14 December 2023 to 26 May 2024 | Rome, ITALY.
The exhibition, ‘AALTO – Aino Alvar Elissa. The Human Dimension of Design’ is curated by architecture and research studio Space Caviar, and hosted at the MAXXI National Museum of 21st Century Arts in Rome, Italy. Studio Aalto was founded in Finland in 1923 during a time of rapid change as Finland was establishing itself as a free nation.
The exhibition at MAAXI features eleven of Studio Aalto’s most significant projects, completed from the 1920s to the 1980s. Additionally, five in-depth studies cover the studio’s work with glass, textiles, lighting, children’s furniture and the formation of the company Artek, unlocking the potential of mass production in the furniture industry.
The phrase ‘True architecture only exists when it is centred around human beings’ was central to the work of Alvar Aalto and his first wife architect Aino Marsio. After her passing, it remained central to his work with his second wife, architect Elissa Mäkiniemi.
Photo of Paimio Sanatorium, Finland 1929-1933, by Gustaf Welin. View of the terrace. Courtesy of The Alvar Aalto Foundation. MAXXI
The Jyväskylä Workers’ Club, Finland (1924-1925) was the first major public building designed by the Aalto’s studio.
The library was part of Finland at the time of construction.
The Villa, a symbolic building of 20th-century architecture, is represented at the exhibition by a 1:1 scale reconstruction of the iconic kidney pool.
The house is a summer residence, and its façades are the result of the composition of different types of bricks and ceramics.
The exhibition includes the FPO (For Position Only) project by Ramak Fazel, who was invited by MAXXI to explore the architecture of Aino, Alvar and Elissa Alto with his camera, documenting its impact on the current life of communities. The project involved travelling between Italy, Finland and the United States.
The videogame Hide and Seek in Architecture was created by the Space Caviar studio for the exhibition in collaboration with Meta. The game is an immersive experience in the VR environment of Meta Quest that invites players to hide in the Experimental House in Muuratsalo.
