact
that he lost his mother as a child,
who he was very close to.
It's a severe trauma
for any human being.
But Aalto didn't overcome this
not with the help of a psychiatrist.
He grew up overcoming that
through his art.
In 1937.
at the World's Fair in Paris
Finland's pavilion has attracted
close attention
of the most prominent critics
and architectural journals.
It had nothing to do
with horrible neoclassical fascist
architecture that frightened people.
The bentwood furniture
had a fresh feel
as opposed to products
of steel construction,
of Bauhaus products.
Modern or not modern.
is not a question of material,
but how it's used.
A modern approach might be.
AINO AND ALVAR AALTO EXHIBITION
I saw Morton Shand's article,
HARMON GOLDSTONE,
ARCHITECTOR
either about Paimio or about
the library in Viborg.
And I was shocked.
John McAndrew was the curator
of the architecture department
at the Museum of Modern Art.
And he said: "Talk to him.
Maybe,
he might want to put on an exhibit."
So I went to Helsinki
and I just went to see him.
His office was small,
and he said:
"I'm going to show you my new house,
it's not finished yet."
AALTO HOUSE,
1936 .
And I took a picture of him
in the doorway.
Took some pictures of the house.
I kept trying to say:
"Would you like to have an exhibition
at the Museum of Modern Art?"
And so I came back to New York.
Lawrence Rockefeller
was an old friend of mine.
So he says:
"You know, I'm building me a house."
I'm like, "I've recently seen
the finest
modern furniture.
I just don't know if it's easy
to negotiate with these people.
If you send them an order,
what will they say back."
When the furniture arrived,
I was working for Wallace Harrison,
one of the architects
of Rockefeller Center.
That's where Harrison and Fuyu
Harrison and Fuyu.
We opened the boxes.
It exceeded all expectations.
The first buyer of Aalto furniture
in the United States was Lawrence Rockefeller.
The first distributor
in the States
short-lived,
but very powerful company
called New Furniture,
of which Lawrence Rockefeller
was Lawrence Rockefeller.
The popularity of Aalto furniture
crossed borders.
Alvar Aalto
was honored with a solo exhibition
at the Museum of Modern Art
in New York.
at the Museum of Modern Art
are trying to find
definition of modernism,
and they find it in the work
of the Aalto couple.
In 1935, Otto Korhonen dies,
the carpenter.
You could say,
the experimental quality
of Aalto furniture is at an end.
Anything that appears at Artek
since Korhonen's death
beautiful furniture,
but it's no longer the same kind of innovation,
technical experimentation,
who, in the 1930s and '35s.
distinguished Aalto's work
with Korhonen.
These are difficult times in Europe,
especially for figures
of the avant-garde.
From this dystopian continent
I wanted to run away.
But for the Aalto couple.
and for their firm.
the situation was completely different.
Finland was still defending itself.
They were still working in Sunil,
when many other architects
had already emigrated to the United States.
CBC COMPLEX IN SUNIL,
1938, 1954 .
Between the founding of Artek in 1935.
SAVOY RESTAURANT,
1937 .
And the order for the World's Fair
in 1939
they were working in Finland,
putting modernism into practice,
more than any of their counterparts
on the continent,
because
change is in the air,
it's coming.
VAZA AALTO,
1936 .
Aalto has found
their biggest customers.
MAIRA'S VILLA,
1939 .
The Gullicksen family.
Aalto was an excellent
storyteller.
One room has one atmosphere,
the one next door is completely different.
It's like books have chapters,
and plays have actions.
We northern peoples,
especially the Finns,
tend to dream of the forest.
And Aalto breathed these forest dreams
into his architecture.
I had the honor of being one of the first
to be one of the first tenants of this house.
My father is Harry Gulliksen,
and my mother is Maire Gulliksen.
For a 7-year-old boy
it's been very exciting
living here.
The whole house was for me
a territory of adventure.
When I went to school,
the other kids stared at me.
I was no ordinary boy.
I was an outsider,
that lives in this strange house.
Everyone in Noormarkku marveled,
to see such an ugly house,
built on Havulinna Hill.
It didn't even have a roof!
People thought he was ugly.
They thought the roof
really wasn't there.
But she was,
and she still is.
Aino brought a final touch of humanity
the final touch of humanity.
