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page158from Nordic Architects Writes
Alvar Aalto’f Finnish Section at the New
York World Fair, 1939
itself forms a suitable and sufficiently
compact multiple unit. The most important suburb built on this principle in
Scandinavia is probably Albertstlund in Copenhagen, where the large size of the
area would in fact stand more variety in height.
The
forms of building I have described have, of course, been very much simplified,
and may appear in combination in various kinds of architectonic entities. The
need for flexibility is a functional need growing out of changes in activities.
We tend to imagine that activities develop smoothly or in components of a
particular size. Perhaps we also make our plans for this kind of stage-wise
growth. We easily forget that all growth – including changes in function – is
organic in character and rarely groups itself according to arithmetical series.
Even a child’s weight and height do not go up regularly – not to mention his
mental development.
Often
planning, too, must allow for irregularity of growth, its varying extent. This
can be done by allowing for a quality called “continuity” in the basic
solution. There is, for example, no reason to divide up a whole surface area
permanently more than is essential merely because of an unconsidered
positioning of, for example, stairways or other fixed parts of a building.
The
well-known American architect Louis Kahn designed an architecturally important
laboratory building in Philadelphia around the end of the 1950s – the
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