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Logic of the image

Juhani Pallasmaa

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Juhani Pallasmaa Juhani Pallasmaa Architects, Tehtaankatu 13 B 28,

00140 Helsinki, Finland

In this the Centennial Year of Alvar Aalto’s birth a plethora of events and writings have
emanated from sources independent of his origins. Juhani Pallasmaa has lived and worked
in the cultural ambience of a world Ž gure in a small country. In reviewing the inheri-
tance of any architect who in his early career prompted a semi-ofŽ cial meeting of the
Finnish Architects’ Association to ‘stop the daredevil before he could cause irreparable
harm to the reputation of the esteemed profession’ and now is held in such awe that
sober critical evaluation has become seriously compromised, he provides fresh insight into
Aalto’s ‘synthetic and inclusive architecture’ as landscape, as typology, as tactile experi-
ence, as rational structure, as episodic sequence, as ‘haptic experience’.

The centenary of the birth of Alvar Aalto has
already produced a spate of exhibitions, publica-
tions1 and seminars, both in Finland and abroad.
In his home country, this adoration of Aalto has
reached surprising heights. In addition to having
his portrait and a picture of Finlandia Hall on the
50 mark banknote as far back as 1986, a commem-
orative 100 mark silver coin has been minted, and
a theatrical play has been produced on the master
architect, depicting the time when, as a young
reckless rebel in the early 1930s, he was working
on the Paimio Sanatorium.2 More popular products
of this veneration are the special bottling and
labelling of Aalto’s favourite Orvieto wines in the
state wine stores, and a comic book of Alvar’s
colourful youth in the provincial town of Jyväskylä
in Central Finland. All this certainly implies an unex-
pected position in the national consciousness for
an artistic radical who even in mid-career named
his motorboat ‘Nemo Propheta in Patria’.
At the same time as the idea of a ‘Lex Aalto’
has been proposed in order to protect all of his
immense oeuvre, his iconic Finlandia Hall has shed
its Carrara marble façades, revealing an embar-
rassing yellow coat of mineral wool. This sad sight
will continue for another year to be the most
visible evidence of a technical mistake by the
prophet,3 as well as of the negative side of his
adoration. Aalto’s marble plates – quarried from
‘Michelangelo’s quarry’, as he used to boast –
hardly withstood the hardships of Nordic climate
for two decades before bending to a visually
disturbing and structurally alarming degree. After
endless farcical polemics and repeatedly contradic-
tory decisions by the various municipal and histor-
ical preservation authorities concerned, the decision
was Žnally reached to replace the façades with
exactly similar marble plates, knowing full well that
the same disaster will inevitably recur within the
next 15 years. Although the decision to allot some

© 1998 The Journal of Architecture 1360± 2365

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60 million Finnish marks every 15–20 years to main-
tain the translucent natural whiteness of the
building is an expression of singular public respect
for an architect and his work, Finlandia Hall will
unavoidably become a serious political argument
against contemporary architecture. With his excep-
tionally pragmatic attitude and willingness to make
alterations and improvisations, Aalto would
certainly not have hesitated to replace Italian
marble with a more durable material, but not one
of the numerous authorities and experts involved
had the courage to take this decision. Has the
admiration for Alvar Aalto reached such a point
that it will eventually turn against his own cause?
Another problem has arisen in consequence of
this uncritical esteem: the essential distinction has
not been made between a great Aalto building and
a poor one. Distinguishing between the master-
pieces and run-of-the-mill products of a genius is
more important for a sane artistic culture than blind
adoration. Considering Aalto’s immense production
(during his 55 years of professional practice he is
estimated to have designed and executed about
500 buildings and urban projects, and the Alvar
Aalto Archive contains roughly 200 000 drawings
and 20 000 letters), it is self-evident that his tens of
masterworks are balanced by hundreds of less excit-
ing projects. This is the human side of any genius.
Alvar Aalto’s synthetic and inclusive architecture
both invites and resists interpretation. His use of
historical references, idiosyncratic typologies and
geometric complexities, the abundance of formal
themes, lighting solutions, detail elaborations,
improvisations and whims, as well as his interplay
between context, site and nature, provide ample
ground for analysis and interpretation. But even
after all the learned scrutiny, his masterpieces seem
to maintain their secret and poetic freshness. A
simultaneous openness to interpretation and inex-
haustible layering of content and meaning is of
course the inherent quality of any great work of
art. The abundance of themes and associations in
Aalto’s architecture appears to be fused through
his creative process into chemical compounds that
do not expose their true origins. At Žrst sight his
best buildings appear relaxed and effortless, often
almost matter of fact, but slowly they begin to hint
at layered meanings and mysteries. They do not
reveal their subtleties through photographs; Aalto’s
buildings have to be experienced live, and encoun-
tered with one’s body in the actuality of their
context, scale and materiality. Irrespective of the
number of visits or the intensity of study, they
appear fresh and untouched. Of all the works of
the acknowledged masters of modern and contem-
porary architecture, Aalto’s remain unquestionably
the most enigmatic. This secrecy and thematic
fusion of Aalto’s promises a challenge and inspira-
tion to successive generations of designers and
scholars way into the twenty-Žrst century.
The enigmatic and idiosyncratic nature of Aalto’s
architecture has misled many of his critics, as well
as his admirers, to regard his work as subjective
and irrational. Aalto started off as a rationalist, and
he continued ‘to deepen rationality by expanding
it into the psychological sphere’, to use his own
words. It is precisely this subtlety of Aalto’s reason,
and his intuitive understanding of the role of
images in our architectural experience, that can
provide the most important lessons for today.
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The architecture of Alvar Aalto is a product of Figure 1. Alvar Aalto’s