The selection of fabrics, the specifics
lighting and landscaping.
Those were Aino's touches,
that completes the essence
of the Aalto couple's work.
It doesn't matter whose signature
on the drawings and blueprints,
they worked
like a real team.
She was an architect,
a practicing architect.
An exceptionally difficult task,
especially for a woman of her generation.
COMPRESSED GLASS TUMBLERS,
AINO AALTO
We'll never know
where the boundary between the two of them was.
We can only speculate.
Aino was definitely
a skilled carpenter.
Alvar didn't.
Aino wasn't a housewife.
She did not wish to be tied down.
She was always at work.
The house was taken care of by a cook and a nanny.
They created a whole new
style of furniture.
Aino was responsible for designing hundreds
of Aalto's products for Artek.
A lot of people said,
that she was only creating
something similar to Alvar's work.
But that's not true, she made her own contribution to Artek.
her own contribution to Artek.
Her vision, her ideas, in a way.
created the very essence of Artek.
TICKET.
NEW YORK - CHICAGO
Aalto's name has become a brand.
Aalto Furniture was
the most popular brand
of modern furniture in the United States
until the late 1940s.
WORLD'S FAIR IN NEW YORK,
1939 .
The MoMA project made Aalto's work
popular in the United States.
But it was the World's Fair
in New York
has altered and intensified
the very notion of that popularity,
making it unprecedented.
He gave a lecture at Yale,
at the Museum of Modern Art
in San Francisco.
at the Museum of Modern Art
in San Francisco.
They were mostly about
the humanization of architecture.
For the American press.
Aino Marcio-Aalto has become an icon.
It wasn't just the popularity
Alvar Aalto, there was also Aino.
In California, he met
William Wurster, a lot of people.
Aalto was very social.
He had an easy way of making contacts
with important people.
Aalto was completely changed
meeting Frank Lloyd Wright,
who has always been characterized
for his impeccable costume.
Alvar had
a wonderful sense of humor.
CAROLA GIDION-WELKER,
CLOSE FRIEND
When Aino and I were in America
were in America,
Alvar kept flirting,
and then he said:
"I'll hire a gigolo for Aino,
"and let him dance with her all night.
"Aino is worthy of anything
and anyone."
I don't know if poor Aino was dancing
with the gigolo that night.
But that wasn't her style.
Alvar had an erotic approach
to both life and work.
There was a warmth to him that was perhaps,
was born of sexuality, eroticism.
When war broke out in late November 1939.
war broke out
between Finland and the USSR,
Alvar, a reserve officer, was drafted
and assigned to Kuopio.
Alvar himself told
a story like this.
He was ordered to sort out the portcullis.
Then he wrote to his friend
Lawrence Rockefeller in New York
and asked for help,
to send airplanes.
Rockefeller sent the foreign ministry
a check for a million dollars
and said hello to Aalto.
Of course,
Alvar often exaggerated.
ROCKEFELLER GIVES FINNS 100,000:
"GLAD TO HELP SUCH A FEARLESS PEOPLE."
But he's soon to be transferred
to the state news agency
in Helsinki.
He'd already fought
in the civil war in 1918.
He was on the white side then
and ended the war in Tampere,
where he participated
in the Battle of Lnkinpohja.
He never
ever recovered from that,
that I saw in Tampere.
Aalto was very interested
the problem of post-war development.
He was hoping to do
a demonstration project,
where he would implement his principles
of standardized development.
During the war, Finnish architects
worked hard.
They were working on plans to rebuild
of destroyed cities,
standardized
standardized housing projects, etc.
That's when the
Building Standards Committee.
STANDARDIZED HOUSE BUILDING
1937-1941 YEARS.
Speer's ministry
even invited Aalto to Germany,
to see their work
on architectural standardization.
Alvar didn't really want to go,
but eventually agreed
when the German Foreign Ministry
sent a military plane after him.
At the farewell banquet.
he decided to give a speech.
He began: "We Finns -
are neither Nazis nor Bolsheviks.
"We are the forest monkeys
from Eskimo country."
He also said he didn't know much
the architecture of the Third Reich,
because my work took me
I've been in America more often.
But one day at the Harvard Club.
he was waiting for Lawrence Rockefeller.
And I noticed on his desk
a book with a red cover.
