From Säynätsalo Town Hall to Finlandia Hall: Alvar Aalto’s Space of Humanism

From Säynätsalo Town Hall to Finlandia Hall: Alvar Aalto’s Space of Humanism

One typical aspect of his humanism is his regionalism. (Schildt and Aalto 1998, 8-9) Combining modern method of dealing with the space and Finnish local condition and culture, he managed to develop a humanist solution which satisfied local residents both functionally and spiritually.

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Here I would like to take two of his works that were finished in different period of his career and discuss how he blended the idea of humanism into his work and how he developed humanist solution throughout his career.

One example is the Town Hall located in Säynätsalo, a small city in central Finland. [Fig.1] This building was designed during a competition in 1949 and completed in 1951. Primarily the building intended to be a municipal office. While Aalto transformed it into a complex which included residential and commercial space apart from municipality. (Schildt and Aalto 1998, 74-81)

The other example is the Finlandia Hall built in Helsinki during 1967 to 1971 which was about 20 years later after the completion of Säynätsalo Town Hall. …

The largest compound was subdivided as well. According to certain function of the space, the compound was divided into three main areas which were either separated by walls or linked by small entrances. This manipulation at the same time ensured that users would be movable mostly inside certain functional area without distracted by other unrelated space.

The central courtyard and three main functional areas While for the Finlandia Hall, since it is more of a monumental architecture, it was unavoidable that the hall was built into one single large building rather tha……………………………