A recently released feature film about Alvar Aalto presents the Finnish architect as an expert in self-promotion but Laura Iloniemi questions if this skill was the key to his success.
The recently released Finnish movie Aalto directed by Virpi Suutari places a great emphasis on Alvar Aalto s ability to market himself, suggesting that the critical international acclaim this celebrated architect won was down to self-promotion.
Can this really be why Aalto is placed alongside Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe and Frank Lloyd Wright as one of the great modernist architects? Or is this more of a reflection of the fact that it has become almost second nature today to explain away an architect s success by focussing less on the work and more on personal attributes and the power of PR?