Aalto, Alvar << AHL taw, AHL vahr >> (1898-1976), was a Finnish architect, town planner, and furniture designer. He gained fame for buildings that imaginatively combine modern design principles with traditional materials, especially wood. Aalto often used flowing, wavy forms that marked a strong departure from the strict geometric lines favored by other modern architects.
Aalto designed his first two major works in the late 1920’s. They were a tuberculosis sanitarium in Paimio, Finland, near Turku, and a municipal library in Viipuri, Finland (now Vyborg, in Russia). He designed birchwood tables and chairs for these projects that made him famous as a furniture designer. His other buildings include a number of civic, university, and apartment buildings. The Hall of Residence (1947-1949), at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with its curved facade, is one of his most distinguished buildings in North America. The Aalto Theater, an opera house he designed in Essen, Germany, opened in 1988, after his death.
Aalto’s projects as a town planner include a town center in Seinajoki, Finland, that was completed in 1966. The center features a series of small wedge-shaped buildings, largely made of wood. Aalto was born on Feb. 3, 1898, in Kuortane, near Vaasa. He died on May 11, 1976.