He picked it up and saw it,
that the author
not the most famous writer,
Adolf Hitler.
Aalto opened the book at random.
And a phrase caught his eye:
"Architecture is
"the lord of the arts,
and music is their queen."
He didn't need
to read any further.
He closed the book
and put it back.
This story received
a standing ovation.
BAKER HOUSE, CAMPUS MIT,
1949, USA
Baker House and Aalto's relationship with MIhas its origins
right after Walter Gropius moved to Harvard
Walter Gropius in 1937.
Gropius brought to Harvard and America
European modernism.
MIT, for its part, has endeavored
to make sense of it in their own way,
and they saw in Alvar Aalto
it's that human-centered
approach to modernism,
that they advocated for themselves.
When Wurster was named dean of MIwas appointed dean of MIT,
the first person he thought of
was Aalto.
He said himself that he was the first person
to call Alvar Aalto.
If you look
at the Baker House plan
and a plan for the waterfront along the river,
you'll see that they're
very similar to the plan
of the World's Fair pavilion
in New York.
This is a theme that Aalto continued
in his work.
He wanted every student
thanks to this wavy line.
I could see the river from my room.
So you can see the river from all the windows
upstream or downstream,
but none of them face
directly onto the river.
For the Baker House, he used
a special brick,
which is only made
only in New England.
It's very hard and uneven,
Aalto loved it.
Called it the lousiest
brick in the world.
Precisely because
because I loved him so much.
Already after construction began.
MIT wanted to add
another 50 rooms or seats.
Aalto said:
"I'll put on a fresh shirt."
I mean, I'm gonna dump the old one,
and I'll start over.
But it's his partner,
the lava that spews from the volcano,
Aino Aalto came to the rescue,
saying: "We'll sort it out."
When Aalto was teaching at MIT,
he would bombard the students
with stories.
The stories were endless,
Aalto could even drink a little,
but they always made sense.
I mean, sometimes they'd hang out
at the local bar,
talked until late at night.
And the next day Aalto
came in very late.
And everything would start all over again.
He was a real entertainer,
so it was a pleasure to listen to him.
With just two or three words,
he was already mesmerizing the audience.
Wallace Garrison was the head
of a group of architects
on the U.N. building project.
At the top of the list was Aalto.
But that's where politics intervened.
Finland was seen
as an enemy country,
because originally the Finns
asked for help from the Germans
in the fight against the Soviets
in World War II,
and they were a defeated country
or one of the non-allied countries.
And it's like Kaufman knew
that Aalto wasn't involved in the project.
of the U.N. conference rooms,
and vice versa said:
EDGAR KAUFMAN CONFERENCE ROOM,
1964 .
"I'll give Aalto an order in New York."
And Kaufman ordered him conference rooms.
I'm continuing this letter already in New York.
I just flew here.
I'm sitting in the bar at the Plaza Hotel.
Two beers. (Thirsty.)
And an omelet with port.
(No cocktails.)
And then to bed. (Alone.)
Jack Sweeney came by yesterday.
Asked me to design a poetry room
in the new Harvard library.
We had an agreement,
that the job was yours,
you're gonna have to design
every inch of it.
WOODBERRY POETRY HALL,
1949, USA
All furniture can be different.
Dear Daddy,
Lately.
I've been a little cranky,
but I'm sure
no matter what you do,
it's gonna work out great.
You are the kindest and smartest
person in the world,
and you don't wish bad things
you wouldn't wish it on anyone.
You're too attractive
to be gone so long.
But I'm trying to keep my spirits up
and hope that there won't be any more tragedies.
That's awful.
I'm the luckiest person in the world
because I have a house like this,
you and I have beautiful children
and a common cause.
How could such good fortune fall
to one man?
Despite all of this, lately, ".
' ," "I don't feel so good. . . . '
I'm gonna miss you terribly.
In the mornings in the upper hall,
and in the evenings by your side.
I won't say, "None," I'll say:
"Not so many cocktails now."
I'm sure you understand.
But I'd love it if you wouldn't forget
my one wish.
Take care of yourself, I wish you
all the best, sweet daddy. Aino.
There's nothing more beautiful in the world
than you and me as a team.
That makes me very happy.
It's only because of you
that everything is so natural and clear.
