An exhibition on my favourite architect Alvar Aalto is currently on at Pitzhanger Manor in Ealing. (In 2011 I made a bit of a pilgrimage to Finland to see his work, such as his studio here and his house here, which you can see in previous posts if you want to find out a bit more about him).
Reason & Intuition: Alvar Aalto & Ola Kolehmainen places Aalto’s creations around the historic rooms of Sir John Soane’s country villa. You think it wouldn’t work– placing Finnish modernism in an 18th century house– but I loved the interaction between old and new. In the breakfast room there is some of his glasswork, including the ‘Savoy’– so-called because Aalto and his wife Aino used it in their interior for the Savoy restaurant in Helsinki– and the Aalto flower, a set of stackable vases designed for the 1939 New York World’s Fair. In the library there is his table and chairs, while the small drawing room has two fascinating films on his home in Helsinki’s Munkkiniemi neighbourhood and his Experimental House (1952-53), on the island of Muuratsalo where he spent his summers.
Upstairs is the best bit; where Aalto’s Paimio chairs, sofa and tea trolley have been clustered in the drawing room. Here you can stop and pause and read a few of the books on the coffee table, just as you would if you were in someones home. His furniture has a sense of calm about it, and I could easily have spent away an afternoon there. There was also a great little film in the bedroom by Finnish artist Elena Nasanen that depicts a young Japanese woman spending a day and night in Helsinki, photographing Alvar Aalto’s buildings. It took me back to my own trip, taking in Finlandia Hall, Stora Enso’s Head Office and Aalto’s own home.
The Ola Kolehmainen part of the exhibition is in the gallery. On show are his photographs, some of Aalto buildings and others of mosques within Istanbul and the Siena Cathedral in Italy. The works are produced using the Diasec process, which means that the environment is reflected in the surface of the photos as well in the images themselves.
Images my own
