Project author credential

• Student Name: Filippo Barbato
• Student ID: 418965

Alvar Aalto

Hugo Alvar Henrik Aalto (3 February 1898 – 11 May 1976) was a Finnish architect and designer.

Career in art design

Like many other of the generation in the nordic country, Alvar Aalto started off from a classical education before moving, in the late 1920s, towards Modernism. During the first period of activity he completed his firsts public buildings. Aalto also entered several architectural competitions for prestigious state public buildings, both in Finland and abroad. Furthermore, this was the period when Aalto was most prolific in his writings, with articles for professional journals and newspapers.
In 1932 he achieved world attention in architecture; the "Finnish Pavillion" was defined by Frank Lloyd Wright as a "work of genius". In the same time he started to have join architecture with all-day life. Infact he designed the "Aalto glasees".

Design

"Building art is a synthesis of life in materialised form. We should try to bring in under the same hat not a splintered way of thinking, but all in harmony together."

Alvar Aalto studied with Armas Lindgren, one of the leaders of the Finnish Romanticism. Early in his career Aalto seems to be, from the ideological point of view, a classicist.
From 1930's, after his rational period, the idea of ​​architecture has been extended to technical and psychological themes. This represented an evolution of Aalto's thinking about architecture e signed himself. The Aalto style is a constant reference to the tradition of his own country, Finland. The building and the furnitures were not an lonely structures in space but were parts of space around. All must be "armony".

"Nothing is as dangerous in architecture as dealing with separated problems. If we split life into separated problems we split the possibilities to make good building art."

"We should concentrate our work not only to a separated housing problem but housing involved in our daily work and all the other functions of the city."

His activity was really extensive and range from furnitures design and object in glass to architecture and painting. Also in small objects, as a spoon, the work of Aalto was characterized by recurrent architectural detail: the sign of "wave" , which is called in Finnish "aalto" as his surname.

Project

I chosen for my final project three of the Alvar Aalto furnitures. These represent the start of evolution about psychological inspiration of the author and define the importance of the "aalto wave", the most famous detail of Alvar Aalto in all over the worlds.

Savoy vase

In 1936 Alvar Aalto designed this his first furniture. This represent the starting line up of psychological evolution of Aalto's thinking and the born of his wave.

var vasoup1 = genNUBS(points1); // curve=[0] nubs=[1]

function genNUBS (controlPoints){
    var domain = INTERVALS(1)(32)
    var knots = generateKnot(controlPoints)
    var nubs = NUBS(S0)(2)(knots)(controlPoints)
    var curve = MAP(nubs)(domain)
    return [curve,nubs]
    }

function generateKnot(controlPoints){
    lun = controlPoints.length + 2 + 1;
    var nodeSeq = [];
    nodeSeq[0] = 0;
    nodeSeq[1] = 0;
    nodeSeq[2] = 0;
      for (i = 3; i <= lun - 4 ; i++) {
        nodeSeq[i] = i-2;
      };
    nodeSeq[lun-1] = i-2
    nodeSeq[lun-2] = i-2
    nodeSeq[lun-3] = i-2
      return nodeSeq
  } 

Paimio chair

In 1936 Alvar Aalto continued to design furnitures with his idea of waves. The Paimio chair was designed as a part of the Paimio hospital in Finland.

var bez_curve = function(controlpoints){
      return BEZIER(S0)(controlpoints);}

var bez_sup = function(curves){
      return MAP(BEZIER(S1)(curves))(dom2D);}

Tea Trolley

Introduced in 1936 at the Paris World's Fair, the charming Tea Trolley features Alvar Aalto's innovative side frames made of molded laminated birch, hand-made wicker basket and a tile top that is available in black or white. Aalto designed this cart for residential use. He placed it in the living room of the Villa Mairea (1937-1939). It is based on an earlier serving cart designed for the Paimio Sanitorium (1933).

var steering = function(r,h){
  var d1 = circle(r,0);
  var d2 = circle(r,h);
  var tubo = MAP(BEZIER(S1)([d1,d2]))(domain);
  var cop1 = DISK([r])([36,1]);
  return STRUCT([tubo, cop1, T([2])([h])(cop1)]);

};

var wheel = function(r,h,d,color){

  var d1 = COLOR(color)(DISK([r])([36,1]));
  var c1 = COLOR(color)(CYL_SURFACE([r,d])([36,1]));
  var c2 = COLOR([0,0,0])(T([2])([d])(CYL_SURFACE([r,h])([36,1]))); //black, ever
  var c3 = T([2])([h+d])(c1);
  var d2 = T([2])([h+2*d])(d1);
  return STRUCT([c1,c2,c3,d1,d2]);
};

var grid = function(maxx,maxz,axis,n){
  if (axis === 2){
    var p1 = POLYLINE([[0,0,0], [maxx,0,0]]);
    var griglia = REPLICA(n)([p1, T([axis])([maxz/(n-1)])]);
  } else if (axis === 0){
    var p1 = POLYLINE([[0,0,0], [0,0,maxz]]);
    var griglia = REPLICA(n)([p1, T([axis])([maxx/(n-1)])]);
  }

  return STRUCT(griglia);
};

Inspiration

Some artists, architects and designers take as inspiration Alvar Aalto futuristic art. One of the most important example of this inspiration is the GamFratesi chariot work. Chariot is a side table composed of three simple elements: wheels, trays and structure.

var herm_sup = function(curves){
  return MAP(CUBIC_HERMITE(S1)(curves))(dom2D);
};