Matthew Girling1

Expanding the ‘concept of the ‘rational’’ through a critical study of Alvar Aalto and light

AR546 - Option 2: Technology in the cultural context

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Matthew Girling2

IntroductionIt is the work of Alvar Aalto (1898-1976) that I believe has expanded

the concept of the architect’s programme. By better understanding Aalto’s inventive peculiarities I hope to establish what the, ‘’programme’ has to cover if it is to match adequately, not only the criteria of function and environment, but also the other interlocking codes that together spell out both the private and the subliminal reactions’ (Wilson, 1992, p.90) of the inhabitant.

Colin St John Wilson’s account of Aalto’s architectural deliberation in the publication ‘Architectural Reflections’ (1992) will serve as a theoretical framework for my analysis of Aalto. The synthetic nature of the architect’s programme encourages a qualitative discourse and I hope to exploit the merits of this methodology whilst appreciating its limitations. Using philosophical debates as a resource for exploring Aalto’s attitudes rather than ‘a set of underlying principles from which all else must flow, creating unnecessary obstacles to flexible and creative inquiry... One can, then, understand such debates as conversations stimulating methodological awareness among researchers, rather than laying foundations for truth’ (Seale, 1999, p.26). The theoretical dialogue will be supported with analytical and historical evidence concerning three of Aalto’s buildings, which through their use of light, I believe could reveal Aalto’s rationale.

Organic FunctionalismTo begin I will consider the conventional credo of functionalism

Aalto was reacting to in the early 20th Century. Hugo Häring’s (1882-1958) publication of ‘Wege Zur Form’ (approaches to form) in 1925, introduced the fundamentals of the theory ‘Organwerk’, and first provided the counterpoint to functionalism. Aalto was to attend the second Congrès International d’Architecture Moderne (CIAM) meeting in 1929 but it was the first in La Sarraz, June 1928, that enabled Häring to explain that ‘we want to examine things and allow them to discover their own images. It goes against the grain with us to bestow a form on them from the outside’ (Wilson, 1992, p.168) Le Corbusier on the other hand proposed creating repeatable forms that would conform to the

ideas of flexibility and a generalised purpose (Wilson, 1992). The debate was a collision in the understanding of functionalism advocated by the English Free School of the mid 19th Century. In reference to Aristotle, ‘the virtue of a thing is related to its proper function’ (Wilson, 1992, p.29). However the rationalist conception of function, focused around models of mass-production and industrial technology, ultimately lead to naivety as the buildings specific purpose, cultural and symbolic significance was not included in the ethos. It is the early 20th Century organic functionalists who adopted this philosophy most humanely. The remainder of this apologia will investigate Alvar Aalto’s significance in advancing this rationale.

Fig.5 Gut Garkau (1922-1926). A project exemplifying Häring’s organic principles. It involved a cowshed organised around a courtyard. Häring has responded to his discovery that ‘cows gather around their food in a circle’ (Blundell-Jones, 1999, p.60).

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FrameworkBefore analysing Aalto’s buildings I would like to present and

interpret Colin St John Wilson’s analogy of the ‘programme, as the vehicle through which information and intentions... are to be transmitted’ (Wilson, 1922, p.88). Wilson uses the image of a DNA strand to analogise the nature of the programme. The image of a DNA strand suggests an intertwined unity between two complex chains of information, that together transfer the genetic characteristics in all life.

Strand one The first of these hypothetical strands embodies the conventional,

operational and environmental parameters of the programme, which the conservative functionalist might attempt to solve independently. Aalto was well aware of the dangers in this approach which he vividly allegorised in an anecdote describing his experience as a teacher. This involved his reaction to a student who had ‘attempted to find the overall solution not only through one secondary method but through many’ (Wilson, 1992, p.88). After counting up all the subordinate methods Aalto responded by saying, ‘how would the building and the sick children in it function if a wild lion jumped in through one of the windows’ (Wilson, 1992, p.89)?

