Alvar Aalto and the Future of Architecture

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In the contemporary practice of architecture, digital design and fabrication are emergent technologies in transforming how architects present a design and form a material strategy that is responsible, equitable, sustainable, resilient, and forward-looking. This book exposes dialogue between history, theory, design, construction, technology, and sensory experience by means of digital simulations that enhance the assessment and values of our material choices. It offers a critical look to the past to inspire the future.

This new edition looks to Alvar Aalto as the primary protagonist for channeling discussions related to these topics. Architects like ALA, Shigeru Ban, 3XN, Peter Zumthor, and others also play the role of contemporary guides in this review. The work of Aalto and selected contemporary architects, along with computer modeling software, showcase the importance of comprehensive design. Organized by the five Ts of contemporary architectural discourse—Typology, Topology, Tectonics, Technic, Thermodynamics—each chapter is used to connect history through Aalto and develop conversations concerning historical and contemporary models, digital simulations, ecological and passive/active material concerns, construction and fabrications, and healthy sensorial environments.

Written for students and academics, this book bridges knowledge from academia into practice and vice versa to help architects become better stewards of the environment, make healthier and more accountable buildings, and find ways to introduce policy to make technology a critical component in thinking about and making architecture.

00 Introduction – Alvar Aalto and the Future of Architecture

01 Topology – Design in light of Place

Situatedness
Location
The Surrounding World
Places and Boundaries (Being-in-the-World)
Grounding and Contouring our View
Position and Orientation
Aalto's Form-System
Enfolding our Surroundings
Topological Parameters

02 Typology – Envelopment(s) of Space

Vernacular Typologies
Extended Typologies
Envelopment(s) of Space and Material
The Cave and Envelopment
Finding Type-Form (The Court, The Hall, and the Interior)
The Courtyard
Compartition
Aalto's Typologies
Orientation and Boundary Typology
Aalto's Typological Elasticity
The 21st Century Building Type

03 Tectonics – Elements and Atmospheres

Architectural Tectonics
Aalto's Tectonic Imaginations and Form Systems
The Agency of Material – Elements
The Agency of Material – Atmospheres
The Agency of Material – Ecology
Wood as a Building Material
Aalto's Embodiment - An Architecture of Ecology
Nature of Elements - The Villa Mairea
Nature of Atmosphere – Jyväskylä University
Nature of Ecology – Muuratsalo
An Ecological Tectonic – Säynätsalo
The Agency of Information - Contemporary Embodiment

04 Technic – Flexibility and the New Standard

Art + Technology | Making + Knowing
Performance-based design, Parametric Design, Algorithmic Design, Generative Design
Alvar Aalto and Standards
Elastic Form Production
The Elastic Plan
Elastic Design and Flexible Fabrication
Material Modular Standards
Natural Standardization
Towards an Ecological Standard

05 Thermodynamic – Health and Instruments of Sensation

Seeing and Feeling
Thermodynamical Systems
Thermodynamic Materialism
The Healthy Body and its Sensory System
The Conditions of Atmosphere
Aalto's Instruments - The Super-Technical Creation
Conditioning the Mind
Aalto's Sensibility – The Phenomena of Light
The Conditions of Building
The Healthy Building and its Sensory System
Neuroscience and the Future of Architecture

• ISBN

  9780367749736

• Title

  Alvar Aalto and the Future of Architecture

• Author

  Robert Cody and Angela Amoia

• Publisher

  Routledge

• Publication year

  2022

• Language

  English