guiding image: the
earth; his buildings echo the soil and the terrain.
synthetic landscape of an
Gaston Bachelard divides forms into two cate- Italian hill town. Andrea
gories: products of ‘formal imagination’ and Mantegna: Christ in the
‘material imagination’.4 Aalto’s forms are images of Vineyard, 1460. National
matter rather than visual constructions or the Gallery, London. (En
contact avec Alvar Aalto,
assemblages of a geometrician. Already in 1924,
Alvar Aalto Museum,
at the age of 26, he revealed his artistic credo in Jyväskylä, 1992)
an article written immediately after his honeymoon
in Italy. He praises Andrea Mantegna’s fresco ‘Christ Figure 2. House as an
in the Vineyard’ in the baptistery of Santa Maria image of a hill town. Alvar
Aalto, Maison Carré
del Eremitani in Padua (Fig. 1):
(House for Louis Carré),
Bazoches-sur-Guyonne,
‘It contains something that could be called France, 1956–59.
synthetic landscape painting. It is an architect’s (photograph by Heikki
drawing of a landscape . . . Furthermore, it is a Havas, Museum of Finnish
Architecture)
splendid analysis of terrain . . . For me, the rising,
stepped town has become a religion, illness,
madness, if you like. The hill town, that curved and
vivid line moving in unexpected dimensions,
unknown to the mathematician, is for me the incar-
nation . . . of religious beauty.’5

It is clear that throughout his life Aalto sought to

create a synthetic landscape, a manmade micro-
cosm in accordance with Mantegna’s painting; his
buildings and urban ensembles are architectural
still-lifes, complete images of the world. Concerning
this idea of architecture as an image of the world,
a Paradise, the mature Aalto said in 1957:
‘Even architecture contains a hidden thought . . .
the aspiration to create Paradise. It is the sole
purpose of our buildings. Every building, every
product of the art of building . . . tends to express
our desire to build an earthly Paradise for human
beings.’6
In his architecture, Aalto fuses together the
terrain and the building by means of mediating
terraces and zones of vegetation (House for Louis
Carré, Fig. 2), the proŽle of the building echoing
the topography of the site (the curved roofscape
of the Riola Church repeating the contour of the
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Figure 3. Architecture of nearby mountains, Fig. 3); by creating an image of

