The fourth Alvar Aalto Researchers’ Network Seminar was held online and in Pori, Finland, on May 6th and 7th with the theme Ever(green) Alvar Aalto. The two-day seminar brought together around thirty researchers in the field from different parts of the world.
Postdoctoral Research Fellow Rosana Rubio and Associate Professor Fernando Nieto, together with Carmen Toribio from the Technical University of Madrid (UPM), took part in the seminar with the presentation ‘Et in Arcadia Ego: The Ruin Metaphor in Alvar Aalto’s Work as a Driver for Cultural Sustainability’, which analyses the influence of the Finnish Master’s legacy in the present-day concept of cultural sustainability from the study of the ruin metaphor in Alvar Aalto’s work.
The paper was presented online and will be part of the book (Ever)green Alvar Aalto, which includes the investigations presented in the seminar from the viewpoints of ‘Sustainability’, ‘Reflections’ and ‘Restoration/Reuse’. The book will be published in both online and printed versions shortly.
The exemplary standards set by Alvar Aalto’s architecture, his contribution to the ideologies and values of 20th-century modernism, and the global significance of Aalto’s buildings, town plans and designs – as well as the urgent demand to dramatically diminish the environmental impact of construction – make it imperative to analyse, question and redefine architectural sustainability from pragmatic, theoretical, metaphorical, as well as cultural viewpoints.
The Alvar Aalto Researchers’ Network is an international collaboration that serves as a channel for discussion and cooperation between people doing research on Alvar Aalto.
(excerpt from the seminar’s call for papers)