i Four Cardinalities: Alvar Aalto’s Industrial Architecture 1929-1951 Andrew Metcalf A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Architecture University of Canberra 2019 iii Abstract This thesis examines the interwar industrial work of the renown Finnish architect and designer Alvar Aalto (1898–1976) and its significance in an interpretation of his work. Despite their number, size and importance to the Aalto corpus, the industrial buildings and their relationship with the other well-known works in his design portfolio, have received limited treatment in architectural scholarship despite their obvious relevance. Set against the historical backdrop of modern industrial architecture, this thesis examines a selection of eight different interwar Alvar Aalto industrial buildings in the context of the architect’s coeval, well-documented non-industrial work and the development of his mature architectural style. The study posits that four cardinal architectural design tropes in Aalto’s architecture are observable in the 1930s industrial works often before they were evident in his architecture more broadly. Each of these four cardinalities adds extra material to the interpretation of Aalto’s work. Another inference is that Aalto’s factory architecture is important to the general history of modern industrial architecture through its contribution to an architectural aesthetic wherein industrial buildings manifested architectural tendencies beyond the merely utilitarian. The thesis comprises five chapters which sequentially introduce and problematise the study, and then position Aalto with reference to the extant literature including his own writing. This is followed by a contextualisation of his industrial work in relation to the history of modern industrial architecture in the century from the 1830s. The penultimate chapter includes an analytical discourse accounting for the eight included Aalto industrial works and their historical and critical implications as foreshadowed above. The final chapter then is a more detailed consideration of each of the four Aalto cardinalities that have been distilled during the course of this research. Accordingly, the thesis argues that a compound rubrication of Biomorphism, Materialism, Unitary Tectonics and Technological Anxiety is discernible in Aalto’s interwar industrial architecture, and in his architecture broadly. Collectively, these four cardinalities, emerging from the industrial works differentiate the form, the materiality, the constructional aesthetic and the background philosophical disquiet manifested by the architect in the interwar period. vii Table of Contents Abstract iii Certificate of Authorship v List of illustrations ix Acknowledgements xvii 1 Introduction 1 2 Positioning Alvar Aalto 11 2.1 The Twentieth-Century 12 2.2 Göran Schildt 17 2.3 An Expanded Critical Field 20 2.4 Aalto Viewed Otherwise 30 2.5 The Aalto Centenary 33 2.6 The Twenty-First Century 36 2.7 Conclusion and Prospect 39 3 Industrial Architecture 1835–1939 43 3.1 Brick and Iron Archetypes 45 3.2 The Third Archetype; Reinforced Concrete 53 3.3 Structural Form and Material 60 3.4 Maillart to Aalto; a Concrete Aesthetic 65 3.5 Behrens and Gropius; Architecture and Industry 67 3.6 Anabranch 75 3.7 Albert Kahn 80 3.8 Interwar Factory Design Comparators 84 3.9 In Finland 91 4 Alvar Aalto; Industrial Architecture 1929–1951 97 4.1 Turun Sanomat Building 1927–29 100 4.2 Toppila Cellulose Pulp Mill 1930–31 112 4.3 Sunila Cellulose Pulp Mill 1935–39 120 4.4 Technical Factory Form; Two Factories and a Warehouse 127 4.5 Protean Biomorphic Form and the Varkaus Sawmill Extension 133 4.6 The Aalto Architecture Office 1927-51 145 5 Four Aalto Cardinalities 149 5.1 Biomorphism 149 5.2 Materialism 165 5.3 Unitary Tectonic 172 5.4 Technological Disquiet 177 Archival Sources 185 Bibliography 191 ix List of Illustrations Chapter 1 Figure 1. Chronology of industrial and other architectural works, Alvar Aalto 1929-51. Table: © A Metcalf, 2018. Figure 2. Alvar Aalto industrial works and the Four Cardinalities. Table: © Andrew Metcalf, 2018. Chapter 3 Figure 1. Charles Taylor (Architect) Hungerford Fish Market, London, 1835. Architect’s Drawing: From Taylor Monuments of Commerce 1968, Plate 16, p.28. Figure 2. Finlayson Factory, Tampere, in 1890. Photo: CC BY-SA 4.0 https://www.finna.fi/Cover/Show?id=musketti.M012%3AHK10000%3A4852&index=0&size=large Figure 3. Finlayson Factory, Tampere. Interior in the early 2000s. Photo: Martti Jokinen. Figure 4. K.F. Schinkel, Warehouses, Manchester, 1826. Reproduction from Reinhold Wegner Die Reise nach Frankreich England im Jahre 1826, Karl Friedrich Schinkel Lebenswerk Band 16. (Berlin 1990),Fig. 161, p.62. Figure 5. Murray’s Old Mill and Decker Mill, Manchester, early 19th century. Photo: Chris Allen CC