earth: building as an echo
a mountain or gigantic rock formation (House of
of the site. Alvar Aalto,
Riola Church, Italy,
Culture, Helsinki; Church of the Three Crosses,
1966–80. (photograph by Vuoksenniska, Fig. 4; Opera House, Essen), a hori-
Markku Komenen) zontal base stratum (the pediment volume of
Finlandia Hall in relation to the crowning volume
Figure 4. Architecture as
and the planned row of ‘Venetian’ buildings along
the image of a mountain,
Alvar Aalto, Church of the
the shore of the bay), or projecting a contrast to
Three Crosses, the existing landscape (the tower of Seinäjoki
Vuoksenniska, 1955–58. Church; Neue Vahr Apartment Building, Bremen;
(photograph by Rauno the enclosed Pompeian courtyard of his summer
Träskelin)
house in the uninhabited Finnish lake landscape).
Figure 5. Image of a
He aspires to create a ‘hill town’ even on at
Tuscan hill town. Alvar ground, as in the artiŽcially raised courtyard of the
Aalto, Säynätsalo Town Säynätsalo Town Hall (Fig. 5) or the terraced hill of
Hall, 1948–53. (Museum the Town Hall, and the elevated courtyard of the
of Finnish Architecture)
Church at Seinäjoki (Fig. 6). These are devices for
creating a welcome variety to a completely at
landscape as well as introducing an authoritative
experience of being approached uphill. Even in
dense urban situations Aalto creates an image of
an elevated terrain, as in the skylit court of the Iron
House in Helsinki or the roof courtyard of the
Cultural Centre in Wolfsburg. The Villa Mairea is
perhaps Aalto’s richest and Žnest architectural
miniature, 7 which fuses the vertical staccato of
pines, the clearing cut into the forest with its minia-
turised landscaping, and the house itself into a
singular image of Paradise. The house is a collage
of images gleaned from modernist, timeless vernac-
ular and traditional Japanese architecture.8
The master’s buildings do not comply with stan-
dard categories of architectural typology; Aalto
created his own collection of idiosyncratic types
(library, concert hall, theatre, urban ofŽce block,
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industrial plant, residential building), which all Figure 6. Architecture of

geology and temporal
resonate with a wealth of images from architec-
duration. Alvar Aalto, Civic
tural history. Certain formal themes, such as the Centre, Seinäjoki
fan motif, the head-and-tail theme, the sunken 1958–57. 1 Church and
oor pit and skylights, are used across the cate- parish centre, 2 City hall,
gories of type. In fact, throughout an active career 3 library, 4 theatre, 5
administration centre. The
that lasted more than half a century, Aalto devised
church and the city hall
a continuously expanding collection of strategies, incorporate artiŽcial hill
responses, solutions, forms, materials, details and formations constructed on
even colour schemes, which he applied in endless completely at ground.
variations with the help of his devoted assistants, Each individual building
reects a speciŽc
sometimes as an uninspired ofŽce routine, but
morphology as if
always recognisable as his hand. constructed by different
Aalto’s surfaces tend to read as woven instead architects through time.
of assembled or stacked surfaces, and their coher- (drawing by Jari Frondelius
ence appears stronger in consequence (Fig. 7). The and Peter B. MacKeith)

notion of a weave also implies layering, depth and

Figure 7. Wall as a
tactility. This effect of inner coherence is further weave. Alvar Aalto, Finnish
strengthened by his characteristic use of a distinct pavilion, New York World’s
Žgural outline, proŽle or boundary, that gives rise Fair, 1938–39. (photo by
to the reading of a singular gestalt instead of an Ezra Stoller, Museum of
Finnish Architecture)
additive surface.
The use of the technique of collage facilitate s
the combination of disparate elements and images
into Aalto’s characteristically painterly works. This
reading of layered time and tactile intimacy is
further strengthened by the lack of any singular
system of coordinates or reference that would tie
the parts into a single system or order. His designs,
surface patterns and textures frequently set out to
suggest a systematic modular order, but any
reading following the course of simple causality or
linear logic is invariably interrupted and confused.
The reality of imagery plays against the rational
consideration of function and structure.
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Figure 8. An image of The settings of modern architecture usually