Just like the world's greatest
architecture.
You exude confidence and peace,
heavenly warmth.
It brings balance to all,
in which we live and work.
My dear Aino,
I want to know how you sleep now.
You, the most beautiful man
in the world.
I love you terribly
and I have faith in your ability
to make our lives perfect.
You are a wise, honorable,
amazing man.
For your sake, by all means.
I must mature mentally.
It's sad that it's the little things
are keeping me
to focus on the things
that's more important than myself,
And distractions from great thoughts--
something that you've always
you've always been good at.
I hope you remember
what I wrote about cocktails.
I love you more than ever.
Aino.
In 1947, Aino and Alvar Aalto
traveled to Italy.
For the first time since I spent
honeymoon.
As it turned out, it was
Aino's last trip abroad.
That picture still stands
in my mind's eye.
LORENZ MOSER,
ARCHITECTOR
It was such a contrast between
the quiet and reserved Aino
And Alvar Aalto,
very lively and radiant.
I think he didn't fully understand,
how serious the situation is,
how sick Aino is.
He was an optimist, and he probably
he thought she was gonna be okay.
Aino died a month later,
in early January.
His wife's death must have been something
he felt
the deepest thing in your life.
It was probably
a whole range of emotions,
including guilt,
in many ways.
What could Aalto be doing
at a time like this?
How do we deal
with the death of a spouse?
She died of cancer in 1949,
as a young woman.
Alvar Aalto was left
with two children.
And he did what was natural for him
naturally.
Drawing.
After Aino's death.
Aalto rarely traveled to the States.
At that moment, there was a lot of work
there was a lot of work to do.
And he's very withdrawn.
But I also think the States,
maybe,
reminded him of her.
Surprisingly, that same spring.
he participated in a design competition
of the university complex
in Otaniemi.
His pseudonym speaks volumes:
"Morituri te salutant."
the motto of the Roman gladiators.
"Those who go to their deaths
salute you."
That's not the only thing that led
to a dramatic change
in Aalto's work.
One could say
that Aino's death
has been something of a catalyst
of this change.
OTANIEMI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY
1949 / 1964 .
But the reasons behind these changes,
have always been present
or accumulated
little by little.
After Aino's death, he won the competition
with his Otaniemi project,
of the Pension Board
and Xiayunyatsalo.
He was probably already under the influence
by his relationship with Elissa.
Around 1950.
a young female architect
a young female architect.
She worked on a project
for the city center in Xiayunyatsalo,
and that's when the two of them
started a relationship.
Her name was Elsa Mkiniemi.
In a way, Elissa was herself
a creation of Aalto's workshop.
Whether it was her initiative or Alvar's,
we'll never know.
It was like she was born again,
a new woman with a new name.
THE MUNICIPAL CENTER IN SIYUNYATSALO,
1952 .
The municipal center in Xiayunyatsalo
is not just a public building.
It's more like a small
town in Northern Italy.
Very strong community spirit.
It was as if he felt it was his duty
before classical, historic.
Italian architecture.
He was particularly drawn to Romanesque
and other medieval architecture.
To him, she was
"the height" of a man.
The size of this town was
was just right.
The scale is always determined
by the person.
FROM A RADIO INTERVIEW
ALVARA AALTO
Humans are part of nature,
like pine trees or birch trees.
Hence the scale.
I can't ignore that by turning
people into giants or dwarfs.
I must maintain
true human dimensions.
When construction began
in Xiayunyatsalo,
Aalto bought a plot of land a couple of kilometers
from the municipal center.
And he designed a summer villa,
which he called the experimental house.
His primary motivation
was the opportunity
deduct construction costs
from your taxes.
But this house became
one of Aalto's most beautiful works.
EXPERIMENTAL HOUSE,
1954 .
He wanted to try
to build a house without a foundation.
The foundations used were
rock and stone in the soil.
The priority in Alvar Aalto's life
has always been creative work.
FROM A RADIO INTERVIEW
ELISSA AALTO
The most fortunate circumstance
was that
that I was also an architect and could
in that area of his life.
Otherwise, I'd feel like
an outsider.
But my first and foremost demand
that I accept his priorities.
You could say
that the villa in Muuratsalo
and his relationship with Elissa
kind of saved him in a way.
from boredom after Aino's death.
