Birkhauser Alvar Aalto: Das Gesamtwerk / L'oeuvre complète / The Complete Work Band 1: Band 1: 1922-1962

Alvar Aalto, born 1898 in Kuortane in Finland, is one of the last of the works personalities of the twentieth century architecture generation. His buildings, from urban planning to simple residential buildings, function as a single organism. He was never interested in formal architectural theories. The path of each building is fascinating, from the first fleeting sketches to the completed work handed over to the client, and strongly defined by the personality of the architect. Everything remains alive and in motion, seems casual and natural as if it grew naturally out of the surroundings. The unique sense for the importance of individual components and construction phases makes it possible to identify a complex of individual style, even in modest construction tasks. Hence, Aalto's designs and experiments result in furniture, lamps, curtains, and many other things that make a house habitable. The central theme of his work is the unity of idea, form, and way of life.