Chapter 2 | Alvar Aalto's Professional NetworksLe Corbusier drew parallels between biological living and architecture, saying that
focus could be directed to the architectural side, by which he meant human action
within the static frame. Towards the end of the article, Le Corbusier developed the
idea of houses supported on columns, resolving the problem of traffic in cities, and
also incorporating roof gardens. He believed that consistency and thorough actual-
isation of ideas would result in a new architectural attitude. Le Corbusier warned
against opportunism when building minimum apartments.^376
Gropius discussed how architecture should respond to the social change in an
industrialised society. His paper, “Die soziologischen Grundlagen der Minimal-
wohnung für die städtische Bevölkerung” (The Sociological Foundations of the Min-
imum Apartment) made a deep impact on Aalto. The paper was delivered on Gropius’
behalf by Sigfried Giedion.^377 Gropius approached his topic by describing the social
changes taking place in society: employment mainly took place outside the home and
people’s mobility had increased. The family lost its meaning as a unit of production.
The number of small households, those of single or divorced people, increased. This
created a demand for small dwellings.
Responding to changing social conditions and biological needs required the design of
a standardised minimum apartment. Every adult in a household was entitled to their own
room, even if a small one. Gropius was aware of the emancipation of women, which gave
rise to a new need for shared spaces and communality. He thought it ill-advised to cali-
brate the minimum apartment programme based on the most dire of living conditions.^378
Ernst May, who hosted the conference, spoke about the characteristics of and
demand for minimum apartments and called for public investments in the construc-
tion thereof. In May’s opinion, attention should have been directed towards people’s
biological and sociological needs instead of theories. Victor Bourgeois emphasised
the scientific method in architecture, the ventilation and daylight requirements of the
minimum apartment as well as the use of machines in the home and the introduction
of air conditioning units in dwellings. Hans Smidt discussed the minimum apartment
in relation to building regulations.^379
The talks delivered by Le Corbusier in South America in 1929 were published in
1930.^380 The ideas presented in this book, Précisions sur un état présent de l ’architecture
et de l’urbanisme (Precisions on the Present State of Architecture and City Planning),
for example, those on furniture and interiors, reached the awareness of architectural
circles through Le Corbusier’s other activities. The title of the paper he delivered in
376 Ibidem.
377 The English translation of the German-language paper, “Die soziologischen Grundlagen der Minimalwohnung für
die städtische Bevölkerung”(The Sociological Foundations of the Minimum Apartment), was published in Walter
Gropius’ 1955 book The Scope of Total Architecture. I have used both the German version and its English transla-
tion as my sources. See Gropius 1930a, 1930b and 1955a [1929].
378 Gropius 1930a; Gropius 1930b.
379 See the English summaries. Giedion 1930a, pp. 2–16.
380 The book originally appeared in French under the title Précisions sur un état présent de l’architecture et de
l’urbanisme in 1930. It was reprinted in 1960, and the English version Precisions only appeared in 1991. Le
Corbusier, 1991 [1930].