How to build something modern,
combining both continuity
and close connection
with a way of life that has changed,
that's constantly changing.
Historical continuity
gives life meaning.
To him, every building
is an obviousness.
Obviousness,
gained in the course of the game.
UNIVERSITY OF JYVSKYL,
1951 / 1956 .
If you bring a child
into the room,
whatever is in this room,
the child will play with it.
In a way, that was
Aalto's method.
You take what you have,
what's possible,
and you make art out of it.
And it's a game.
Aalto's genius is
that whatever the circumstances,
whatever the constraints are,
he makes a project based on them.
And seeks out the creativity
in the situation itself.
A typical modernist aspiration.
smoothness and transparency.
But the university in Jyvskyl
is a very closed building.
It looks like
like it was built in the Middle Ages,
And stood for millennia.
The plot overlooks Tiilimki.
That's where they built
a new studio.
AALTO STUDIO,
1955 .
It's a beautiful garden,
almost like a small theater.
It's as if Aalto is exploring,
how the ruins of the amphitheater
flow into the landscape, into nature.
Aalto was convinced from the very beginning
he was sure,
that only architects
only architects.
That you only hire equals
or potential equals.
The creative studio is based
on trust.
You let people do what
what they want, they do it.
within the framework of a clear understanding
of the core ideas.
Absolute freedom, but in a way.
absolute control.
FINNISH PAVILION,
1956, ITALY
Aalto's studio was like a workshop
of the Renaissance.
FEDERICO MARCONI,
ARCHITECTOR
The master would sketch,
and the apprentices finalized the details.
The atmosphere was,
like a Renaissance workshop.
or even a convent.
He was an appealing personality.
I remember him saying to me:
"When you present a project to a client,
You should be like a boxer,
punching right under the breath.
So the client can't say
not a word," that's what he used to say.
One morning, two English professors
two English professors,
KARL FLIIG,
ARCHITECTOR
without prior arrangement.
Aalto said: "I see.
And their costumes must be needlepoint."
And he asked Sisko to tell him
to wait,
that Aalto himself is still in the bedroom.
He goes upstairs
and a little while later he comes down.
Hair disheveled, wearing a robe.
HOUSE OF CULTURE,
1958 .
In the '60s, if Aalto
gave me a sketch plan of the project,
amazingly, this plan has always been
completely accurate in terms of dimensions.
Aalto possessed
an intuitive sense of scale,
no matter how rough
sketch, even 6B.
The most important plans
Alvar Aalto always drew them himself.
LORENZ MOSER,
ARCHITECTOR
If one of the employees was working,
he was always there.
It doesn't matter if it's morning, afternoon,
evening or night.
Sometimes he would moan, cough,
clearing his throat.
Or even sang.
And when he did,
the staff always giggled,
laughing.
I was later told,
that his songs were mostly
weren't very decent.
He wasn't working purely intellectually
or functional,
like other architects.
KARL FLIIG,
ARCHITECTOR
I have to say, he had
a great relationship with his subordinates.
He always said,
JORAN SHIELDT,
WRITER, FRIEND OF AALTO
how important workers
and construction workers.
And he always praised
about those two craftsmen,
about Korhonen, who made furniture,
and Hirvonen, who made lamps.
Always emphasized that these people
were much more important,
than all the businessmen at Artek
or anywhere else.
He really had
sympathy for the working class.
At Aalto's workshop, no one tried
to reinvent the wheel.
Gather the archive, gather the understanding,
knowing what you can do,
and what you can't use
from earlier projects.
SEINJOKI CITY CENTER,
1962 .
Elissa Aalto
She came to the workshop in 1950.
In '52, they got married.
The construction industry around the world
is very sexist.
Anyone can easily say:
"You only became Alvar Aalto's partner
just because you're his wife."
Even though he himself has emphasized
that he and Elissa were partners,
not everyone liked it.
I remember in the beginning.
Elissa always had curls.
Alvar made her wash her hair
and comb her hair smooth.
MARIA PAATELA-POIRI,
ARCHITECTOR
I had a friend who was a dressmaker.
I took Elissa with me,
and she ordered a brown suit.
No one had ever seen that suit.
Alvar liked black and white.
He had, to a great extent.
"molded Elissa into his ideal woman.
