Hugo Alvar Henrik Aalto (Kuortane, 1898 - Helsinki 1976) was born in the northeastern corner of Europe, where the solitary landscape hails the proximity of the North Pole. But such peripheral origins are not to be taken as marginal: Aalto was born in the right place at the right time, having inherited a revitalized tradition while benefitting from the unflagging efforts of the avant-garde movements. Thus he joined up with revolutionary architecture with enviable ease. Both his times and his cultural context enabled him to progress in that road of renewal, and eventually he came to personify the new architecture. His own professional life spanned the period from the year 1921, when he graduated from the University of Helsinki, to his death in 1976. That is, the central bulk of the 20th century, tempting one on hindsight to affirm that modern architecture was he... [+]