[self-interest] partial conclusions about design patterns

Albertina Lourenci lourenci at lsi.usp.br
Tue Dec 5 20:21:19 UTC 2000


Toby Everett wrote:

> > I feel attracted by the way Alexander reasons, but my real source of
> > inspiration is the Finn architect Alvar Aalto who used words very rarely
> > to explain things. But his work speaks for him. However Alexander
> > insists on things that make me fly.
> In a bizarre coincidence, there's an exhibit on Alvar Aalto at the library
> that I need to go to (it just opened this past weekend).  Juhani Pallasmaa is
> up here and has been making great comments about Anchorage's total lack of
> taste, design, and thought when it comes to architecture.
>

Just great to hear this!  For you to understand me better I quote here
what the critic of architecture Gideon thinks of Aalto. He called attention
to the regional qualities in Alvar Aalto's works, he introduced the discussion
with a few pages on the Finnish landscape and the architectural tradition
of the country. Here we read: "Finland, covered with its network of lakes
and forests, suggests in its structure the days of Creation, when water and
earth were first separated." And, indeed, hardly any other European
country has preserved a stronger sense of its origins.
This sense does not only consist in a love for the local landscape,
but also traditions which relate the natural environment to
human life. The collection of Finnish legends published in
1835 under the name Kalevala, has thus remained the basic
source of inspiration to the artists of the country. Being a poetical
synthesis of of cosmology and mythology, the Kalevala offers
a complete basis for human identification and interaction, also
in the sense that it discloses the regional qualities. No wonder
hence that the Finnish art of the last hundred years has been
distinguished by a singular power and unity. in Roots of
Modern Architecture Christian Norberg Schulz- page 141 ADA EDITA Tokyo
1988
Albertina

> --Toby Everett

--
.----------------------------------------------------------.
| Albertina Lourenci                                       |
| PhD  in Architecture and Urbanism                        |
| post-doctorate researcher                                |
| Laboratory of Integrated Systems University of Sao Paulo |
| Avenida Professor Luciano Gualberto, 158 Travessa 3      |
| CEP: 05508-900                                           |
| Sao Paulo Sao Paulo State Brazil                         |
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| Fax: +55 11 211 4574                                     |
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