Dictionary of


Art  &  Artist



 

 Alvar Aalto

 

Aalto Alvar

(b Kuortane, 3 Feb 1898; d Helsinki, 11 May 1976). Finnish architect and designer. His success as an architect lay in the individual nature of his buildings, which were always designed with their surrounding environment in mind and with great attention to their practical demands. He never used forms that were merely aesthetic or conditioned by technical factors but looked to the more permanent models of nature and natural forms. He was not anti-technology but believed that technology could be humanized to become the servant of human beings and the promoter of cultural values. One of his important maxims was that architects have an absolutely clear mission: to humanize mechanical forms.