chiesa di santa maria assunta, riola italy 1966-1994
architect: alvar aalto, 1898-1976
cool beauty from aalto's late period of frozen music. the amazing section of stacked skylights is translated directly into what must be one of the best blind facades in all of modernism.
the doors open directly into the church space, and the church square continues into the main town square where markets are held. everything connects - as it should in what is a surprisingly small village.
construction was only begun shortly before aalto's death and was completed with revisions by his office, led by elissa aalto, in the late seventies. the campanile was added as late as the 1990s.
it is strangely satisfying that alvar aalto, who epitomized the nordic longing for italy and the mediterranean, was allowed to build one of his finest buildings there. that said, contemporary criticism was hostile, an attitude that has lingered. richard weston called it "disastrous" in his 1995 phaidon book.
in hindsight, I can't believe I managed to take a photo without students in it. somehow, there are thirty people in and around this shot.
the alvar aalto album.
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chiesa di santa maria assunta, riola italy 1966-1994
architect: alvar aalto, 1898-1976
there is something almost utzonesque about the church interior with its prefabricated portal frames and its highly principled section, bringing together light, space and construction in a single move. it has been compared to an industrial hall by critics as if that was somehow a negative thing. certainly, detailing is subservient to a degree we are not used to in aalto. it is almost too simple. as a colleague of mine pointed out, you have to look twice to be sure if you are looking at a photo of the model or the finished building.
but its simplicity is deceptive. there is not a single right angle in the plan. corners are acute or obtuse in a pattern carefully orchestrated to dramatize the building as you arrive, pass it along the river, or walk down the aisle. skylights turn out to be not parallel but fan-shaped. the ceiling height drops toward the altar, creating a forced perspective worthy of the baroque. space expands and contracts as you turn around.
I have always had issues with buildings expressing movement. from our point of view, the speed of life, buildings are largely stationary. aalto offers something worthwhile in that regard contained in his famous image of the trout in the stream: his buildings do not express kinetic energy, but rather the energy needed to temporarily stand up in the flux of a chaotic world.
that image does not come with much comfort in riola. so stark and bright is the interior, your first thought will likely be if aalto did not plant a protestant church in catholic italy as so many have suggested. I don't believe it to be the case. this is a cerebral space, an architecture for the thinking man or woman and, I like to think, independent of doctrine or denomination. surprising for a church, perhaps, but not a bad idea on reflection.
it was not well received. at the end of his career, little of aalto's work was. the immensity of his talent held back generations of lesser architects in finland and was probably holding back new solutions to new problems as well. the giant was becoming a dinosaur, with little appreciation among colleagues of the rarity of dinosaurs.
even apparent allies spoke of aalto's 'marble dementia' when describing his final projects, missing as they do the Nordic warmth that had made his name synonymous with humanism in modern architecture. I suspect 'Nordic warmth' may be a contradiction in terms, but more importantly, his detractors failed to understand that the role of the master was never to give us what we wish for.
the alvar aalto album.
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chiesa di santa maria assunta, riola italy 1966-1994
architect: alvar aalto, 1898-1976
the very last photo of aalto's riola church I'll upload. for now. the great, blind facade which is a simple reflection of the section behind it. clearly all you need when your section is that good.
a case could be made that the church does not engage with the town in front of it, and it is true that this is a building very much caught up in the rules of its own formal game. monuments are often like that. think of the domed churches of the Italian renaissance. we take no less pleasure in them for seeking their own perfection first.
when the folding doors open, though, the church space connects in the most informal and direct way with the square in front of it and the town market which is behind me in this photo. I have yet to see them in use, but I imagine that would work very well with the public character of Catholic festivities.
the alvar aalto album.
Tags: aalto alvar alvar aalto architecture architect church facade chiesa di santa maria assunta riola italy italia skylight rooflight light modernism modernist jenskristianseier seier+seier creative commons CC
chiesa di santa maria assunta, riola italy 1966-1994
architect: alvar aalto, 1898-1976
the alvar aalto album.
Tags: aalto alvar alvar aalto architecture architect church facade concrete campanile chiesa di santa maria assunta riola italy italia skylight rooflight light modernism modernist seier+seier creative commons CC
chiesa di santa maria assunta, riola italy 1966-1994
architect: alvar aalto, 1898-1976
the wing like shape on the great roof of aalto's riola church houses a retractable wall that divides the main space into two smaller and more intimate rooms.
or it was meant to. having never seen a photo or even a convincing drawing of it, I have a feeling that it might be empty and that this particular feature of aalto's original design was never completed.
retractable walls housed outside the main building are a recurring component of aalto's architecture, and they are not simply functional but play a stranger and more formal role.
like great buttresses they anchor his houses in the landscape, once again suggesting to me that aalto's use of complex geometry was not meant to signify movement but rather express the energy needed to offer, however briefly, stability and repose in a violent universe.
the casing is clad in copper like the roof and coincides with the double portal frame on the inside.
the alvar aalto album.
Tags: aalto alvar alvar aalto architecture architect church facade concrete campanile chiesa di santa maria assunta riola italy italia skylight rooflight light modernism modernist seier+seier creative commons CC