ABSTRACT
Some eleven years younger thanLeCorbusier,
Alvar Aalto belonged to the second genera-
tion of architects in the International Modern
movement, the architecture dominant in the
twentieth century in much the same way
that baroque was dominant in the seven-
teenth. To it Aalto brought an informality
and sensitivity, deriving ultimately from the
crudely charming but usable vernacular of his
country, that most commentators would
agree had previously been lacking. Partly
because he eschewed theorizing and polem-
ics, and partly because of the enormous
variety of his invention over a period of
more than fifty years, he qualifies more than
any other as the architect’s architect, among
both his contemporaries and his successors.
