Aalto’s landscape ontology : conceptualising landscape in Alvar Aalto’s architecture using phenomenological concepts of place, atmosphere and embodiment

This thesis investigates the work of the twentieth-century Finnish modernist architect Alvar Aalto (1898-1976), as involved and intertwined with ideas and experiences of landscape. Late in his life, Aalto said that from his earliest years the Finnish landscape ‘was there all around me, all the time.’ Aalto has been regarded historically as the modernist misfit, a Northern humanist outlier working at the margins of rational modern architecture. Aalto’s architecture arguably extends, expands and evolves modernism to embrace a body-based humanism, informed by a socio-ethical agenda supporting the everyday ‘little man’, confronted by twentieth-century modernity. Aalto’s alternative or heterodox architecture is argued in this study as based in the historically acknowledged, yet largely unexplored, involvement of his work with landscape, evident in the conceptualisation, siting, design, details, and the experience of his work. This thesis investigates the significance of landscape in Aalto’s work by conceptualising his architecture in terms of its relationship to landscape, addressing the lack of a sustained study of the significance of landscape in Aalto’s work. This historical-theoretical study investigates Aalto’s architecture, in buildings, details and elements, drawings, unbuilt projects, and architectural images, from the 1920s to the 1970s. Through these selected historical examples, the involvement of landscape in Aalto’s work emerges as an essential difference, distinguishing his heterodox practice from the orthodoxy of twentieth-century modern architecture. The study innovatively organises Aalto’s work into three landscape-related historical themes, of White, Waves and Ruins. While landscape offered a topic for investigating landscape in Aalto’s work in this author’s MPhil(Arch) research into prospect-refuge symbolism (2010), these three themes emerged as relevant to investigating landscape through research articles published or presented by this author between 2010-2018. This study makes its particular contribution to architectural scholarship through a series of close readings of Aalto’s work, interpreting landscape in his architecture with reference to key phenomenological concepts of Place, Atmosphere and Embodiment. The study investigates renowned Aalto works such as Villa Mairea, Muuratsalo House and Aalto Atelier, along with lesser-known works such as Summa House, Alajärvi Town Hall and Seinäjoki Theatre, as well as sketches, images and details of Aalto works. The thesis describes, analyses and interprets the significance of both Aalto’s architecture in the landscape, and landscape elements in his architecture, with reference to Aalto’s ‘own words’, to the wider Aalto literature, and to interdisciplinary literature on the phenomenology of Place, Atmosphere and Embodiment. Aalto’s lifelong familiarity with the Finnish landscape and his experience of its topography, geology, vegetation, water, weather mythology gave him a unique capacity to involve his work with landscape. Aalto’s familiarity with landscape was further informed by his interests in biology, art, history and literature, and was driven in part by his empathy for the ‘little man’, the everyday person struggling with the conflicts and changes of the twentieth century. The analysis of the study refers to the thinking of Norberg-Schulz and Pallasmaa on architectural phenomenology. It builds also on Wylie’s geographical theorisation of the phenomenology of landscape, and is based indirectly on the phenomenological philosophies of Merleau-Ponty and of Heidegger, through architectural readings of their work. The study uses recent theoretical and historical work – including Malpas on place, Böhme on atmosphere, and Goldhagen on embodiment – to locate Aalto’s work within recent and contemporary thinking on phenomenology in landscape and architecture. Landscape is argued through the thesis as giving an ontological basis to Aalto’s method. Landscape emerges as forming a fundamental, originary architectural beginning, without which Aalto could not have imagined and created his architecture, without which experience of his work could not be fully described or investigated, and without which contemporary understanding of his work would remain less comprehensive. As such, landscape, categorised into historical themes of White, Waves and Ruins and read through phenomenological concepts of Place, Atmosphere and Embodiment, offers a unique resource for investigating the meaning and significance of Aalto’s architecture. As an investigation of landscape through its close reading of Aalto’s work, the present study aims to expand understanding of Aalto’s complex and enduring modern architecture, and of the broader significances of landscape for contemporary architectural thinking and practice

Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery’s Expedition of Discovery III – The flora and fauna of the Spring Bay Mill area after a long history of industrial use

Flora and fauna surveys were conducted at the Spring Bay Mill property and adjacent area near Triabunna in 2019 as part of the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery’s ongoing research, collection-building and nature-discovery program entitled Expeditions of Discovery. Although a large portion of the mill site has experienced significant disturbance, some bushland remnants on the property and the adjacent coastal reserve remain in very good ecological condition and are refugia for species now lost from the wider landscape. The survey recorded 1088 taxa, principally from the targeted groups of vascular plants, bryophytes, lichens, beetles, butterflies and moths, with several of the taxa, chiefly lichens and invertebrates, either new to science or new records for Tasmania. The survey expands our knowledge of the flora and fauna of the Triabunna area and serves as a baseline for a property undergoing strategic rehabilitation after a long history of industrial use

S. Warren Carey : New Guinea oil explorer (1934–1942)

Samuel Warren Carey (1911–2002), Professor of Geology at the University of Tasmania from 1946 until 1976, was recognised internationally as a controversial extrovert in global tectonics. He joined Oil Search Ltd, and then the Australasian Petroleum Company working as a field geologist in New Guinea from 1934 until 1942. Carey and his colleagues carried out a heroic campaign of geology-based field exploration under the most difficult of conditions. Although their work did not find commercial hydrocarbons it paved the way for PNG’s current hydrocarbon industry. While his post-World War Two work is well documented through his publications and the reminiscences of those who worked with and were taught by him, his pioneering work as an explorer in the inhospitable environment of New Guinea before he took up his post in Tasmania is less well known and the subject of this paper

