Aalto Lighting Design

Aalto always strived to design complete environment for his clients. His goal to design and produce a ‘Gesamtkunstwerk’, is what would eventually lead to his fame, and projects unique to the world of architecture. While it is true that the projects designed early in his career had the least number of standard products, it was the rationalist furniture produced by numerous manufacturers from 1928 on that would make known throughout time and the world, and cement his place in ‘modernism’. To give you an understanding of the type of furniture he was designing in his early neo-Classical phase take a look at works by Gunnar Asplund, and one off pieces by master joiners in the Klismos style. These works by Aalto only survive through drawings and relatively few photo’s.

Around 1928, Aalto adopts International Rationalism sometime in the construction phase of the Turku city theatre, and his original designs, which included friezes and elements which leaned more toward a classist style, changed in favor of rationalism and in some cases functionalism. At this time Aalto had not designed much production line furniture, and none of his designs were under contract of major manufactures such as Artek. His Itaemeri restaurant completed around the same time was evidence of this phase in his career, and employed tubular steel furnishings by Marcel Breuer, and Poul Henningsen lamps (you know the ones they casually used in the Hostel TV room where we couldn’t get reception so we ventured to a burger joint to watch Germany VS. Netherlands!)

The PH lamps by the Danish designer Poul Henningsen are made up of three concave and convex surfaces which function as both shades and reflector simultaneously. Aalto would use fixtures from the PH series manufactured by Louis Poulsen, consistently from the late nineteen twenties to the early thirties, in a number of different settings. Henningsen’s axioms and idioms would influence Aalto’s lighting designs, cementing the idea that fixtures are sources of light not decorative objects in a space. Aalto would from this point in his career forward, think about lighting in terms of; the nature of light, reflection, glare, shadows, illumination, and various materials. Aalto’s drawings from his functionalist period would often show direction, extent, and reflections of light in an attempt to describe the desired quality and effect of his fixtures both electric and natural. Most impressive of these drawings, which we came in close contact with, was that of the drawing display in his Atelier. The day lit display case was well represented in his drawings as it certainly had the desired effect on the works displayed.

Beginning in 1934 with Alvar Aalto’s Viipuri library it became clear that Aalto would pay special attention to fixed furnishings in his public building projects, Along with bookcases, counters, and screens, he would employ physiologically adjusted lamps, which we were lucky enough to see in the library at the National Pensions Institute, and the Nordic haus in Reykjavik. The budget of the National Pensions Institute project in Helsinki, would allow Aalto to add more models, both hanging and floor lamps to his already large number of lighting fixtures being produced by Artek. Upon entering this building it became clear to me that Aalto’s lighting designs coexist seamlessly in perfect integration with the building itself, often expressing the same ideals and forms as his architecture. Its is in the period, that his lighting designs were no longer intended to be individual works of art but rather a part of the overall design, the true ‘Gesamtkunstwerk’.

With the close of the nineteen thirties came a change in Aalto’s attitude towards functionalism, his lighting designs became more playful as his undulating walls became more irregular, he broke the strict geometry of his earlier fixtures, and favored sculptural forms with brass inner reflectors, which cast a warmer light.

Many of his lamp designs have a lower brass grated edging which would help to prevent glare and diffuse light in a soft manner.

After looking at many of his lights it is safe to say that there are three types of lighting techniques that a majority of his fixtures employed; direct light, diffused light, and a combination of direct and diffused using the techniques learned from Poul Henningsen with multiple shading and reflecting surfaces. A good example of the first type is that of the ‘hand grenade’ or the A 110 which we saw in the Saynatsalo Town Hall council chamber, and the Nordic Haus in Reykjavik Iceland.

The A 808 floor lamp and pendant variant A 335 were designed for the National Pensions Institute.

 

The Spiritual Manifestation of the Sublime

The St. Peter’s church by the architect Sigurd Lewerentz portrays a new approach to creating a sacred space that searches for the sublime.  In earlier churches, built by the Roman Catholic church, the use of overpowering scale and decoration held the power to persuade visitors to be in awe at the  greatness of God.  With the advent of the reformation, new ideas held by Martin Luther denounced the corruption and greed that the Catholic church seemed to advocate.  These ideas of the protestant reformation are clearly evident in the St. Mark’s church

The Exterior does not disrupt the landscape surrounding it.  It uses the subtle shifts in geometry to give hints of its existence.  In contrast, the catholic church would have created a cathedral that would have overpowered the landscape itself.  Even the use of the brick material seemed to create a natural camouflage of browns and reds with the surrounding trees and greenery. The brick makes the building humble to its environment.

