2.5 On the Relationship between Sven Markelius and Alvar Aalto
S
ven Markelius and Alvar Aalto met in 1926 and soon became family friends.^412
Markelius and Aalto engaged in a close exchange of ideas up until the early
1930s. Both modernists’ interests extended to the design of objects, buildings,
urban planning and influencing public opinion through the media.
With a grant from Kammarkollegiet (The Swedish Legal, Financial and Administra-
tive Services Agency), Markelius went on a six-week European tour in summer 1927 to
study new airports. On this trip, he also met Gropius and visited the new Bauhaus school
and Törten housing estate in Dessau, both designed by Gropius. Markelius also visited
the Weissenhof Siedlung exhibition in Stuttgart that summer.^413 On his return, Marke-
lius wrote a piece in Byggmästaren (The Master Builder) about the Dessau-Törten housing
estate, which he admired greatly and in the project management of which Gropius had
applied Ford’s conveyor belt method.^414 Markelius suggested that a more systematic
method of housing construction could bring savings and improve the quality of housing
also in Sweden.^415 In Markelius’ opinion, the main obstacle for serial housing production
in Sweden was prejudice against standardisation.^416 The developers of the Dessau-Törten
housing estate had open-mindedly applied typological thinking^417 and the building
process had been carefully planned beforehand.^418 Local materials were used whenever
possible, which considerably reduced transport costs.^419 All parts had been designed to
be light enough for one man to lift. Work had been divided into stages, each of which
was carried out by the same worker throughout the site. A group of eight houses had
been built simultaneously, after which a team moved on to the next stage.^420 Markelius’
social responsibility shows in the detail in which he analysed the low building costs at
Dessau-Törten and how these low costs benefited the consumer.^421
The following spring he had the honour of delivering a paper at Turun Seurahuone
Hotel during the meeting of the Finnish Association of Architects in Turku.^422 His article
“Rationalisointipyrkimykset nykyaikaisessa huoneenrakennustaiteessa” (Rationalisation in
Modern Building Construction) was published in Arkkitehti (The Finnish Architectural
412 Schildt 1985, pp. 46–54.
413 Rudberg 1989a, pp. 48–50.
414 Markelius 1927, p. 242.
415 Markelius 1927, p. 236.
416 Ibidem, p. 238.
417 Since most people have similar needs, it is only natural that these are treated en masse. Building individually was
a waste of resources and a misplaced emphasis on the personal. Ibidem, p. 236.
418 Ibidem, p. 238.
419 Ibidem, p. 238 and p. 242.
420 Ibidem, p. 242.
421 Markelius 1927, 243; See also Wager 2009, p. 66.
422 Raija-Liisa Heinonen and David Pearson interviewed Hilding Ekelund, who joined Arkkitehti in 1930 as sub-editor.
Ekelund argued that it was particularly this paper by Markelius that marked the breakthrough of "Functionalism"
in Finland. Heinonen 1986, p. 13.