Aalto’s derisive lion is emphasising the fact that architecture is not simply an equation that can be balanced by isolating the functions. The student’s mathematical methodology has failed to recognise how architecture is experienced. Martin Heidegger (1889-1976), in his lectures at Freiburg, describes the experience of viewing and understanding a table in the following way, ‘what is there in the room there at home is the table... at which one sits in order to write, have a meal, sew, play. Everyone sees this right away’ (1999, p.69). Heidegger is not viewing the table as an isolated object with a particular size or geometry, rather as an entity connected to human purpose and related to its surroundings. Aalto is yearning for an empathetic element to the student’s methodology as the reductively mechanistic approach emanates no authentic purpose.

Heidegger continues to say that, ‘The side is not the east side, and this narrow side so many cm. shorter than the other, but rather the one at which my wife sits in the evening when she wants to stay up and read’ (1999, p.69). Aalto understood how we experience the world by relating sensations with paradigmatic memories. As early as 1935 Aalto was concerned with ‘the end of the spectrum where the purely human questions resides’ (Wilson, 1992, p.49). What arose was a consistent theme of reconciliation, pointing towards the transcendental world beyond and directing us towards the second strand of our DNA analogy.

Strand twoThis strand is concerned with answering the ‘ambiguous psychological

and cultural demands and those symbols for what Aalto called ‘life’s ungraspable difficult unity’’ (Wilson, 1992, p.89). This strand sorts after the suitable spatial experience by responding to the inhabitants’ behaviour according to the building’s purpose. The, difficult unity, for me is how particular psychological experiences and behaviours unique to each of us can be understood as a universal identity. Following Carl Jung’s (1875-1961) theory of archetypical behaviour we can combine the universal with individual experience. In Jungian psychology an archetype is ‘an inherited mode of functioning’ (Jung, 1953-78, XVIII, para.1228) and is realised through what the psychologists of the late 19th century theorised as association. The combination of ‘similarity’ and ‘contiguity’ allows for a certain mode of behaviour to be universally witnessed across the population. For the architect it is the ‘traditional associations, the ancestral hall of conventional symbols and collective beliefs, the local colour of every cultural region’ (Wilson, 1992, p.90) that are manifested in numerous ways to create the desirable spatial experience. The ‘archaic heritage of humanity’ (Jung, 1953-78, V, para.259) ultimately orientates the structure of the double helix and guides the two strands to combine harmoniously.

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Viipuri Library (1933)The first of Aalto’s buildings I would like to apply the DNA analogy to

is the Viipuri Library. Aalto first determines the purpose of the library in its totality as to ‘eliminate all disturbing elements,’ as ‘reading a book involves both culturally and physically a strange kind of concentration’ (Hawkes, 2008, p.69). This purpose has been induced through the human perspective and has acknowledged both strands of our analogy. The physical demand can be answered by the first, concerned with operational and environmental performance; whilst the cultural concentration corresponds to the psychological and cultural properties of the second. The architecture, ‘whose form is not predetermined by natural law’ (Wilson, 1992, p.30) must now develop a number of innovations in response to the purpose described above.

In the reflective essay, The Trout and the Mountain Stream (1947) Aalto gives us a peek into his methodology:

‘The large number of different demands and sub-problems form an obstacle that is difficult for the architectural concept to break through. In such cases I work - sometimes totally on instincts’ (Wilson, 1992, p.1992).

We can deduce what the meaning of the architectural concept was for Aalto through his conceptual sketch for the Viipuri (Fig.6) of ‘some kind of fantastic mountain landscapes with cliffs lit up by suns in different positions’ (Wilson, 1992, p.34). This sketch had an ‘indirect connection with the architectural conception but they tied together the section and the plan with each other and created a kind of unity of horizontal and vertical structures’ (Wilson, 1992, p.34). However as Richard Western pointed out the ‘sunken reading/stack area clearly derives from the original classical scheme, re-capturing the idea of a space opening out of the sky’ (1995, p.64). Aalto never explicitly declared that he abstracted the landscape into his buildings. Therefore I suggest that the sketch rather than being a source of innovation was an outlet for Aalto to better understand the amalgamated demands of the brief that had been engraved onto his subconscious.

As Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) suggests in his theory of transcendental synthesis we draw knowledge from two sources; namely sensation through intuitions and understanding through conceptualisation. ‘Thoughts without content are empty; intuitions without concepts are blind’ (1996, p.107). This illustrates the synthesis between Kant’s two faculties; sensation and concepts. I would suggest that Aalto is working in the same way. The programme is not seen as a process rather a synthesis of ideas. The resulting architecture therefore inherits the sensation of harmony.

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Fig.6 Viipuri concept sketch of ‘some kind of fantastic mountain landscapes with cliffs lit up by suns in different positions’ (Wilson, 1992, p.34).

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Subsequent architectural innovations are now responding to the collective purpose of the building. To respond to the physical demand of reading Aalto introduced an array of conical roof lights. Theoretically the light arriving from these interventions reach the pages of a book from every angle to avoid reflection and eliminate the shadows that can be cast by the reader (Hawkes, 2008) (Fig.7). Aalto allegedly actuated the roof light’s depth to the angle of 52 degrees at noon during summer (Hawkes, 2008). Interestingly I have discovered that for during the dates 26/05/1933 - 17/07/1933 direct light creeps in. In total 98 hours of direct sunlight enters with the maximum level of uneven light for 2 hours 15 minutes on the 21/06/1933 (Fig.9). After speaking to the staff of the library, and finding that Aalto prevented photographs of the dappled light being published, I would speculate that this was not the intention. In many of his later projects, including the Seinäjoki Library, which will be mentioned later, Aalto allows direct light to enter in a controlled way. Nonetheless, the original benevolent concept of exclusively allowing

reflected light to enter the space has encouraged an affiliation to the surroundings by reproducing the ‘misty veil’ (Weston, 1995, p.67) of the northern sky. In addition ‘the complex stairs and changes of levels repeatedly evoke that feeling of promontory and haven, prospect and refuge, which is a basic experience of landscape.’ (Weston, 1995, p.64) (Fig.8) From the quote opening this chapter on the Viipuri we can see that the most suitable spatial experience for reading, seen by Aalto, is isolation. The latent isolation archetype is actualised in the inhabitant’s psyche through lower spaces of ‘haven’ or ‘refuge’ whose characteristics encourage the feeling of isolation. The local colour of the region is effectively facilitated through the architecture creating the similarity and contiguity we have found to be so important when actualising an archetype.

Having applied both strands of our analogy to the Viipuri, the same will be done for Aalto’s municipal Town Hall in Säynätsalo, Finland.

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Fig.7 Alvar Aalto’s light investigation to determine the roof’s depth.Fig.8 Changes of levels between the reading space and central control desk

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Location - Vyborg, Leningrad Oblast, RussiaLongitude: 60.706 N. Latitude: 28.744 E.Building orientation: 360 Due North

Day: June 21st 1933

Time: 11:00. Azimuth:153. Altitude:50 Time: 12:00. Azimuth:175. Altitude:52 Time: 13:00. Azimuth:198. Altitude:51

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Fig.9 Computer model analysing the dappled light.

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Säynätsalo Town Hall (1947-1952) The next building brings attention to architectural communication.

The manifestation of individual architectural elements combine to create an ‘intense sense of place’ (Weston, 1995, p.132). For Aalto and the other organic functionalists, such as Häring and Hans Scharoun (1893-1972), expressionism was the link to expand the language of architecture.

