Design in the Maison Carré #Alvar Aalto

Alvar Aalto started in 1956 the design of a house for art gallerist Louis Carré in Bazoches-sur-Guyonne, a small country village 40 km away from Paris. This house is an interesting case in Aalto’s work because here, unlike other better-known houses such as Villa Mairea or the holiday house in Muuratsalo, Aalto could specifically design most of the details of the interior equipment, including furniture, lighting, fabrics, etc.

I am not a furniture or interior designer in a strictly professional sense. But when I make buildings sometimes there is a need for some specific solutions that allow me to create interiors from them. Alvar Aalto, Konstruktiv Form, 1954

Aalto used mainly brick but in the interior it is noticeable the use of wood as finish, particularly in the undulated ceiling of the hall. Aalto also designed for this dwelling different pieces of furniture using fan-shaped legs, more complex, sophisticated but also less suitable for mass production than his former L-shaped and Y-shaped leg solution. Among these pieces there is a set of tables for the living room with different sizes and organic shapes. Their dark teak table top contrasts with the lighter ash wood legs.

Aalto paid great attention to the lighting, both natural and artificial, of the different rooms because they hosted Carré’s collection of modern art. Thus Aalto designed several items, such as the Bilberry Lamp or the dining room pendant lamps, for spotlight, and the hall pendant lamps, for diffuse light.