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Aulis Blomstedt (1906-1979)


Aulis Blomstedt: Finnish architect and professor of architecture at the Helsinki University of Technology. He was a renowned modernist architect and architectural theoretician in the decades following the Second World War.

You can watch the full presentations from this link: http://destyy.com/whEtcs



Design characteristics:

The work is sympathetic with the “Nordic Classicism” found throughout Scandinavia architecture during the 1920s.

Austerity and simplicity is not for the simple-minded, who would miss the subtle and poetic realizations in his work. Like that of the classical and Renaissance architects before him.

Much of Blomstedt’s body of work resides in Tapiola. As extension to the Helsinki Finnish Worker’s Institute

His works:

Blomstedt received a classical education in architecture at the Helsinki Institute of Technology

Although he did not design many buildings, Blomstedt had a strong influence on Finnish architecture and is often viewed as the significant counterpoint to Aalto.



Though his work and writings, he aimed to develop an objective theory of architecture that could be verified through practice, with simplicity, austerity, and abstraction becoming the essentials in his designs. In addition to practicing, Blomstedt was a professor at the Helsinki University of Technology, and his influence is seen in the works of his students, Kristian Gullichsen, Juhani Pallasmaa, Erkki Kairamo, and Kirmo Mikkola, among others, that were executed since the 1970s.



He also designed the logo of Finish museum of architecture.

1940s:

Blomstedt was also a theoretician, however, and from the 1940s onward, he focused on clarifying architecture through intellectual s


peculations. Modular and proportional discipline was Blomstedt’s foundation, for he sought to develop a universal system derived from human measurements and dimensional harmony. The crystallization of his research was “Canon 60,” a system of dimensions and proportions in which the principals of mathematical and musical harmony were applied to building. In achieving this, he was able to extend his classical training into contemporary architecture, continuing one of the oldest traditions in Western architecture—using the principles of harmonic proportions— into current practice.

He was editor of the Finnish Architectural Review (Arkkitehti) in 1941–45 and one of the founders and the editor of the magazine Le Carré Bleu in 1958. He was also active in the Finnish CIAM group.



The Postwar period:

In 1942, following the Russo-Finnish War, The Finnish Association of Architects set up a reconstruction office to


address the rebuilding issues facing Finland, as well as relocation problems resulting from the war (120,000 homes were destroyed or abandoned and over 400,000 citizens were resettled from territory ceded to the Soviet Union).

Blomstedt worked on the development of standardized plans and prefabricated building designs with Viljo Revell, Kaj England, Aarne Hytönen, Yrjö Lindegren, Olli Pöyry, and Erkki Koiso-Kanttile. In this environment, Bloms


tedt laid the foundation for the postwar debate on aesthetic principles and social applications of modular industrial systems used for housing complexes. This work also had a powerful influence on the development of Finnish building standards immediately after the war.

1950s:

he developed his prefabricated building system Kenno (cell). In the 1950s he focussed on studying a system of measures based on the human body and the musical harmony of measures. His modular system Canon 60, based on the number 60, was first published in Le Carré Bleu in 1961. In his architecture, Blomstedt emphasized simplicity and clarity.

Aulis Blomstedt established a theoretical basis for discourse concerning the aesthetic principles and social applications of modular systems. During the reconstruction period in the 1940s

Tapiola:



In 1952 Blomstedt joined Aarne Ervi, Viljo Revell, Markus Tavio, and the town planner, Otto-I.Meurman, on the first phase of the plan for Tapiola.

Several of Blomstedt’s best housing projects were designed for Tapiola, including the harmonious group of three chain houses and three apartment blocks on adjacent sides of a street.

With their alternating red brick and white stucco facades, the Ketju terraced row houses have two-story living quarters linked by a variable intermediate section that was designed as reserve space for futur


e uses or needs.

In 1952 Blomstedt joined Aarne Ervi, Viljo Revell, Markus Tavio, and the town planner, Otto-I.Meurman, on the first phase of the plan for Tapiola.

Several of Blomstedt’s best housing projects were designed for Tapiola, including the harmonious group of three chain houses and three apartment blocks on adjacent sides of a street.

The apartment blocks designed for the other side of the street (but were not built) would have reinforce the streetscape, acting as a compositional foil to the row housing. Works in Tapiola include the F


innish Artists Society terraced housing (1955), the Riistapolku housing complex (1957–60), and the Helikko housing complex (1961–62), among many other types of housing projects.

1960s and 1970s:

Professor of Architecture at Helsinki University of Technology in 1958–66

In 1972 he was Visiting Professor at Washington University.

You can watch the full presentations from this link: http://destyy.com/whEtcs



You can read more:

Encyclopedia of 20th centaury architecture, page 334-336.

"Kannonkosken kirkko" (in Finnish). National Board of Antiquities. 22 December 2009. Jump up ^ "Kannonkosken kirkko - Kannonkoski church". Docomomo Suomi Finland ry.

http://www.mfa.fi/architect?apid=3118

http://rndrd.com/?b=125

http://www.kuvio.helsinki.fi/en/reply01b_rela.php?id_kohde=545#!prettyPhoto

https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canon_60_-mittajärjestelmä

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