Alvar Aalto

Alvar Aalto is universally acknowledged as one of the most important figures of twentieth century architecture. His career overlapped both chronologically and ideologically with those of Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe, but his commitment to a humanitarian ideal, inspired by nature, set him apart from his purist Modernist contemporaries. The environmental concerns of the twenty-first century mean that Aalto's legacies have become ever more apparent. One of the successors to Aalto's ideologies is the Japanese architect Shigeru Ban, who has worked extensively with renewable resources, such as paper and cardboard, and whose aesthetic openly echoes that of the Finnish master. In conjunction with a Barbican exhibition of the same name, Alvar Aalto: Through the Eyes of Shigeru Ban, pays homage to one of the pioneers of contemporary architecture, looking at his working processes and models, and at the way his work has positioned itself globally. This book is essential reading for architects, designers and anyone interested in the origins of contemporary architecture and culture.