Alvar Aalto and the Future of Architecture

In the contemporary practice of architecture, digital design and fabrication are emergent technologies in transforming how architects present a design and form a material strategy that is responsible, equitable, sustainable, resilient, and forward-looking. This book exposes dialogue between history, theory, design, construction, technology, and sensory experience by means of digital simulations that enhance the assessment and values of our material choices. It offers a critical look to the past to inspire the future.

This new edition looks to Alvar Aalto as the primary protagonist for channeling discussions related to these topics. Architects like ALA, Shigeru Ban, 3XN, Peter Zumthor, and others also play the role of contemporary guides in this review. The work of Aalto and selected contemporary architects, along with computer modeling software, showcase the importance of comprehensive design. Organized by the five Ts of contemporary architectural discourse-Typology, Topology, Tectonics, Technic, Thermodynamics-each chapter is used to connect history through Aalto and develop conversations concerning historical and contemporary models, digital simulations, ecological and passive/active material concerns, construction and fabrications, and healthy sensorial environments.

Written for students and academics, this book bridges knowledge from academia into practice and vice versa to help architects become better stewards of the environment, make healthier and more accountable buildings, and find ways to introduce policy to make technology a critical component in thinking about and making architecture.

Robert Cody, AIA, NCARB, LEED AP, is Partner of Amoia Cody Architecture, Professor of Practice, and Former Associate Dean and Chair at the New York Institute of Technology School of Architecture and Design. For over 30 years, he has worked on projects from wood-frame houses to precast concrete office buildings, interior renovations to free-standing towers, design competitions to physical construction, and ecological design, to The Museum of Modern Art. In addition, Cody has taught design studios at all levels with particular concentration in the comprehensive design studio, building construction, architectural theory, and study abroad in Italy and Scandinavia. He has also been the New York Tech NCARB AXP coordinator and AIAS faculty advisor since 2012.

Angela Amoia is a Partner of Amoia Cody Architecture and Adjunct Associate Professor of Architecture at the New York Institute of Technology School of Architecture and Design. Amoia has practiced and taught history, theory, architecture studios, including the comprehensive design studio, and study abroad in Italy since graduating from Columbia University with a master’s degree in Advanced Architectural Design. Her role as project manager ranged in scale from skyscrapers to large-scale academic facilities and residential houses and loft buildings.