In response to the first strand of our analogy we witness how Aalto has developed a hierarchy between the different spaces of the Town Hall at Säynätsalo. The council chamber, which is the most significant space applicable to the building’s purpose, is elevated above the administrative and commercial areas (Fig.10). The journey to the council chamber is a progressive detachment from the light outside world, into the dark transcendental operations of debate and language. By sloping the roof of the library, which is located to the south of the courtyard, by 10 degrees Aalto allows the sun’s rays to enter the courtyard at almost all times of the summer day. Even during the winter solstice sunlight enters the opposite administrative wing (Fig.11). The finale transition is achieved by allowing light to enter solely from high windows or concealed lamps (Fig.12).

Location - Säynätsalo, FinlandLongitude: 62.1375 N Latitude: 25.7817 EBuilding orientation: 150 Due North

Day: December 21st 1952Time: 1200 Azimuth: 175. Altitude: 4.

Council

Administration

Commerce Infe

rior

- Su

peri

or

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Fig.10 Photograph showing the hierarchy of the town halls spaces. Fig.11 Computer model analysing how the light enters the administrative wing.Fig.12 Photograph showing the high windows and concealed lamp on the descent to the chamber.

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Once inside the chamber the second strand of our analogy is used to provide the most suitable spatial experience. As the orator ‘transgressing the limits of experience... with the aid of an imagination... to body them forth to sense with a completeness of which nature affords no parallel’ (Kant, 1952, p.177), Aalto too is attempting to focus the experience of the inhabitant on the imagination. He uses ‘darkness [to] strengthen the power of the spoken word’ (Hawkes, 2008, p.80) (Fig.14). The enigmatic quality of the architecture is developed further through a number of architectural artifices which ‘re-creates a mystical & mythological sense of community’ (Hawkes, 2008, p.80).

As Dean Hawkes suggests ‘a crucial part of Aalto’s genius was his ability to transform necessity into poetry.’ (2008, p.79) A conventionally utilitarian beam has been transformed into a more poetic and empathetic element within the council chamber (Fig.13). The beam not only answers the pragmatic desire to allow unrestricted ventilation into the space; but translates the conceptualised forces of gravity into a visual representation. The beam’s supportive nature is exaggerated through its form to mimic the council’s duty to support and hold society together.

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Fig.13 Photograph of the ‘‘Upturned hand’ - Porphyrious’ (Hawkes, 2008, p.79) beams within the council chamber.

Fig.14 Photograph of the sombre ambience within the council chamber.

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Further undertones are found within the materiality. Aalto specifically asked for the brickwork to be laid slightly out of line (Fig.15). This is to express the craftsmanship of bricklaying and avoid any mechanical imagery.

Aalto is ‘permitting the individual elements to have their own space and representation, and therefore identity’ (Wilson, 1992, p.86). In Ludwig Wittgenstein’s, ‘Philosophical Investigations’ (1953) we understand that the meaning of an expression consists of previous knowledge of the expressions use. This knowledge consists of having the ability to follow rules based around the associated tradition of the word’s use; much different from the mathematical imposition of standardised truths. These rules are therefore based on a collective agreement within a community. However as Wittgenstein mentions, ‘It is what human beings say that is true and false; and they agree in the language they use. That is not an agreement in opinions but in form of life’ (1953, 241). The form of life here is the general consensus of shared behaviours and traditions. In the town hall the long archaic history of the beam allows many meanings to be implied through its constitution and form. It is understanding that pretences can be associated with symbols and traditions that allows the perceiver to understand when it is an appropriate and truthful use of an expression.

Finally, the two strands will be applied to another library by Aalto, allowing a comparison between the Viipuri designed thirty years earlier to be made.

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Fig.15 Photograph of the bricks laid slightly out of line to remove mechanical imagery.

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Seinäjoki Library (1960)With the Viipuri we saw how Aalto introduced conical roof lights,

‘mediating the transition of light into the building’ (Weston, 1995, p.128). This was to recall the atmospheric Nordic light. Here Aalto is celebrating the fact that direct light is entering the building, evident from the main photograph used to advertise the interior. The south facade is fitted with a number of immovable louvres. Some light is reflected upwards due to the louvre system and combined with the window to the north create an even daylight distribution within the sunken reading space. According to Sanchez’s ecotect/radiance simulation a uniformity ratio of 0.52 is proven (Sanchez, 2011).

