Martin Strakoš: The Story of Finnish Architecture II

Selection from the program of the Ostrava antiquarian bookshop and the Fiducia club for May 2012

Martin Strakoš: The Story of Finnish Architecture. From Saarinen to Aalto – Part Two

May 29 at 6:00 PM
     
Finnish architect Alvar Aalto (1898–1976) became, even during his lifetime, the most prominent figure in Scandinavian architecture and art. In his work, he realized principles related to the emancipatory and modernization efforts typical of many Finnish architects in the 20th century. He focused not only on architecture and urbanism, but also on design and interior creation. On a global scale, he established himself by designing the Finnish national pavilion at the World’s Fair in Paris in 1937 and the same pavilion at the World’s Fair in New York in 1939. He worked with wood in surprising ways, and similarly to František Žákavec, who presented Dušan Jurkovič as a poet of wood, we could designate Alvar Aalto as a poet of wood, glass, stone, reinforced concrete, metals, and landscape. The lecture will present different phases of Aalto's work and will simultaneously demonstrate different approaches to heritage preservation concerning examples of modern architecture, using specific examples of Aalto's buildings, including his own villa in Helsinki, the adjacent residence of Aalto’s architectural office, his summer house near Jyväskylä, or the community center in Seinäjoki in central Finland.

Martin Strakoš (1972) is engaged in the history and theory of art and architecture and heritage conservation. He is the author of several studies and publications, including texts on architecture from the 1950s and 60s in the catalog "Brussels Dream" (2008). He wrote the book "Guide to the Architecture of Ostrava" (2009). He discussed architecture from the 1930s to 1950s in the book "New Ostrava and Its Satellites" (2010). He presented another perspective on the architecture of Ostrava in the publication "Ostrava Interiors" (2011). He compiled and contributed to the book "White Ship in the Middle of Ostrava" (2011). Together with Romana Rosová, he compiled and wrote the book "Guide to the Architecture of Opava" (2011) and the brochure "The Ostrava Work of Wunibald Deininger" (2011).