I'd say that's the best compliment
I've ever gotten from my husband,
FROM A RADIO INTERVIEW
ELISSA AALTO
were the words "my girl."
For my part, I can say,
I never had to question
of his loyalty.
I think Elissa
even looks a little like Aino.
Yes, she really does.
PENSION BOARD,
1949 / 1956.
Pension Administration Building
pension administration building
has gotten an undeservedly
a bad reputation.
I think it's, uh,
it's too fancy.
It doesn't have to be that way.
It's too luxurious.
This is the same department
of retirement benefits.
For his employees.
it's like a five-star hotel.
It doesn't have to be
so luxurious.
A simple brick building would have sufficed.
brick building.
A more modest structure
and would have cost less.
A lot of people
at the Aalto studio think
that the Office
of the Pension Board is
in a way.
the pinnacle of Aalto's self-expression.
In architecture, hierarchy
hierarchy.
It's wrong to assume that all projects
are equal to each other.
Architecture is a branch
of human endeavor,
creating a basic hierarchy
and categories
between secular and religious,
for example.
Sometimes architecture immortalizes
and ennobles.
CHURCH OF THE THREE CROSSES,
1958 .
If there's nothing to beautify,
there's no architecture.
The Church of the Three Crosses
is a temple of doubt.
Aalto wasn't religious
in the traditional sense.
There's no division of space
between inside and outside.
There's a space outside,
inside, and something in between.
I think it's a very literal
architectural interpretation
Trinity themes.
Perhaps it has something to do
to the theology of doubt as well.
You don't have to choose
one or the other,
both options
are possible at the same time.
Aalto was experienced both politically,
and religiously,
to stay a little bit
on everyone's side,
but in reality.
no one's.
You're not just inside or outside,
you're not just religious
or not religious.
You're both,
or neither
at the same time.
That's what it is.
Aalto's intermediate space -
and his personality,
and in his architecture.
So at the most inevitable
political moment
of West Germany's recovery
after the war
Aalto has been commissioned to build
a cultural center in Wolfsburg.
Industrial City
for construction
"the people's car."
Volkswagen.
"Your job is to.
to build a counterbalance
to today's monotonous life."
CULTURAL CENTER IN WOLFSBURG,
1962, GERMANY
FROM A RADIO INTERVIEW
ALVARA AALTO
90 percent of everything that exists today
is vulgar functionalism.
We have to respect the function.
We have to start with an idea,
which must always be
connected to the function.
Nr we must preserve life,
and not just create
different shapes.
LIBRARY IN ROVANIEMI,
1965 .
Much of
of today's architecture
is marked by a kind of
inhuman formalism.
I think I can quote
Professor Erik Lundberg
from Sweden.
He once told me:
"Architecture, every
architectural creation
must contain
a certain quality,
that give it the ability to grow.
Its modulated form
must be able to grow
and create a community."
CHURCH OF THE HOLY SPIRIT,
1962, GERMANY
Aalto understood the need
to write and debate
about his interpretation
of modern architecture.
He's always been seen
as a "nuisance" creator
very strong tendencies
to rationalize production.
That's why Aalto came up with the idea
of flexible standardization.
GANZAFIERTEL RESIDENTIAL BUILDING,
1957, GERMANY
For him, rationality existed
on a cellular or molecular level.
He initially held
to this philosophy, as if to say:
we realize that when building
large architectural complexes
APARTMENT HOUSE IN BREMEN,
1958-1962, GERMANY
a certain
a degree of standardization.
But what's also needed
some minor changes as well,
that will bring the structure
to the "genius of place."
in a very special way
will fit him into this place.
SUNILA APARTMENT COMPLEXES,
1938, 1947, 1954.
You can create
standard elements,
but these elements must be
flexible at the edges.
In the 1950s, someone asked him
what his dimensional tolerances were.
He replied, "One millimeter."
So he wasn't
a rational designer.
Alvar has told me many times
about it.
VELI PAATELA,
ARCHITECTOR
He had the idea of creating
a cozy little lab.
A couple of architects,
a physicist and a doctor.
He even picked the right island
He even found the right island.
That's where he wanted to study
an architectural humanistic approach
to human existence.
How do we build a humane
human environment?
The unit of standardization is.
not four meters, not one,
or whatever.
