13 Stories about Humane Design

Name: Archinfo
Price range: $

There are steps to the right of the black and white image. Behind the stairs is a doorway where two women have their backs turned to the camera.

Gustaf Welin / Alvar Aalto Foundation

The Alvar Aalto Museum’s exhibition tells 13 stories about Alvar Aalto’s design and human-centred thinking.

The exhibition tells stories about architecture. The Alvar Aalto Museum has invited writer Sanna Puutonen to empathise with Alvar Aalto’s buildings via the experiences of their users: the result is thirteen fictional stories. The stories are snapshots that bring the buildings to life. They add a human layer to the architecture, the main character in and around the built space can be someone settling into a house, sensing its atmospheres or, for instance, watching the play of light on the surfaces of its different materials.

The 13 sites of the series include key symbolic buildings and places of everyday work and creativity. The exhibition stages an intriguing dialogue between Aalto’s designs and fictional users’ experiences. The stories offer an insight into the architect’s way of thinking. The exhibition seeks new approaches to architecture – and, above all, it views Aalto’s buildings from a humane perspective.

Read more about the exhibition via this link.