Alvar Aalto's studio, 1954

Spaces may or may not directly influence the creativity or inspiration of an individual. What Alvar Aalto is more concerned with is not 'inspiring' his staff or himself through architecture but "architecture as a form of mediation: between man and nature...and between 'the little man' and the bureaucratic institutions and technologies of a mass society".

As a result, this studio, which was designed in his later years, displayed this interaction between man and nature in the tectonics and composition of the building in relationship to its environment.


An interesting note in the layout is that his own studio space (labeled 1 in the floor plan) was also used as a place for meeting clients and placing models. This perhaps helped break the hierarchy of spaces while still allocating the boss a larger work space.

(An appropriate comparison would be with the Saynatsalo Town Hall completed in 1952 which has a similar spatial configuration. However due to the different nature and scale of the buildings, the proportions of the spaces are very different, and this results in a very different experience. For example, compare the homely, living-room-ish space of Aalto's studio to the grandeur of the main meeting hall; and the informal corridor in the staff studio and the fully glazed, almost theatrical corridor in the town hall.)





More photos can be found on Alvar Aalto's studio and the Saynatsalo Town Hall.

-jonathan