Design as a context for research : the design of a museum of modern art as a vehicle for studying Alvar Aalto's work

Abstract

The premise of this thesis is that there is valuable knowledge embedded in the buildings and related work of an architect that can only be understood in the context of some specific design setting. This thesis is an inquiry into the work of Alvar Aalto conducted through the process of two separate design exercises. The objective of the enquiry is to demonstrate that a reflective and self-critical design process can be a useful tool for extracting design knowledge embedded in Aalto's buildings. The method of this study uses Aalto's work as a critical reference for confronting specific architectural issues and dilemmas raised by the two design exercises. The designs borrow organizational and formal strategies from Aalto's buildings which can be seen to have confronted similar architectural issues. Aalto's work is studied primarily to further each of the designs. Therefore the enquiry of Aalto's work is necessarily topical, limited, biased towards understanding the issues of physical form making since it revolves around specific architectural design issues. The thesis itself is composed of six parts: --Section One introduces the premises for this enquiry. It discusses the kinds of design knowledge embedded in buildings and elaborates on using design as a context for extracting this specific kind of knowledge. --Section Two describes the two design exercises. It introduces the sites in Helsinki and Boston and discusses the pedagogical intention behind conducting two design exercises for this enquiry. It also includes the interpretation of the program of a Museum of Modem Art used in the design exercises. --Section Three presents the specific design of the Helsinki project in plan and section. --Section Four is a collection of some of the general observations on Aalto's work which emerged during the enquiry. These observations are grouped under 12 subjects. --Section Five presents selected examples from both the Helsinki and Boston design exercises to illustrate the design setting of these decisions and their relationship to the parallel enquiry into Aalto's work introduced in section four. --Section Six is a critical reflection on this enquiry. It highlights some of the most important questions raised by this investigation and offers some proposals for how this kind of design research can be continued.