A biography for Alvar Aaltohasn’t been written yet.
“We have almost a city has probably two or three hundred committees. Every committee is dealing with just one problem and has nothing to do with the other problems.”
“Human life is a combination of tragedy and comedy. The shapes and designs that surround us are the music accompanying this tragedy and this comedy.”
“Architecture belongs to culture, not to civilization.”
“Our time is so specialised that we have people who know more and more or less and less.”
“Architecture is not merely national but clearly has local ties in that it is rooted in the earth.”
“The most difficult problems are naturally not involved in the search for forms for contemporary life. It is a question of working our way to forms behind which real human values lie.”
“God created paper for the purpose of drawing architecture on it. Everything else is, at least for me, an abuse of paper.”
“Every one of my buildings begins with an Italian journey.”
“I tell you, it is easier to build a grand opera or a city center than to build a personal house.”
“Nothing is as dangerous in architecture as dealing with separated problems. If we split life into separated problems we split the possibilities to make good building art.”