The contrast of light and shadow are the most important features within the interior.  Instead of buying expensive colored glass and ornamentation to decorate the interior, Lewerentz uses the simple yet powerful element of pure light to create a sense of awe.  The windows seems to be unframed on the interior which gives the effect of the window not being there at all.  This subtle detailing makes the viewer feel as if he or she is actually outdoors when they are in fact indoors.  The darkness also becomes a key factor in creating a personal, quiet space within the interior.  I believe that this is an important quality in relation to the protestant religion.  It signifies a close and personal relationship with God. The darkness and silence gives the believer the chance to meditate internally through prayer to come into contact with the divine.  There is no need of a pope or pastor to become the medium between God and the individual.  This was a radical shift in the religion of Christianity because the Catholic church gained most of its power by acting as the filter between God and humans, and its biggest advertisement was the churches that the Catholics built.  The cathedrals acted almost as a looking glass to catch a glimpse of God.  St. Peter’s Church, eliminated all the false images of God and decorations of angels and focused more on the internal and spiritual experience of the individual.

In conclusion, the St. Peter’s cathedral plays an important role of expressing a couple key points of the Protestant religion with the use of light and materials. Instead of directly emulating the form of jesus and angels, Sigurd Lewerentz was influenced from the modernist way of thinking in terms of abstracting forms to search for deeper meaning and experiences.

 

Ice Bar

Helsinki, Finland

Young being seductive

huge bottle of Aboslut Vodka

Copenhagen, Danmark

ice motorcycle

frozen tip box

ice birdies

Chasen being “asian”

The ice bar in Copenhagen is nicer than the Helsinki one; the space is bigger, the drinks are tastier, the art pieces are cuter, and the ice is colder.

BUT…….

the Helsinki one is cheaper!!!!

 

Sexy Lights in Scandinavia……

Angel light bulb

E.T. finger touching the light

Souvenir from the second largest IKEA (Malmo) in the world

Lights seen in Scandinaiva are like Scandinavian girls,

sexy yet elegant    LOL

 

Differences between the Internet Experience and the Actual Experience of Saynatsalo Town Hall

The main goal of this trip is to sketch. But why sketch? Trough sketching, one can understand a building more comprehensively and thoroughly with drawings like section cuts, plans, and elevations of the building. And all these drawings demonstrate information that photos cannot deliver. With photos, one can only understand a building in perspective views, which often provide people with wrong impressions of the building’s proportion, leading people into thinking that the building maybe longer or taller than it actually is.

One of the assignments for this trip is to research an appointed building through books and internet, then compare the actual experience of the building to the research result. My building is the Saynatsalo Town Hall in Jyvaskyla, Finland.

On the internet, the building is described as a small version of a city plan, with all the main components that a city has, including a council chamber that represents authority, a library, central courtyard, office space, and rooms for visitors. Moreover, the building is situated at the highest point of the city with forest surrounding it. With these descriptions and all the photos I could possibly find online, I thought the building would be huge and awe-struck. However, when I actually visited the building, it seems to be way smaller than my expectation.

When we got off the bus, I could barely recognize the town hall since it is so different from what I expected. The council chamber appeared to be shorter than the internet photos I found online. The central courtyard looks more like a little garden instead of a massive park where people can relax and enjoy. The library is more like a community library than a gigantic, resourceful national library. In addition, the most disappointing part is that from the photos online, I image the grass staircase to be flat and smooth to walk on; nevertheless, in the reality, they look broken and unsafe.

After entering the town hall, the interior space also seemed to be smaller than the images shown on the internet. In the photos, the chamber space appears to be very tall and big, and requires visitors to walk quite a distance to get there. However, I was surprised by how small the chamber is, and how fast I got to the chamber space. After pondering the reason why the building looks so different in reality than to the internet, I realized that in pictures, all the spaces are chopped off from each other; it is pretty hard for one to put all the spaces together and image the route and circulation of the building. Also, most of the photos online were taken with wide angle lenses, meaning that everything would look bigger than it actually is, and since the building is placed on top of a hill, the photos give it an even bigger appearance.

In spite of all the differences I experiences between the actual visit and the internet images, after drawing out the elevations and plan of building, the town hall becomes reasonable according to the spatial quality I experience in person, solving my confusion of trying to figure out whether the internet or my eyes are correct. With elevation drawings, I get a better understanding of the height relationship between each towers and buildings, and the plan shows me the proportion and links of each space.

This experience not only illustrates the differences between actual visit and internet imagination, but also emphasizes the importance of sketching buildings in order to have a better and more comprehensive understanding of the buildings.

 

Hank and Jess walking over to the moutain beside the beach…..

Volcano ash moving towards the mountain…..

Soon after, the sky is covered by volcano ash…..

THE END

 

Back home…

Just wanted to point out a couple of things that I found funny being back home…

1. My phone is finally back in my pocket. After not having a phone for two months, has anyone else notice how they are texting all the time once again?
2. Its 9 pm…why is the sun gone? Usually when the sun is going down, that’s when rage team knows its time to start raging. But in Scandinavia that’s usually around 12.
3. Umm…the weather in New York. A hot day in Scandinavia was about 70 degrees. But here in the east coast of America, its 90.
4. And finally…don’t you hate it when you explain to people what you did in Scandinavia? Sometimes I either feel like I don’t remember what I did or simply there’s just too much to say.