Reply to the apology to the Aboriginal community by The Royal society of Tasmania and the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery

Those who have delivered the apologies today on behalf of their institutions also have made an important acknowledgement of the hurt to we Aborigines of today. In return, I stand here before you and say “on behalf of all of those Aboriginal generations I have mentioned, we readily accept, with pride, the apologies given, in the spirit within which it was stated

Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery’s Expedition of Discovery II – The Flora and Fauna of Musselroe Wind Farm, Cape Portland, Northeast Tasmania

Flora and fauna surveys were conducted at the Musselroe Wind Farm property in 2018 and 2019 as part of the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery’s ongoing research, collection-building and nature-discovery program. The property was found to have significant ecological and nature conservation values and this survey program increases the number of vouchered taxa known for the area to 1336 primarily from the targeted groups of vascular plants, bryophytes, lichens, butterflies, moths, beetles, freshwater invertebrates, snails and slugs. Many threatened taxa were recorded and several of the taxa, chiefly lichens and invertebrates, are new to science or new records for Tasmania. This survey significantly expands our knowledge of the flora and fauna of the Cape Portland area and serves as a baseline for a property with a mix of farming and environmental conservation management

The geology and glacial history of the Walls of Jerusalem, Central Tasmania – a preliminary study

The Walls of Jerusalem, in Tasmania’s Central Plateau, is marked by several dolerite escarpments, or “walls”, enclosing sheltered grassy valleys with Pencil Pine forests. Geologically, the area is a structurally raised block between two faults, with the peaks and plateaus being 100 m or so higher than the surrounding plateau. The valleys and escarpments may be mainly due to intense faulting and shattering of the dolerite by cross-faults, and removal of this material by glaciers. The higher peaks and plateaus have all been abraded by ice, except for an extraordinary patch at Solomons Throne, which retains irregular scree piles coloured red with lichen. Virtually all the valley floors are covered by glacial till, which probably relates to the younger glacial episodes. It consists mostly of dolerite boulders and clay, and shows subdued morainal forms in most places, with a few matrix-free boulder deposits probably representing lag after meltwater washing. Bedded clay deposits formed in lakes and meltwater streams as the ice retreated are extensive within the drift deposits, reflecting the confined nature of the two glacier lobes which entered the valleys from north and south. Dolerite screes along the scarps appear to post-date most of the morainal deposits, but some older screes may also be present. The Temple eminence within the centre of the Walls consists of fragmented dolerite overlying Triassic sandstone, almost completely covered by periglacial and glacial deposits, including superb examples of solifluction flows. There are many unanswered questions concerning the glacial deposits, but the lack of any dates means it is not yet possible to establish a comprehensive glacial chronology

What’s in a name? Polyzosteria yingina ; the Golden Sun Cockroach

The endemic Tasmanian cockroach Polyzosteria yingina, was formally described in 2021, 80 years after it was first documented. Evidence from morphology, biogeography and DNA barcodes distinguishes this species from the related mainland Australian taxa it had previously been confused with and united the geographically disparate alpine and coastal populations under a single specific epithet. That specific epithet, yingina, was chosen in collaboration with the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre. This was to acknowledge that, given the species’ large size, handsome appearance and overt behaviours, it would once have had Aboriginal names, which now may have been lost due to colonial disruption of language, land and culture

Vegetation change in an urban grassy woodland since the early nineteenth century

Our understanding of the history of vegetation change after the British invasion of Tasmania is limited. The Queens Domain in Hobart is an area of remnant grassy woodland that provides the opportunity to document such vegetation change and its causes using historical images and reports. Tree removal, stock grazing, and the consequent reduction in the incidence of fire appear to have resulted in a decline in tree cover after European settlement, reaching a nadir during 1861–1880. Paintings and photographs indicated a sharp increase in tree cover between 1921 and 1941, associated with the banning of stock grazing. This increase appears to have been encouraged, rather than hindered, by the increasing frequency of low-intensity fire resulting from a reduction in grazing pressure

Apology to Tasmanian Aboriginal people 2021

On Monday, 15 February 2021, the Royal Society of Tasmania (RST) and the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (TMAG) delivered paired Apologies to the Aboriginal people of Tasmania. The event was held in the Courtyard of TMAG, Hobart, and attended in person by about one hundred invited guests including members of the Tasmanian Aboriginal community, members of the Council of the RST and members of the Board of Trustees of TMAG. A large number of invited guests also witnessed the event by livestream. It was also the first time the Aboriginal flag had been flown at Customs House to commemorate the significance of this event

Effects of garden type and distance from bush on adventive trees in domestic gardens

Gardens are both a source of plant species that invade native vegetation (bush) and are places that native species can invade. We test the hypotheses that the richness of adventive exotic and native trees in suburban gardens declines with distance from the bush, and that the type of garden strongly influences the establishment of adventive trees. The adventive woody species in front gardens of houses on randomly selected streets in three Hobart suburbs were observed from the street, along with garden type. Distance from the bush boundary was measured from maps. Most taxa occurred less frequently with increasing distance from the bush and garden type was associated with the occurrence of several taxa. Distance and garden type had no effect on the exotic Pittosporum undulatum, possibly because it is rare in native vegetation due to its fire sensitivity but is both attractive to many gardeners and well-dispersed by birds between gardens