Author: Konstantinos Xanthopoulos, architect
MELISSA Publishing House
96 pages 23x23 cm, 100 illustrations, hardback
Alvar Aalto left few traces of his more or less hasty passage to Greece, first in 1933 (late July-August), and twenty years later, in 1953 (end of April-May). Facts were provided from casual notes, letters and telegrams unearthed from the Aalto Archives; the 4rth CIAM minutes recorded by the Technical Chamber of Greece (TEE), including facts supplied by Greek and foreign scholars; testimonies “in his own words”, or, from either Göran Schildt’s words (his main biographer), or even those of Sigfried Giedion (his Swiss mentor), and collaborators from his close entourage (i.e., Nils-Gustav Hahl, Jean-Jacques Baruël).
But, like in the enigmas of an ancient myth hovering between facts and fiction, limited as these traces were, they could nevertheless substantiate a starting point for the unfolding of plausible hypotheses, metaphors, and analogies, thus complementing a “story” of Aalto’s experiences and affinities with Greece’s cultural wealth