Mediterranean ruins in the
appear to originate in a single moment of time,
Finnish lake landscape.
Alvar Aalto, Experimental
and consequently they evoke an image of attened
house, Muuratsalo, temporality. Modernity, in fact, aspired to an
1952–53. (photograph by expression of timeless present and youth. Because
Rauno Träskelin) of this exclusion of the temporal element, the
revenge of time has usually hit modernist buildings
disastrously. Conversely, Alvar Aalto’s mature archi-
tecture, after his fervent but short engagement
with functionalism, reects the presence, depth
and density of time. In addition to the echoes of
the history of architecture frequently induced by
his buildings, the geological and biomorphic asso-
ciations evoke experiences of duration and conti-
nuity. Aalto’s buildings sit comfortably in the
continuum of culture. The Civic Centre of Seinäjoki,
for instance, seems to be composed of individual
buildings designed by architects from different eras surfaces. The brick collage of the courtyard in his
and stylistic persuasions. The elements of his Summer House at Muuratsalo suggests that the
conglomerate images suggest separate origins and entire structure is built on the remains of a past
histories, whereas the materials and details speak civilisation (Fig. 8). The ruin motif was of course a
of the labour of caressing skilled hands as they favoured image of the romantics of the eighteenth
present a tactile invitation and a sense of intimacy. century, and its re-emergence in our time is
The experience of temporal depth is reinforced certainly motivated as a reaction to the attening
by a number of design choices, such as variations of the temporal experience in contemporary tech-
in architectural typology, material, shape, texture nological environments.
and colour. A distinctive device of Aalto’s to capture The architectural entities used by Aalto are the
the sense of time is his repeated use of the ruin result of numerous interacting physical processes
image.9 He utilises images of ruins to evoke a rather than of abstract thought. He also combines
melancholic experience of the past, and of the elements deriving from both industrial and craft
inevitability of erosion and decay. His images of processes, and thus fuses together two historical
ruins extend from the explicit imagery of the modes of production. Although he does not use
amphitheatres of antiquity to ‘eroded’ corners of conventional tectonic logic or syntax, his architec-
lattices and grids, and the occasional white patches ture evokes the labour and skill of making. The
of marble or plaster against dominant brick overall ambiance of his architecture is relaxed and
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spontaneous; we are not impressed by the creator’s Figure 9. Wall as the skin
of an architectural
willpower and formal control, but delighted by a
creature. Alvar Aalto,
sense of open-endedness, sanguine sensuality and House of Culture, Helsinki,
spontaneous discovery. This open-endedness also 1952–58. (photograph by
creates a sense of aesthetic tolerance, which Rauno Träskelin)
enables alterations, additions and the incorporation
of objects of different visual persuasion. Aalto’s
furniture and other design products are rare exam-
ples of modern aesthetics that also appeal to
popular taste.
Instead of appearing as assembled planes, Aalto’s
façades are skin-like surfaces that wrap themselves
around their volumes (in fact, many of his buildings
appear to have a single continuous façade circum-
scribing the entire volume) enhancing an organic
cohesion and animistic feeling. The buildings of his
mature period are always some kind of architectural
creature instead of abstract compositions. The idea
of an architectural creature provides an organising
and ordering device, which allows entirely different
imageries than the use of Euclidian geometry (Fig.
9). The creature-image eliminates the idea of sym-
metry by implying a decisive difference between the tion, structural reality and surface treatment allows
back and the stomach, left and right, inside and him great freedom in moulding his spaces in accor-
outside. It also facilitates imageries of physiognomy, dance with a desired functional conŽguration or
gaze, invitation, protection and movement. The experiential effect, instead of following an
architectural creature often turns into the image of abstracted notion of order. Aalto’s architecture
an instrument or device, as in his innumerable vari- represents a sensory realism as opposed to concep-
ations of the skylight (the section of the North tual idealism. As Demetri Porphyrios showed in his
Jutland Art Museum, for instance). seminal study,10 Aalto exploits differences rather
Usually Aalto’s buildings have a very rational than similarities. This acceptance of difference leads
structural system, but instead of a repetitious to different conŽgurations rather than an aspira-
modular system his structure is locally articulated tion for unity through similarity (the crescendo fan
and varied, like the skeleton and bone structure of of the auditoria in the Cultural Centre at Wolfsburg
an animal. The independence of spatial conŽgura- being an obvious example).
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Figure 10. Architecture of Another signiŽcant organisational strategy differ-

tactility. Alvar Aalto,
entiating him from the main line of modernism is
Armchair 45, 1946–47.
Artek. (Alvar Aalto
his manner of composing a building of separate
Furniture, Museum of episodes, scenes or acts, such as the presentation
Finnish Architecture, of the building through its silhouette, the inviting
Finnish Society of Crafts gesture of an entrance view or entry court, the
and Design, Artek, 1984)
lobby space with an ambiance of welcome and
cosiness, the heightening effect of the main stair-
case, and the memorable image of fulŽlment in
the main spaces. His buildings consist of distinct
parts in the same way as a piece of music is
composed of parts, or a play of acts. In each of
his buildings one can almost identify the views or
sequences that Aalto was most interested in and
detailed personally, in contrast to the bulk of the
building worked out by his assistants on the basis consequence of the hegemony of the eye over the
of ofŽce precedents. Many of his buildings reveal other sensory realms, architecture has turned into
the joints of these architectural episodes, as well the artform of an instant visual image. The expe-
as the backs where all the formally unresolved rience of the cold distance of vision is strength-
aspects are hidden (the back façade of the House ened by a general tendency towards uniformity (of
of Culture is a revealing example of this hidden oor levels, materials, textures, lighting) causing
side). sensory detachment. Buildings have lost their
Modernist architecture has generally aspired to opacity and depth, weight and authority, mystery
clarity, transparency and weightlessness. Aalto’s and shadow. It is curious that the technologically
entrances are always understated, almost hidden; most advanced buildings of our time, such as
his buildings are dominated by solid surfaces and hospitals, airports, international hotels and other
closed volumes instead of transparent planes; and structures of transition, are among the most purely
his structures and details are frequently surprisingly visual and, at the same time, sensorially most
bulky (balanced, however, by skilfully placed strokes depriving settings.
of elegance). Alongside the dominant retinal architecture, an
Modern consciousness and sensory balance have aspiration for a haptic architecture is emerging.
gradually developed towards an unrivalled domi- Contrary to the main line of modernism, Alvar
nance of the sense of vision. This thought- Aalto is a precursor of this haptic orientation. The
provoking development has been recently observed culture of speed and rapid exchange favours an
and analysed by a number of philosophers.11 In architecture of the eye, whereas haptic architecture

