ALVAR AALTO THROUGH THE EYES OF SHIGERU BAN

Alvar Aalto is universally acknowledged as one of the most importantfigures of twentieth century architecture. His career overlapped bothchronologically and ideologically with those of Le Corbusier and Mies vander Rohe, but his commitment to a humanitarian ideal, inspired by nature,set him apart from his purist Modernist contemporaries. The environmentalconcerns of the twenty-first century mean that Aalto's legacies have becomeever more apparent. One of the successors to Aalto's ideologies is theJapanese architect Shigeru Ban, who has worked extensively with renewableresources, such as paper and cardboard, and whose aesthetic openly echoesthat of the Finnish master. In conjunction with a Barbican exhibition ofthe same name, "Alvar Aalto: Through the Eyes of Shigeru Ban", pays homageto one of the pioneers of contemporary architecture, looking at his workingprocesses and models, and at the way his work has positioned itselfglobally. This book is essential reading for architects, designers andanyone interested in the origins of contemporary architecture and culture.