Alvar Aalto and Michelangelo: The emergence of synthesis in urban design

Abstract

This article draws compositional analogies and unearth aesthetic influences and similarities between the Piazza del Campidoglio (1537) in Rome, designed by Michelangelo, and the Civic Square in Seinajoki (1956), designed by Alvar Aalto; and between the steps of the Piazza di Spagna (1721) in Rome, designed by Francesco de Sanctis and Alessandro Specchi and the amphitheatre of the North Jutland Art Museum (1958) in Aalborg in Northern Denmark, also designed by Aalto. The analysis is based on the journal analogies of the works and in the belief that Aalto's design work is linked to a methodology of ‘synthesis’ in opposition to the ‘analytical’ trend, which characterized rationalist architectural movements, including the Renaissance and the Modern Movement. The purpose of this article is to establish associations which may be either conscious or unconscious, and may not constitute direct relationship, but from which one can create an exercise in critical analysis that is of use to the debate on urban design.