The Itinerary as a Strategy in Alvar Aalto Analysis of Four Works, 1926-28

Abstract

This article addresses Alvar Aalto’s architecture by considering the itinerary as a fundamental strategy. The attention towards the users’ circulation movement, and the spaces and elements that propitiate it, allows for the analysis of his work from paradigms which are far from what is dislocated, broken and discontinuous; being the usual features that the critics have used to describe his projects. For all this his first years of professional practise are analyzed, specifically the period from 1926 to 1928. During those years, Aalto developed a series of commissions in Jyväskylä, Turku and Viipuri, in which he consolidates a way of structuring the projects based on approximation, entry and mechanisms of internal movement. Beyond the language change that occurs during this period, it is interesting to highlight certain design tools that he will use throughout his entire career.