Evening star., 1940-06-15
Finnish Architect
Gives 5-Point Plan
For Reconstruction
Houses Must Be Built
So That Living Standards
Are Raised by Steps

The first reconstruction plan to
come from war-torn Europe is re-
vealed today in the June issue of the
Architectural Forum magazine by
Alvar Aalto, chief architect for Fin
lands reconstruction, who presents
flve-point program for the de-
velopment of a new architecture in
rebuilding Finnish cities.
There are about 100000 people
without homes today" Mr.. Aalto
states in the magazine. Some are
refugees from the areas ceded to
Russia under the terms of the peace
treaty, others are people made
homeless by air raids. Our imme-
dlate need is to have homes ready
as soon as possible.
Here we face the same problem
as IN any process of colonization.
Under such circumstances people
have first built barracks, or some
other quickly constructed form of
communal shelter; later these bar
racks have been replaced by new
buildings.
Even this second town has not
often had all the qualifications for
permanent use, and so a third
town was built. How uneconomical
this system of replacement is must
be clear to every one.
"On the other hand, we have
examples where a state has tried
to build completely finished town
at once. Cities begun in connection
with the first Russian five-year plan
furnish illustrations of this, and we
know that after the plan fell
through they went back to the bar
rack system and that they are using
them on a large scale today.
Plan for Building.
ITO avoid such mistakes, the COM
munities Finland will need should
be built in the following manner:
81. The cities must be planned and
the houses built so that the living
standard of the people may be
raised step by step.
20. Because there is such a great
need for homes, they would be built
and equipped in stages: First, the
roof and walls; then in the next
step, heating and lighting, and later
plumbing and other equipment. This
would insure the people immediate
shelter and, by the third step. a
completely equipped house. Later
stages would include better finish
ing materials and in the end there
would be complete modern home
as a unit in the modern community.
"3. At first many conveniences
such as water, baths, etc, will be
collective and later there will be
private facilities.
4. In the beginning the inhabi-
tants would pay low rent and with
each succeeding step the rent would
be raised. This would also conform
with the changes in the living stand
ards which have been temporarily
lowered by the war, and this level
would rise in proportion to the
speed of construction.
"5. To realize this idea we must
elaborate on this program and de-
velop a technical system for COM
prehensive city planning and the
construction of houses. The system
will necessarily be co-ordinated with
the availability of building mate
rials. Building step by step is the
only solution from the point of view
of obtaining material.
Organization Necessary.
Because Finnish reconstruction
activity is to start Immediately, this
system cannot be made country
wide at once" Mr.. Aalto points out
in the Architectural Forum. There
fore, it is necessary to set up spe-
cial organization which will take
charge of a number of cities using
this method of building in stages.
The result would be not only to
insure the economic stability of the
houses built in this manner, but
would set precedent for the years
of reconstruction yet to come and
it could probably be used as basis
for housing research in other coun-
tries.
Due to its long tradition of de-
centralization, Finland can ap-
proach contemporary planning prob
lens with far less difficulty and far
less dislocation of the population
than the older countries" Mr.. Aalto
explains. The dispersion of the
population has tended to emphasize
the importance of the house as
source of architectural development.
Here we have factor whose
favorable influence on the develop