However the system most notably permits dappled light to enter and settle on the ceiling; making it ‘difficult not to read this ceiling as a highly abstracted sky’ (Weston, 1995, p.184) (Fig.16). This is a humanistic abstraction as it is stressing the vagaries of life. It does not envision an unobstructed southern sky nor a misty veil as in the Viipuri but a typical northern sky of shifting clouds and broken sun. It is important to mention that this speckled light does enter the reading area for a short time in the autumn when the sun’s altitude is 37 degrees negating the homogenised light experience (Fig.17). Resemblance to nature appears to have become a more important factor, better answering the first strand of our analogy than the contemporary prosaic attitude to environmental design.

Location - Seinäjoki, FinlandBuilding orientation: 200 Due North

Day: August 21st 1961Time: 1200

Azimuth: 168Altitude: 38

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Fig.16 View of the dappled light entering and abstracting the sky onto the ceiling.Fig.17 Computer model of sunken reading space showing the dappled light effecting the reading area.

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When comparing the two sunken reading spaces there is a notable difference in the shape and organisation. According to Edward T. Hall’s theory of proxemics, published in his ‘The Hidden Dimension’ (1966), the unconscious mind of the inhabitant will be influenced by the cultural expectations of space. At Seinäjoki a sociopetal space is encouraged through the radial shape enabling group discussions to take place when necessary (Fig.18). However if we step down further in scale to the arrangement of the tables, we find that everybody maintains their own intimate space due to the stepped configuration. ‘It is one of the most marked characteristics of Aalto’s work that it so dangerously engages with contradictory elements which it yet manages to control’ (Wilson, 1992, p.90).

By the late 1950s the ideas behind the ‘system theory’ of self-regulation and the imposition of machines onto the world of society and psychology was gaining ground. Within this field it was the Swedish and Dutch attitude of structuralism that believed ‘instead of users being presented with predetermined spatial patterns, they were now-at least in theory-offered the means to alter their own micro-environment and decide their own patterns of behaviour’ (Colquhoun, 2002, p.222).In opposition it could be considered that Aalto is showing signs of conceit as he is considering himself the sole determinate factor of the user’s needs and preferences. Despite this apparent arrogance I would consider the control necessary to sway the inhabitants psychological experience. If we consider the need to change one’s own personal light levels when reading, autonomous artificial lights are present at every table, enabling the wider light quality to be controlled by Aalto’s rectitude of judgement (Fig.19).

Fig.18 Photograph of the radial plan and stepped desk organisation. Plus the individual light at each desk.Fig.19 Photograph of the wider light quality.

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ConclusionIn light of my interpretation and application of Sandy Wilson’s analogy

we have discovered the idiosyncrasies possessed by Alvar Aalto. From the first strand of the DNA analogy we established Aalto’s purposive intentions through reconciliation. The second strand then displayed how universal assumptions, traditions and practices can be manifested peculiar to the architect to actualise the desirable psychological and cultural spatial experience. Using the rules of determinism through deduction and theoretical debate this apologia is ‘not dominated by the factual discourse of science’ (Wilson, 1992, p.58); allowing a free investigation into Aalto’s architectural language which rationally analyses more the desires of the inhabitant.

The Viipuri shone light on Aalto’s ability to become immersed in the programme, prioritising the building’s purpose, to allow a synthesis between the amalgamated demands of the brief and his own creativity to occur. The meditated light from above expressed a relation to the surroundings whilst simultaneously answering the physical demand of reading. At Säynätsalo architectural traditions are utilised to develop a conversation between the building and inhabitant. Here Aalto has played with the conventional understanding of architectural elements to subtly express imagery and analogise the building’s purpose and place in society. Finally we witness the high level of control Aalto commands at the Seinäjoki library. Aalto chose not to introduce user controlled louvres, manual or mechanical. Instead allowing the natural movement of the sun to be displayed inside and concurrently providing the suitable conditions for reading.

