Since 22 February, the Barbican Art Gallery has been home to the tiny models of buildings, pictures of buildings, drawings of buildings and, last but not least, things to decorate the interior of buildings. The topic of this architecture-filled exhibition is Alvar Aalto Through The Eyes of Shigeru Ban.
The work of Aalto, the Finnish architect and designer, has inspired the contemporary Japanese architect Ban. In fact, this exhibition is the interpretation by Ban, of Aalto’s architecture, design and planning ideology.
According to the Alvar Aalto Museum’s newsletter, “Ban himself admits that Aalto’s influence has extended to the best-known, major works shown in this exhibition: the Paper Log House (1995), the Japanese Pavilion at the Hanover Expo (2000) and the soon-to-be-completed Pompidou Centre in Metz.”
The most interesting design in the exhibition is perhaps the UNESCO World Heritage List nominee Paimio Hospital, formerly known as Paimio Tuberculosis Sanatorium. Aalto considered every aspect of the project from the perspective of the patient and created some of the most caring and fun details, such as non-splash washbasins - we definitely want one of those.
If you would like to see this fascinating exhibition, you better hurry, as the exhibition will be open only until May 13.
Alvar Aalto: Through The Eyes of Shigeru Ban at the Barbican Gallery, until 13 May. For more information, go to the Barbican website here.
By Katja Nykänen
