Alvar Aalto : Baker House Dormitory

Aerial View
Exterior View


The site is located on a heavily-trafficked street along the Charles River. In order to avoid as much as possible the disturbing view out onto this street, a curving plan form was chosen. By this means, no room was oriented at right angles to the street and its traffic. It is well known how much more tranquil it is to look, for example, from a diagonal line of sight out of the windows of a moving train at the passing landscape. An attempt to make use of this phenomenon was made with the form of the building: the windows face diagonally to the passing automobiles and thus afford a quieter environment for the person within the room. The stairway system is housed in a paneled structure rising up the north side of the building which allows an unobstructed view along its entire length from the lowest landing.

Karl Fleig, ed. Alvar Aalto. Scarsdale, N.Y.: Wittenborn and Company, 1963. p134.

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