i became so immersed in contemplating all the possible disasters which might happen in V&A that i almost missed the film. i had to leave freshly cooked dinner on the stove (uneaten) and hurry to the cinema. also, i had to skip going the whole route slow by tram and to take faster underground. at one point i became somewhat doubtful if i switched the stove off before leaving, but i was rather convinced i did so. so, i proceeded without going back to verify. and my second thought was, "Hopefully, (even if i did forget to switch it off) the film will be worth of burning the house (i live in)!" i came 5 min late, but to my surprise, ppl were still standing in a long line waiting for the ticket check. and when i got inside of the "Big Hall" i was still waiting until all the ppl will enter inside and screening will finally start. this fresh new film (released in September 2020) was a real blockbuster!...
https://letterboxd.com/film/aalto-archi ... -emotions/
1/ intro speech was a general overview of the "organic architecture" (Alvar Aalto and Frank Lloyd Wright being mentioned as its main representatives). however, wiki entry of the "organic architecture" doesn't mention AA and the AA entry doesn't mention "organicism" (Early career: nordic classicism, functionalism; Mid career: experimentation; Mature career: monumentalism).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organic_architecture
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alvar_Aalto
"Mid career: experimentation" is however...
characterized by irregular curved forms
so, ultimately there is some reconciliation between intro speech and wiki.
2/ from intro speech (3 chairs demonstrating the influence of AA — 1st and 3rd by Marcel Breuer, heir of the Bauhaus esthetics; 2nd by AA)...
2.1/ "Wassily Chair", designed by MB in 1925-1926 (in line of Bauhaus and functionalism, AA used this MB chair in his own house)...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wassily_Chair
2.2/ "Paimio Chair", designed by AA in 1931–1932 (a mild organic antidote to excessive rationality of functionalism)...
https://www.moma.org/collection/works/92879
2.3/ "Isokon Long Chair", designed by MB in 1935-1936 (MB swallowing the AA antidote)...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isokon_Long_Chair
3/ randomly from the film or from recollection about the film (without chronology or context connection)...
3.1/ early AA established close relations with the representatives of the "international style" and "functionalism" (especially with Laszlo Moholy-Nagy and with theoretician Siegfried Giedion, CIAM's secretary-general)...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internati ... hitecture)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congr%C3% ... re_Moderne
however, his version of the international style had nordic flavor (nordic classicism) and his functionalism had organic curves (organicism).
he was a man of ambivalence.
3.2/ he worked in close proximity with his first wife Aino and and second wife Elissa...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aino_Aalto
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elissa_Aalto
both of them were architects and AA was proly incapable of having a non-architect wife. his approach to marriage was somewhat unorthodox. despite being devoted to his wife/wives (in film quoted Aino's and Alvar's correspondence) he had extramarital affairs and urged his wife/wives to do the same (if i understood right). after his first wife died of cancer, he somewhat shaped his second wife in the image of the first (he urged Elissa to change hairdo in Aino style).
3.3/ prior to this film, i had no clue he worked in a team with his wife/wives. it was/is not an unusual occurrence that a husband-architect took/takes all (or most of) the credit for their close collaboration (having a common arch studio), f.e.
1991 Pritzker Prize laureate is Robert Venturi (without his wife, architect Denise Scott Brown)...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denise_Scott_Brown
2012 laureate is Wang Shu (without his wife, architect Lu Wenyu)...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lu_Wenyu
3.4/ first firm manufacturing his furniture was "Finmar" (mostly shipping goods to London and destroyed during WW2 by bombing), second was "Artek"...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artek_(company)
3.5/ few times featured time-lapse shots of various plants from "Secrets of Nature" (British Pathé).
3.6/ dry lunaria displayed in a vase...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunaria_annua
3.7/ being asked what module he uses for his buildings, AA responded, "1 millimeter" (module of the "molecular level", module of "organicism"). as opposed to Le Corbusier's "Modulor" and other concepts of module suitable for industrial prefabrication...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modulor
3.8/ noteworthy buildings (limited selection, my AA poll)...
Paimio Sanatorium
https://archeyes.com/paimio-sanatorium-alvar-aalto/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paimio_Sanatorium
Muuratsalo Experimental House (an experiment in building a house without foundation)
https://www.archdaily.com/214209/ad-cla ... lvar-aalto
MIT Baker House Dormitory
https://www.archdaily.com/61752/ad-clas ... lvar-aalto
3.9/ despite his early involvement (in 1920s-1930s) with avantgarde and modernism, in 1960s perceived (especially by youngsters in his native Finland) as a conservative element (a dinosaur). his response to this criticism was bitterness, seclusion, immersion in work and alcohol.
3.10/ AA designed several churches. during the display of one of them, there was a lady comparing her perception of the building with maxims of the "theology of doubt". it was very appealing to my non-foundationalist views, but searching for details after the film with no avail (there are some results, but none relevant to what was being expounded in the film as "theology of doubt").
3.11/ in 1920s-1930s smooth curvy organic shapes could serve as an antidote to inhuman formalism of machinism and funkcionalism. but in due course of time even the industrial manufacture of smooth curvy shapes became reality. smooth curvy "blobitecture", "parametric architecture" or "3d printed houses" display the same degree of inhuman formalism as the piles of funkcionalist orthogonal cubes of the past...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blobitecture
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parametric_design
so, what are gonna be the shapes of 21st century which will give the human/organic touch feeling when organic shapes are (seems like) lost for this purpose (being industrially 3d printable)? can praying to "crucifix fish" (sail catfish skull) be of any help in this regard (to get the answer or hint)?
4/ when i returned home, the house was not in flames and the dinner was still somewhat warm = THE HAPPY END!