Alvar Aalto : Masterworks

Book Description
One of the masters of modern architecture, Finland's Alvar Aalto (1898-1976) was a prolific and influential architect and a gifted designer. His unique contribution to modernism embraced context and the natural environment. Drawing on sources as diverse as the Finnish landscape, the Bauhaus, and Classicism, Aalto forged an organic design vocabulary that juxtaposed concrete and wood, copper and brick, volume and form in an original synthesis. His respect for function and use contributes to the lasting popularity of his buildings and furniture.

Featured in this book are thirty-three of Aalto's most important pieces, including the Villa Mairea, the Town Hall at Säynätsalo, Baker Dormitory at MIT, and the Aalto vase, selected and analyzed in detail by Aalto scholar Göran Schildt, with an introduction by Professor Michael Trencher of Pratt Institute.

Profusely illustrated with full-color photographs, as well as drawings and plans, this book surveys Aalto's career, from his Neoclassical works of the 1920s to his more organic designs of the 1940s and 1950s, from furniture and glass design to buildings completed posthumously. Works from Scandinavia, Europe, and the United States are represented. A chronological list of Aalto's major works and an index of their locations complete the volume.



About the Author
Göran Schildt is the world foremost authority on Alvar Aalto and his longtime close friend and biographer. He is the author of Rizzoli's three-volume biography-- Alvar Aalto: The Early Years, The Decisive Years, and The Mature Years-- as well as Alvar Aalto: The Complete Catalogue of Architecture, Design, and Art.



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One of the masters of modern architecture, Finland's Alvar Aalto was a prolific and influential architect and a gifted designer. Included in this significant addition to Universe's acclaimed architecture series are thirty Aalto projects, both built and unbuilt, including the Villa Mairea, the Town Hall at Saynatsalo, and the Baker Dormitory at MIT, along with furniture, sculpture, and lighting designs. Selected and analyzed by Aalto's official biographer, these works are profusely illustrated with color photography, drawings, and plans. Alvar Aalto: Master Works is published on the occasion of the centenary of Aalto's birth and a major exhibition at New York's Museum of Modern Art (Feb.-May 1998).


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