It's on a molecular level.
The building is quite modest.
It's in the suburbs of Paris,
FROM A RADIO INTERVIEW
ALVARA AALTO
Between Versailles and Chartres Cathedral,
45 kilometers from Notre Dame.
It's a private structure.
The customer is Louis Carr.
He's a famous art collector
of art.
Naturally, a private home
should be quite modest,
although it does contain a collection
works of art
of an exceptional level
by European and international standards.
THE HOUSE OF LOUIS CARR,
1959, FRANCE
Louis Carr met
Alvar Aalto
at the Venice Biennale
June 1956.
Louis Carr gave Alvar Aalto
complete freedom.
Originally, Louis Carr didn't want
any stairs in the house.
He was limited physically.
But Aalto felt that in order to get
a beautiful walkway down to the living room,
since the house is on a hillside,
a ladder is essential.
And they designed special
very low steps,
like the Palace of Versailles.
The story goes that at the time
Louis Carr was living in Paris
in a building designed
and built by Le Corbusier.
They've lived in the neighborhood
living next door to each other.
Carr didn't want to commission Le Corbusier
to Le Corbusier.
He wanted the project
to be more personal,
Warmer, cozier.
Carr's chain was getting a cozy,
simple home,
whose main purpose
would be to display the collection.
That's why Aalto was required
to design the house,
that would look small on the outside
but would be very spacious on the inside.
And in the end, Carr made up his mind,
that Aalto would design
the whole setting as well,
and the house should be a masterpiece,
that will frame
the other masterpieces--
paintings by Braque, Lger, Picasso,
Bazaine, Gromer, Dufy,
Bonnard and others.
Elissa always kind of stayed
in Aino's shadow,
Because Aino is seen more
as an original partner, as an equal.
But I think what was great about Elissa
the wonderful thing was
that she has taken
full responsibility
for the artistic side
of the workshop,
and carried it for at least 10 years
until Alvar Aalto's death.
I want to create a center,
who, uh.
for all residents
would be comfortable.
Because all the important buildings
are right next to each other.
It's a principle of all old
Italian cities.
HELSINKI CITY CENTER PLAN
His most ambitious plan
was, of course,
Helsinki city center project.
To design the center of the capital
not every
an architect.
But only part
of the plan, the Finlandia Palace.
Aalto was very worried about it.
FINLAND PALACE,
1971 .
Naturally, I'm going to say
a few words.
But the problem is,
that I can't talk
about my own building like that,
to explain everything in it.
The most important role
is always subjectivity.
I can't list
either the pros or the cons.
You don't need that here.
Beautiful, but not very appealing.
Looks like a butcher shop.
- What's the reason?
- Marble.
All walls,
every surface is white.
The benches in the lobby
also look uncomfortable.
It's better to just walk on by.
I tried to sit down once,
but I was told that the skin
would be stained.
There's a whole arrival ritual,
you take off your coat
and it's like you're hatching
out of your shell.
Everyone takes off their dark coats
and heavy hats,
And they stay in their colorful
and bouffant outfits.
And then there's the magnificent staircase.
And you find yourself in a foyer carpeted
with a gorgeous gray Axminster carpet.
The color patches are only people,
other citizens.
And you blend in,
you talk to them.
Then you enter the hall.
And it's such a huge space,
imbued with the grandeur of culture.
A space of music and all that.
The avalanche of change in the 1960s
knocked us all off our feet.
Every young architect,
who believed
that he could make a career out of it,
was supposed to be fighting
against Aalto.
He was so dominant that anyone
who followed in the same direction,
was considered an addict,
a follower of Aalto.
It was a difficult time for Aalto.
In the 1920s and 1930s.
he was a radical,
provoking others.
And in the late 1960s, he was
an old architect,
Sufficiently
undervalued.
He was looked at as a conservative,
like a dinosaur.
I think his feelings of bitterness
was psychologically explained by the fact
a kind of cocoon
that he's created around himself.
In recent years, he's just locked himself away
in the cramped confines of his workshop.
STORA ENSO OFFICE BUILDING,
1962 .
The left probably considered Aalto
a capitalist architect,
and he was, indeed, a capitalist architect.
He designed banks, factories,
corporate headquarters.