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promotes slowness; it is appreciated and compre-
hended gradually, detail by detail, like images of
the body and the skin. The haptic sensibility
suppresses the dominance of the visual image
through enhancing plasticity, tactility and intimacy.
An unconscious element of touch is unavoidably
concealed even in the sense of vision; as we look
so the eye touches the object. This hidden tactile
experience determines the sensual quality of the
object, and mediates messages of invitation or
rejection, home or hostility.
Aalto’s architecture is a convincing and stimu-
lating example of tactile architecture; a pleasurable
haptic experience is effectively evoked by his use
of materials, shapes, and textures (Fig. 10). He
acknowledges that we confront architecture
through our entire bodily and sensory existence,
not solely through the judgement of the eye; his
architecture does not reject Eros. Even his light
evokes experiences of materiality and tactility as it
caresses a rounded reecting surface or bounces
off a textured surface. Criticising the narrow
modernist view of rationality, Aalto analyses the
unpleasant sensory characteristics of tubular steel
furniture, and emphasises the importance of the
senses of hearing and touch:
‘A piece of furniture that forms a part of a person’s
daily habitat should not cause excessive glare from
light reection; ditto, it should not be disadvanta-
geous in terms of sound, sound absorption, etc. A
piece that comes into the most intimate contact
with man, as a chair does, shouldn’t be constructed
of materials that are excessively good conductors
of heat.’ 12
297
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Figure 11. Architecture of
weak image. Alvar Aalto,
Villa Mairea, Noormarkku,
1938–39. (photograph by
Rauno Träskelin, courtesy
Mairea Foundation)
An interest in tactile qualities appears to be natu-
rally accompanied by a concern for acoustic qual-
ities, whereas visuality tends to result in aggressive
acoustic properties. Acoustic experience is a form
of tactile encounter.
Opposing the modernist tendency towards
Žnality, Aalto’s architecture frequently projects
images of incompleteness. His episodic architecture
suppresses the dominance of a singular visual
image. This is an architecture that is not dictated
by a single conceptual idea down to the last detail,
but grows through separate architectural scenes,
episodes and inventions. The whole is held together
by the constancy of an emotional atmosphere, an
architectural key as it were, instead of an intellec-
tualised concept.
Our culture is a culture of power and domina-
tion. Referring to a way of philosophising that does
not aspire to totalise the multitude of human
discourses into a single system, Gianni Vattimo
introduces the notions of ‘weak ontology’ and
‘fragile thought’.13 Likewise, we can speak of a
‘weak’ or ‘fragile’ architecture, or perhaps more
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precisely of an architecture of ‘weak image’, as
opposed to the prevailing architecture of ‘strong
image’. Whereas the architecture of strong image
aspires to impress and control through the
authority of singular image and the logically consis-
tent articulation of form, the architecture of weak
image is contextual and responsive, and aims at a
distinct atmosphere instead of the coherence of
form (Fig. 11). The latter is concerned with real
sensory interaction over idealisation and concep-
tual manifestations.
The architecture of the traditional Japanese gar-
den, with its multitude of local themes intertwining
with nature, as well as the remarkably subtle archi-
tecture of Dimitris Pikionis in the landscape of the
Acropolis, are examples of exquisite architecture
without a singular gestalt or structure. Alvar Aalto
transformed this architecture of landscape and
nature into the constructed world of architecture.
This is an architecture that obscures the categories
of foreground and background, object and context,
and evokes a liberated sense of natural duration.
Aalto’s philosophy of compliance aspires to fulŽll
the human reconciliatory task of the art of archi-
tecture.
Notes and references
1. Among the numerous currently circulating
exhibitions on Aalto’s city planning, architec-
ture, design and paintings, the most signiŽcant
are: Alvar Aalto: Between Humanism and
Materialism, The Museum of Modern Art, New
York; Alvar Aalto in Seven Buildings, Museum
of Finnish Architecture, Helsinki; Alvar Aalto:
Urban Visions, Museum of Finnish Architecture,
Helsinki; Alvar Aalto – Points of Contact, Alvar
Aalto Museum, Jyväskylä; Alvar Aalto and Red
Brick – space, form, texture, Alvar Aalto
Museum, Jyväskylä; Alvar Aalto – the Artist,
Amos Anderson Museum and Alvar Aalto
Foundation, Helsinki.
The many recent publications on Aalto include:
Peter Reed (ed.), Alvar Aalto: Between
Humanism and Materialism (New York,
Museum of Modern Art, 1998); Timo Tuomi,
Kristiina Paatero and Eija Rauske (eds), Alvar
Aalto in Seven Buildings (Helsinki, Museum of
Finnish Architecture, 1998); Maija Holma,
Markku Lahti, Alvar Aalto: A Gentler Structure
for Life (Helsinki, Rakennustieto Oy, 1998);
Louna Lahti, Alvar Aalto, Ex Intimo – aikalaisten
silmin (Alvar Aalto, Ex Intimo – through the
eyes of his contemporaries) (Jyväskylä, Ateena
Kustannus Oy, 1997); Göran Schildt (ed.), Näin
puhui Alvar Aalto (So Spoke Alvar Aalto)
(Helsinki, Otava, 1997).
2. At the time the Sanatorium was under
construction, the Finnish Architects’ Associa-
tion even held semi-ofŽcial meetings to discuss
how to stop this daredevil before he could
cause irreparable harm to the reputation of the
esteemed profession.
3. In Aalto’s defence, it is only fair to state that
he initially speciŽed a marble plate twice the
thickness of the one eventually chosen by the
municipality in order to reduce building costs.
Moreover, a number of buildings around the
world, contemporaneous with Finlandia Hall,
have suffered from the same problems.