Ultimately we have discovered how the programme is a fusion between the operational, environmental and the psychological effect the architect is responsible for, held together by the history of architecture. Opposed to the rationalist attitude of rising above and considering the objective nature of the world; Aalto has recognised the importance of human perspective. No faculty appears to have priority, they are not irreconcilable but combine through the investigation of the buildings use to answer the architect’s interpretation of the building’s purpose.

Word Count: 3,290 (Excluding footnotes, Illustration sources, Reference list and Bibliography)

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Reference list

Blundell-Jones, P. (1999). Hugo Häring: The organic versus the geometric. Stuttgart: Ed. Axel Menges.

Colquhoun, A. (2002). Modern architecture. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Hall, E. T. (1966). The Hidden Dimension. Garden City, N.Y: Doubleday.

Hawkes, D. (2008). The environmental imagination: Technics and poetics of the architectural environment. London: Routledge.

Heidegger, M. (1999). Ontology - The Hermeneutics of Facticity. Trans. J. V. Buren. Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press.

Jung, C. G., Read, H. and Hull, R. F. C. (1953-78). The collected works of C. G. Jung. Vol. V. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

Jung, C. G., Read, H. and Hull, R. F. C. (1953-78). The collected works of C. G. Jung. Vol. XVIII. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

Kant, I. (1952). The Critique of Judgement. Trans. J. C. Meredith. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Kant, I. (1996). The Critique of Pure Reason. Trans. W. S. Pluhar, P, Kitcher. Indianapolis, Ind: Hackett Pub. Co.

Seale, C. (1999). The Quality of Qualitative Research. London: SAGE.

Weston, R. (1995). Alvar Aalto. London: Phaidon.

Wilson, C. S. J. (1992). Architectural reflections: Studies in the philosophy and practice of architecture. Oxford: Butterworth Architecture.

Wittgenstein, L. (1958). Philosophical Investigations. Trans. G. E. M. Anscombe. 2nd edn. Oxford: Blackwell.

Conference papersPLEA2012 - 28th Conference, Opportunities, Limits & Needs Towards an

environmentally responsible architecture. C. Ana, J. Sanchez, L. Benson. eds. (2012). Light in Seinäjoki Library, Rovaniemi Library and Mount Angel Library designed by Alvar Aalto. November 7-9. Lima, Peru.

Illustration Source - All acquired on (15-01-14)

1. Photographer unknown (-) Alvar Aalto. [Photogrpah]. At: https://reallywellmade.

co.uk/shop/images/5016//Alvar%20Aalto.jpg

2. Photographer unknown (-) Main library, Viipuri public library. [Photograph] At:

Weston, R. (1995). Alvar Aalto. London: Phaidon

3. Rista, S. (-) Saynatsalo Town Hall, Saynatsalo, 1949-1952, view towards the

library. [Photogrpah] At: Weston, R. (1995). Alvar Aalto. London: Phaidon

4. Rista, S. (-) Interior of Seinajoki Library. [Photogrpah] At: Weston, R. (1995).

Alvar Aalto. London: Phaidon

5. [Drawing] At: http://www.urbipedia.org/index.php?title=Granja_Gut_Garka

6. Aalto, A. (1929) Sketch of Viipuri Library. [Drawing] At: Weston, R. (1995). Alvar

Aalto. London: Phaidon

7. Aalto, A. (-) Study for the lighting system in the main library of the Viipuri

Library. [Drawing] At: Weston, R. (1995). Alvar Aalto. London: Phaidon

8. Photographer unknown (-) Main library, Viipuri public library. [Photograph] At:

Weston, R. (1995). Alvar Aalto. London: Phaidon

9. Girling, M. (2013) Viipuri computer model. [Render]

10. Divizia, C. (-) Saynatsalo Town Hall. [Photograph]. At: http://www.

greatbuildings.com/gbc/images/cid_1165869736_4_19.jpg

11. Girling, M. (2013) Saynatsalo computer model. [Render]

12. Rista, S. (-) View of staircase to council chamber. [Photogrpah] At: Weston, R.

(1995).