Ironically, even though Aalto had been
in his home country of Finland,
has been heavily criticized,
his reputation in the world
continued to grow.
Let's be blunt.
Aalto hadn't been
had not been feeling very well.
He developed a problem
with alcohol.
The building boom,
which has lasted since about 1949,
by the mid-1960s was over,
and new projects
there weren't many.
In addition, in Finland.
already felt
a kind of protest
against Alvar Aalto's work.
If you're a shark
in a goldfish tank,
it will inevitably
it will inevitably lead to protests.
Aalto received an order from Beirut
for the design of a banking
and administrative complex.
ALFRED ROTH,
ARCHITECTOR
And from Finland, he went
straight to Beirut.
Alone, without Elissa.
Apparently, Aalto was already on the plane.
on the plane.
On exiting the airplane, he stated:
"I don't want to meet anyone,
Let's go straight to the hotel."
I knocked gently on the door.
There was no answer.
I opened the door.
He was lying in bed
and slept soundly,
there were empty bottles
empty bottles.
It was a disaster.
In the fall of 1975, Aalto
received a call from Bologna.
VECIO NAVA,
ARCHITECTOR
They wanted to build
a church in Riola.
Aalto got very excited.
He died the following spring,
without ever seeing the project completed.
PARISH CHURCH IN RIOLA,
1978, ITALY
Another person with a strong faith
in this church was the priest.
He recounted,
that he once put a roof on
in the place where they had
where they had mass.
He slipped,
and when he fell,
he prayed to the Virgin Mary
for his salvation,
because he still has to finish
Riola's church.
And that's what happened.
He broke his leg but survived.
He didn't die until 1980,
Two years
after the church opened.
The priest felt he'd been favored
twice. First, he did not die,
and secondly, he was able to finish the church
that he believed in so much.
Alvar had a heart attack
on his way to work.
He was taken to the hospital.
Schildt said that Aalto
complained about the crappy wine,
and he was only given
berry juice.
Alvar said to Elissa:
CHRISTINE SCHILDT,
CLOSE FRIEND
"Bring a bottle of Campari.
Let's have a drink, the four of us, all together."
Elissa brought a bottle, but it was, of course,
of course, it was just juice.
Alvar thought
it tasted great.
THERE IS NO PROPHET IN HIS OWN WORLD.
When he died,
the nurse asked Elissa,
what kind of occupation
on the paperwork. Is he a pensioner?
Elissa became furious.
Eventually, the architect
died on his way to work.
My beloved Aino,
I'm gonna focus
on "forest life" with you.
I'm gonna build a whole institute,
and we can do whatever we want there.
Aalto Institute
or Aino Institute.
All these big institutions,
like the Rockefeller Center,
the MIT complex or Harvard,
it's too complicated.
Frank Lloyd Wright told me:
"My America is already gone.
England, Germany, Japan,
that I loved, they're gone.
Democracy is lost...
America is now much more
imperialistic than in our time.
And a little more smug,
I mean,
that our cultural friends
don't matter as much as they used to.
Flowers in the garden of creation
Aino and Alvar Aalto.
That's what this trip
this trip.
This is where I regained
my confidence.
Harvard is nothing, MIT is nothing.
Power over the world is nothing.
There is nothing but ourselves.
The most important thing is the creative power
in little Aino.
And in ourselves.
A thousand kisses,
I love my babies a thousand times over.
Your Alvar.
THERE ARE ABOUT 300 COMPLETED
AALTO'S CREATIONS.
OVER 200 OTHER PROJECTS
WERE NEVER REALIZED.
AALTO
Storytellers:
Special thanks to the AALTO FAMILY,
ALVAR AALTO FOUNDATION
MUSEUM COLLECTIONS
ALVARA AALTO
FONDU KRISTIN and JORNA SHIELDTOV,
FONDU MAYRE
Director
WIRPI SUUTARI
Screenplay by VIRPI SUUTARI,
JUSSI RAUTANIEMI
Operators
HEIKKI FRM, JANI KUMPULAINEN
TUOMO HUTRI, MARITA HELLFORS,
JANI HKLEY
Montage
JUSSI RAUTANIEMI
OLLI HUHTANEN
SANNA SALMENKALLIO
We express our gratitude:
Translation
LARISSA GALANOVA
OCR: rbt2008