Espacio y recorrido en Alvar Aalto

Resumen

This doctoral thesis commences, as any other research would, from an intuition that becomes a hypothesis and, therefore, a vehicle that governs the development of an entire argument. In this case, the initial intuitions are rooted in a trip to the Nordic countries, in the summer of 2004, when I first visited some of the works of the Finnish architect Alvar Aalto. As a consequence of this trip, I began to investigate his architecture and the empirical experience soon gave way to an intellectual approach to the plans and documents which were created to produce part of his architectural legacy. Those early physical and intellectual approaches served me to begin to sense that one of the basic aspects of his architecture is the manner in which the users¿ itinerary is created, controlled and regulated. The strategic disposition of the bodies in their respective groupings respond, on many occasions, to arrangements that mark and improve the itineraries towards and through them. In the same way, the winding and generous hallways, and the layout and ergonomic stairways have as an aim to model, as if one were dealing with a soft material, the movement of the users passing through the spaces, "caressing" all those elements and materials of which they are articulated, such as paving, railings and door handles. One moves and is guided in a natural way between the different buildings that they comprise, for example, the university complexes in Otaniemi and Jyväskylä. In both of these we find lobbies that cross the ground floor and enhance the movement not only within the interior but also between the outer areas defined by their own volumes. It is also easy to see the importance of the circulation areas in the definition of the interior spaces of public buildings, such as the Aalborg Museum or the Essen Opera House. The reception areas and movement zones terminate, structuring themselves to the point where they compete in surface area with that of museum use and representation, respectively. This first hypothesis gives rise immediately to a second conjecture, also relevant. If the itinerary is a key theme in his architecture, is there any formal structure or organization that enhances these routes? And is it possible to find any repeated order or provision which, together with the itineraries, establishes an ¿Aaltian¿ way? Although the answer does not imply the existence of a general and absolute solution, it does invite an analysis of the projects in an attempt to underline what remains and persists beyond that of particular assignments. From that point of view, it is not difficult to realize that when we move through Aalto¿s constructions we usually do so around a central space, covered or uncovered, in relation to which our movements are tangentially generated as well as the different volumes that comprise it. This type of order, often formalized through the archetype of the courtyard or hall, leads to the provision of a central floor and its transgression as a repeated typological strategy. Seen in this way, Aalto¿s architecture, for instance the central courtyard of the Finnish Pavilion at the 1937 Paris Exhibition, the courtyard of the Säynätsalo Town Hall, the living rooms of the Hansaviertal apartment block, or the stage of the Essen Opera House, regardless of their size and use, is understood through the same order which recognizes a centre as a spatial and compositional hinge; a hinge which, by the way , also serves as a reference for moving around and displacing ourselves in general in a perimetral and encircling way.