Mid-Century Architectures: The Alvar Aalto's Maison Carre'
Written by Mark Jennings Thursday, 23 June 2011 09:21
During his long career through the Mid-Century, the Finnish architect and designer Alvar Aalto designed many houses: in Finland as abroad. The most famous one is probably the Maison Carre' in France, close to Paris.
The Maison Carre' was the result of the encounter of the gallerist and art collector Louis Carre' with Alvar Aalto. The house commissioned in 1956 was ready in 1959. Carre' had very specific ideas about his house, as he said: "I wanted a roof, I don't know why, but I absolutely wanted a roof...I had several minor requirements" like "a room surrounded by books (...) Above all I had told Aalto: I want a house where I can work (...) and built with materials that have lived" Aalto realized his wishes.
The concave free-form ceiling, made of Finnish Pine wood, brings the guests from the hall into the diagonal living that starts from the entrance. The fireplace, situated in front of a large window, is the heart of the room.
In the library the space is divided into different levels to obtain a cosy and quite -almost hided-space. On the ground floor of the villa there are the master bedrooms and a guest house.
Aalto particularly cared about lightning -natural and artificial- with large windows and some specifically designed lamps to sustain the natural light and replace it completely in the evenings.
Everything in the house was designed by Aalto or his staff's members -including his wife Elissa who designed many of the textiles- from the swimming pool to the door handles. The furniture are made of different kinds of wood -teak, pine, beech etc.- with and high attention to details: the chairs were covered with leather as the bronze door handles.
Since 1996 the Maison Carre' is an historic monument -owned by the Alvar Aalto en France association- and open for visiting.
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