2.2 The Sphere of Avant-Gardist Influences
A
lvar Aalto and Aino Marsio-Aalto’s family and office moved from Jyväskylä
to Turku in 1927. At that time, Turku was a dynamic, cultured city where peo-
ple experienced and interpreted the new modern in many different ways.^301
Renja Suominen-Kokkonen has described the architect couple’s relocation as an
intellectual journey into the sphere of genuinely significant avant-gardist architects.^302
Aalto had already earlier become friends with the Turku-based colleague Erik
Bryggman, who had engaged himself in the architectural discourse of Germany
and France and accumulated a collection of topical publications.^303 Bryggman
visited the Weissenhof Exhibition, which was part of the Die Wohnung Exhi-
bition, organised by the German Werkbund together with the City of Stuttgart,
and familiarised himself with Bauhaus together with architect Ilmari Ahonen in
1928.^304 The programme of Deutscher Werkbund and Hermann Muthesius had
become familiar for Finns through Heinrich Tessenow’s book from 1916, Hausbau
und Dergleichen (House Building and Such Things). Erik Bryggman was one of the
conductors and interpreters of Tessenow’s ideas. In the 1920s, Finnish professionals
also absorbed ideas from Italy, and German influences were not adopted directly as
such.^305 Aalto’s library also included several international publications, such as Bau
und Wohnung (Building and Dwelling), the exhibition catalogue of the Weissen-
hof Siedlung exhibition;^306 Innenräume (Interiors), which introduced the interiors,
furniture and light fittings featured in the exhibition; and the German-language
edition of Le Corbusier’s Vers une Architecture, Der kommende Baukunst. Aalto
probably acquired the latter publication in 1926 after having been introduced to
Le Corbusier’s ideas through Sven Markelius.^307 Further evidence supporting this
timing is Aalto’s article “Porraskiveltä arkihuoneeseen” (From the Stairway to the
Living Room), which was published in Aitta (Granary) magazine in 1926 and
shows clear influences adopted from Le Corbusier.^308
301 See e.g. Mäkikalli and Grägg 2004, pp. 8–9.
302 Suominen-Kokkonen 2004, pp. 84–106.
303 Soiri-Snellman 2010, p. 63 and p. 68.
304 Suominen-Kokkonen 2007, pp. 68–69; Heinonen 1978, p. 96.
305 Heinonen 1986, pp. 50–53.
306 Held in 1927, the exhibition featured 31 permanent homes, designed by 17 architects from five different countries.
The designers included Walter Gropius, Hans Scharoun and Peter Behrens as members of the German Werkbund
as well as Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret, J.J. P. Oud and Mart Stam. Joedicke ed. 1992 [1927]; Gold 1997, pp. 53–56.
307 Aalto met Sven Markelius in 1926. Suominen-Kokkonen 2007, p. 68.
308 Aalto 1926; Heinonen 1986, p. 277; See also Schildt 1997a, pp. 50–55, particularly p. 52, and Schildt 1997b, pp.
50–55, particularly p. 52.