ABSTRACT
Structure, context, material, program, technique are the fundamental ideas that have guided the intellectual and material development of Viljo Revell's works and projects, from the first sketches to the final completion of the work. His first work was under construction while completing his master's thesis in architecture. In collaboration with the engineering Paavo Simula, the Glass Palace in Helsinki was developed in 1936 and became a seminal work of his early production with the use of a reinforced concrete structure. From 1942 he worked actively for the development of standardisation at the war reconstruction office of the Finnish Association of Architects and in his housing design work developing the idea of flexible standardisation, as Alvar Aalto recalled. An idea that was able to generate great buildings and a valuable culture of the site specific. The head office of the Confederation of Finnish Industries in Helsinki 1948-53 represents a symbol of the Finnish industry and whose structural design was the work of engineers Magnus Malmberg and Väinö J. Hintikka. Concrete structure and the use of aluminium became also characteristic of the Kudeneule factory built in Hanko, 1953-55 again in collaboration with engineer Paavo Simula. In Tapiola, Revell's housing projects developed industrial prefabrication by standardisation, even of individual building components and building processes combining rational architecture, new construction technology and efficient industrial production.