Hope everyone is having a good time back home.

 

How do natives feel when tourists come into buildings that they experience every day? We have been going to pieces of architecture that are significant to us since we are architecture students and sketching and appreciating the spaces. I am sure there are many natures who find it weird since they don’t find the significant having experience the space daily. But some may begin to have a sense of curiosity seeing group of Americans showing so much interest.

At the Stockholm Public Library, many people began to give many looks mostly at Dan and his gigapan. But they started to pay attention to what we were appreciating. Seeing a bunch of tourist (especially Americans) make natives happy because we are appreciating the culture. There were many other tourists that demonstrated the same excitement that we do. The natives maybe interested in why we appreciate their architecture and they may begin to demonstrate an appreciation as well. Many people have asked to see our sketches and have been intrigued by us showing that kind of interest. Tour guides of ours have even acknowledge that we come to document the building and would every tell us to take pictures and sketch the experience.

However, you could also look at it in that people are so used to tourists coming and demonstrating so much interest in these spaces. At the Stockholm Public Library there were the hand full of people who just mind their own business as if they were used to seeing people like us. These people might begin to understand the significance of the building or could be stubborn seeing us just as another group of Americans.

And of course there’s the idea that these natives are uncomfortable of our visit. At times we have disrupted the program of the space and demonstrated a sense of disrespect to those trying to use the space.  At times we have filled the stereotype of being loud Americans such as screaming our heads off when the US scored a goal in the 91^st minute, and at times we have been yelled at by Pablo and Charles for standing in the middle of the bike lane unaware of our surroundings. There is a sense of disrespect by disrupting people’s paths because we sketch sitting in the middle of staircases and hallways. At the national library in Stockholm, there was a sense of disturbance when there’s a group of tourists sketching the space and taking pictures in a private quiet area. Everyone seemed to be looking at us in confusion or frustration. The University Library with the iron structure did not even let us in because they understand the disturbance of our visit. At St. Marks we saw how people reacted as we were sketching the church right before a funeral.

At these different sites, we have received many different reactions. Whether or not these reactions are positive, we need to begin to be aware of our surroundings. It’s great when people interact with us drawing and demonstrate interest to what we are doing but it is important to remember that we are guests and we need to respect the natives who use these buildings.



 

spot the difference

Recently, I realized the peculiar resemblance between Asplund’s Law Court in Gothenburg and Oslo’s Royal Palace.

The prominent locations of both buildings rendered me amazed how one can become so popular amongst the tourist and the other has became so abandoned that they have to turn it into a residential apartments. It made me wonder whether the purpose of a building actually plays an enormous role or perhaps a person can make a building famous.

For instance, if two identical houses are built, one belongs to a famous Hollywood superstar, for instance Johnny Depp, and the other is owned by a wealthy generic businessman. Does the former house become more prominent than the other?

Such instances, if true, also means that architecture has almost no meaning when it goes against fame and popularity of whom it sheltered. Both Asplund’s law courts and the Oslo’s Royal Palace although are set in prominent places, yet are so different in its importance. Can we then say that perhaps architecture is therefore not just about context, design or spatial experiences etc. but in reality it’s probably most about the client’s power?

Now that I think of it, it’s almost very depressing, but luckily Elvis has not yet left the building.

 

Nationalistic Socialism in Norway

After some reading about the place that we’re in right now has given me a statistics overload about Norway, that i really just wanna release somewhere because these numbers seem to contradict my experience in this hostel in the middle of an immigrant ghetto.

Apparently Norway has the 5th highest GDP per capita of any country in the world and the second highest in Europe.  Statistically there is a higher GDP than the USA, Canada, UK, Japan, and Singapore.  The Norwegian Kroner is also much stronger than the euro, dollar and pound.  On paper, the economics of this place seem perfect.  There is government sponsered health care, excellent transit throughout the country, subsidized university education, free admission to museums, and a government who seems to value cutural institutions (their funding of a new $500 million Opera House in the Oslo Harborfront).  For a country of roughly 4.5 million people, or about half the population of New Jersey, there seems to be a great deal of bank being distributed about.

When coming to this place, the realities of nationalism hit.  Oslo is made up of a 27% immigrant population.  Meaning, while the Norwegian born nationals receive benefits galore, the immigrants must front steep taxes while receiving little compensation.  This means the gap between rich an poor, native and immigrant, white and not white, becomes a much wider stretch.  Staggering taxes on food and goods doesn’t help the struggle of the immigrant.

Here I am a migrant, who faces the high cost of living with a more modest exchange rate.  I am not necessarily supporting capitalism, because i know that the US system of immigration in itself is not especially generous.  I am beginning to believe that all existing economic systems are flawed because we live in a time of a world economy, international tourism, global migrations.  Norway’s Government does not have the capacity to provide for such a large number of immigrants so it ignores the problem and provides for it’s citizens.  The US Government has the same problems, but at least they don’t have to give much to their own citizens.   :/