juxtaposition of text and images, which was likely to arouse interest in new architecture
as well as the writer of the article himself – Aalto’s intention was to stand out to his
advantage and win new customers. Aalto masked the article as an interview with a busy
architect of high professional calibre explaining key questions of modern architecture.
Aalto used the dialogue between traditional and new realism as an effect that cre-
ated intriguing tension and symbolised this with the image of scales. In the illustration
used for the article, he likened classical columns to the products of the Machine Age.
Representatives of the new “sober European architecture” included his own design
for the Vyborg Library, Gunnar Asplund’s design for the Stockholm Public Library,
which was under construction at the time, and Erik Bryggman’s Atrium Apartment
Building in Turku. Images of a turbine and the bomber Goliath were borrowed from
Le Corbusier’s work Vers Une Architecture. Aalto included in his illustrations only
examples that he considered to hold merit – his style was provocative, but always
positive. “New realism” represented Zeitgeist and a typology-generating process for
Aalto. He also spoke about "neo-monumentalism" when introducing Bryggman’s
work, although he refrained from explaining the term. He understood architecture as
a process, a dynamic movement. New form required new content.
Structure could also prove to be an architectural challenge that invited the designer
to create a new form, type or concept, even if the building was for a traditional use. In
his view, Modern art, however, was only possible once both the function and social con-
tent are new. The article also contained a moral message: a socially and technologically
progressive environment offered the biggest potential for architecture that expressed
the essence of the period. Aalto understood “industrialism” as cultural change and an
inevitable development path, and expected it to take the position of a harmonious cul-
tural factor. According to Aalto, architecture should be constant with the times. From
a European perspective, Vers Une Architecture was no longer a new publication in 1928,
when Aalto published his own article reflecting on the thoughts and mode of commu-
nication adopted by Le Corbusier, but in Finland, the aspects as discussed by Aalto
were still interesting to the general public.