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Article: East meets north: Alvar Aalto's endlessly inventive career is seen through the eyes of Japanese architect Shigeru Ban in a major new exhibition at London's Barbican.
- Article from:
- The Architectural Review
- Article date:
- April 1, 2007
- Author:
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'We should be agreed', urged Alvar Aalto in 1935, 'upon the fact that objects that properly can be given the label rational often suffer from a noticeable lack of human qualities.' It is this aspect of the great Finn--the humanist who rebelled against the Neue Sachlichkeit and the International Style--that Shigeru Ban and his colleagues have decided to emphasise in the Aalto/Ban exhibition at the Barbican Art Gallery, London. (1)
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At first, the decision to ask Ban to interpret Aalto seems odd. But the Japanese paper and cardboard maestro has long admired the European architect's endless inventiveness and virtuosity with materials. ...