13. Rista, S. (-) Council chamber roof. [Photogrpah] At: Weston, R. (1995).

14. Rista, S. (-) View of the council chamber. [Photogrpah] At: Weston, R. (1995).

15. Rista, S. (-) Saynatsalo Town Hall, Saynatsalo, 1949-1952, view towards the

library. [Photogrpah] At: Weston, R. (1995). Alvar Aalto. London: Phaidon

16. Salva. G (2000). Seinajoki Library. [Photograph] At http://www.flickr.com/

photos/salvacasablancas/4243691007/

17. Girling, M. (2013) Seinajoki computer model. [Render]

18. Dasulele (2007) Seinajoki - Alvar Aalto - library [Photograph] At: http://

picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/dLqOjRKvlR1xDo2hcKFkvQ

19. Woolfitt, A. (-) Seinajoki Library by Aalto, Finland [Photograph] At:http://www.

corbisimages.com/stock-photo/rights-managed/AW013414/seinajoki-library-by-

aalto-finland442c-866f-9dbfce1e6c49

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Bibliography

Pallasmaa, J. (2012). The eyes of the skin: Architecture and the senses. Third edition. Chichester: Wiley.

Aalto, A., Fleig, K., & Aalto, E. (1963-1978). Alvar Aalto. Basel: Birkhäuser Verlag.

Blundell-Jones, P. (1999). Hugo Häring: The organic versus the geometric. Stuttgart: Ed. Axel Menges.

Blundell-Jones, P. (2002). Modern architecture through case studies. Oxford: Architectural Press.

Colquhoun, A. (2002). Modern architecture. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Curtis, W. J. R. (1996). Modern architecture since 1900. London:Phaidon.

Hall, E. T. (1966). The Hidden Dimension. Garden City, N.Y: Doubleday.

Hawkes, D. (2008). The environmental imagination: Technics and poetics of the architectural environment. London: Routledge.

Heidegger, M. (1962). Being and time. Trans. J. Macquarrie, E. Robinson. Oxford: Blackwell.

Heidegger, M. (1999). Ontology - The Hermeneutics of Facticity. Trans. J. V. Buren. Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press.

Jung, C. G., Read, H. and Hull, R. F. C. (1953-78). The collected works of C. G. Jung. Vol. V. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

Jung, C. G., Read, H. and Hull, R. F. C. (1953-78). The collected works of C. G. Jung. Vol. XVIII. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

Kant, I. (1952). The Critique of Judgement. Trans. J. C. Meredith. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Kant, I. (1996). The Critique of Pure Reason. Trans. W. S. Pluhar, P, Kitcher. Indianapolis, Ind: Hackett Pub. Co.

Seale, C. (1999). The Quality of Qualitative Research. London: SAGE.

Weston, R. (1995). Alvar Aalto. London: Phaidon.

Wilson, C. S. J. (1992). Architectural reflections: Studies in the philosophy and practice of architecture. Oxford: Butterworth Architecture.

Wilson, C. S. J. (1995). The other tradition of modern architecture:The uncompleted project. London: Academy Editions.

Wittgenstein, L. (1958). Philosophical Investigations. Trans. G. E. M. Anscombe. 2nd edn. Oxford: Blackwell.

Conference papersPLEA2012 - 28th Conference, Opportunities, Limits & Needs Towards an

environmentally responsible architecture. C. Ana, J. Sanchez, L. Benson. eds. (2012). Light in Seinäjoki Library, Rovaniemi Library and Mount Angel Library designed by Alvar Aalto. November 7-9. Lima, Peru.