BY-SA 2.0. Figure 6. Joseph Paxton, Crystal Palace London,1851, 1852-4. Photo: Frank Yerbury 1926. AA Photo Library reference: BREX1 1C – public. Figure 7. G.T. Greene (Engineer) Boat Store Royal Navy Dockyard, Sheerness UK, 1856–60. Photo: https://www.kentonline.co.uk/_media/img/750x0/X825K37WZWQQCEB6Y16D.jpg Figure 8. Karl Friedrich Schinkel (Architect) Bauakademie, Berlin, 1836. Photo: © Bildarchiv Foto Marburg Bilddatei-Nr. fm620753. Figure 9 William LeBaron Jenny (Architect/Engineer) Home Insurance Building, Chicago, 1885. Period photo: published in the Chicago Tribune on June 23, 1907. Public Domain: https://chicagology.com/goldenage/goldenage076/ Figure 10. Baumwollspinnerei Cotton Mill, Leipzig,1884-1909. Photo: regentaucher.com Figure 11. H.B. Creswell (Architect) Boiler Factory, Queensferry, Wales,1905. Photo: RIBA Collections. Figure 12. Ernest Ransome (Engineer) 2nd Pacific Coast Borax Factory, NJ, USA, 1903. Photo: Reyner Banham (Architectural Association Photo Library). Figure 13. Daimler Factory complex, Untertürkheim, Stuttgart, c.1912. (Workshops, Upper RHS). Photo: Daimler Global Media (https://media.daimler.com/marsMediaSite/en/) Figure 14. Daimler Workshops Building 1903 in construction. Photo: Mörsch Der Eisenbetonbau 1908, Fig. 212. Figure 15. Daimler Workshops Building 1903 in operation. Photo: Daimler Global Media https://media.daimler.com/marsMediaSite/en/) Figure 16. Albert Kahn (Architect) Packard Company Building 10 Detroit,1906. Photo: Albert Kahn Associates, From https://ilovedetroitmichigan.com/detroit-architecture/albert- kahn-400-buildings-in-metro-detroit/ x Figure 17. Albert Kahn (Architect) Packard Company Building 10 Detroit, interior. Photo: Trussed Concrete Steel Co. - Truscon handbook. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Packard_plants_1910.jpg Figure 18. Spinning Factory Tampere, Finland, 1905–08. Photo: Mörsch Der Eisenbetonbau 1908 Fig. 206. Figure 19. Vladimir Shukhov (Engineer) Steel lattice shell, Vyksa, Russia. 1897. Photo: Public Domain. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Double_curvature_steel_lattice_Shell_by_Shukhov_in_ Vyksa_1897_shell.jpg Figure 20. Steiff Toy Company Works, Giengen, Germany,1903. Photo: Ignacio Fernández Solla http://facadesconfidential.blogspot.com/search?q=Steiff ‘The Steiff factory and the birth of curtain walling’. Figure 21. R.J. Redpath & Sons (Architects) Alling & Cory Warehouse, Cincinnati, 1911. From ‘Die Kunst in Industrie und Handel’ Jahrbuch Des Deutschen Werkbundes, 1913 p. 27 top. Figure 22. Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (Architect) Textile Factory, Krefeld,1935. Photo: © MAI Timo Klippstein. Figure 23. Robert Maillart (Engineer) Pirelli Cable Factory, Villanueva, Spain,1914. Photo: © ETH-Bibliothek Zürich, Bildarchiv. Figure 24. Alvar Aalto (Architect) Turun Sanomat Building, Turku, 1929; flat slab construction. Photo: Aino Aalto? AAM 62-005-035. Figure 25. Peter Behrens (Architect) AEG Turbine Factory, Moabit, Berlin, 1909. Photo: © Bildarchiv Foto Marburg – Foto: unbekannt. Figure 26. Alvar Aalto (Architect) Sunila Cellulose Pulp Mill, Kotka, 1935-39. Drying Hall, Roof Trusses. Photo: © Andrew Metcalf. Figure 27. Gropius and Meyer (Architects) Fagus Factory Alfeld, Germany 1911-25. Photo: © Bildarchiv Foto Marburg – Christian Stein. Figure 28. Peter Behrens (Architect) Aircraft Hanger, Hannover, 1919. Photo: From Alan Windsor, Peter Behrens; Architect and Designer 1868-1940 (London, 1981), p. 144. Figure 29. Peter Behrens (Architect) Aircraft Hanger, Hannover, 1919. Oblique view. Photo: © Bildarchiv Foto, Marburg – Foto: unbekannt. Figure 30. Hans Poelzig (Architect) Superphosphate Chemical Factory, Luban, Poland, 1911-12. Photo: © Technical University Berlin Architecture Museum, Inv. No. F1503. Figure 31. Erich Mendelsohn (Architect) Hat Factory, Luckenwalde, Germany, 1922-23. Photo: © Niels Lehmann & Christoph Rauhut. Figure 32. Erich Mendelsohn (Architect) Hat Factory interior Luckenwalde 1922-23. Photo: © d. teil (www.flickr.com). Figure 33. Alvar Aalto (Architect) Ahlström Factory Warehouse, Kotka, 1949.Photo: Gustaf Welin, AAM 101275. Figure 34. Hugo Häring (Architect) Gut Garkau Farm, near Lubeck, 1926. Photo: Seier CC BY-SA-2. Figure 35. Albert Kahn (Architect) Glass Plant, Ford Rouge River Plant, Dearborn, Michigan,1922. Photo: From Brian Carter (ed) Albert Kahn Inspiration for the Modern (Ann Arbor, 2001), p. 16. Figure 36. Albert Kahn (Architect) Glass Plant, Ford Rouge River Plant, interior (photo c.2010). Photo: © 339638_JdBAgUzyyojoausMEDMqAZ4ji. Figure 37. Albert Kahn (Architect) Hudson Motor Car Factory, Detroit, Michigan, in construction 1925. Photo: Detroit Public Library Digital Collections - https://digitalcollections.detroitpubliclibrary.org/islandora/object/islandora%3A213607