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4. Gaston Bachelard, Water and Dreams (Dallas,
TX, The Pegasus Foundation, 1983).
5. Alvar Aalto, presumably a manuscript for a
book on the art of towns that he was plan-
ning to write, published in Schildt (ed.), Näin
puhui Alvar Aalto, p. 49 (translation Juhani
Pallasmaa).
6. Alvar Aalto, lecture given at a meeting of the
Society of South-Swedish Master Builders in
Malmö, 1957. Published in Schildt (ed.), Näin
puhui Alvar Aalto, p. 215 (translation Juhani
Pallasmaa).
7. For a full description of the Villa Mairea, see:
Juhani Pallasmaa (ed.), Alvar Aalto: Villa Mairea
(Helsinki, Mairea Foundation and Alvar Aalto
Foundation, 1998).
8. In addition to the inuential books of Tetsuro
Yosida and Bruno Taut, published in the mid-
1930s, the primary source for Aalto’s Japanese
motifs was undoubtedly the Zui-Ki-Tei (the
House of the Promising Light) teahouse built
in the garden of the Ethnographic Museum in
Stockholm in 1935.
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9. One of the Žrst critics to comment on Aalto’s
use of the ruin motif was George Baird in his
book Alvar Aalto (London, 1970, Thames &
Hudson), pp. 11–14.
10. Demetri Porphyrios, Sources of Modern
Eclecticism: Studies on Alvar Aalto (London,
Academy Editions, 1983).
11. For instance, David Michael Levin (ed.),
Modernity and the Hegemony of Vision (Berkeley
and Los Angeles, University of California Press,
CA, 1993), and Martin Jay, Downcast Eyes – The
Denigration of Vision in Twentieth-Century
French Thought (Berkeley and Los Angeles,
University of California Press, 1994).
12. Alvar Aalto, ‘Rationalismen och människan’
(Rationalism and Man), lecture given at the
annual meeting of the Swedish Society of Crafts
and Design, 9 May 1935. Quoted in Juhani
Pallasmaa (ed.), Alvar Aalto Furniture (Helsinki,
Museum of Finnish Architecture, 1984), p. 116.
13. Gianni Vattimo, The End of Modernity
(Baltimore, The John Hopkins University Press,
1991).