Born in 1898 in the small village of Kuortane in western Finland, Alvar Aalto was a towering figure of Finnish architecture and pioneer of international modern design. A childhood interest in drawing led him to pursue a career as an architect, moving to Helsinki to study and qualifying in 1921. Aalto’s early work included the tower of Kauhajoki Church and Villa Manner. In 1924 he married Aino Marsio, and thereafter began a productive period exploring new ideas in architecture. These were materialised in the Paimio Sanatorium, a groundbreaking tuberculosis sanatorium he designed as a competition entry in 1929. This distinctively modern and widely published building led him to take on further projects internationally, including in Italy, Switzerland, Denmark, France and Germany. A keen sense of social responsibility led Aalto to explore new approaches into the development of prefabricated housing and master planning. In this, Aalto traveled to America as visiting professor at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Aalto’s fascination for organic forms inspired him to explore beyond the white functionalist purism of his earlier career, chiefly in the use of brick. This is seen in his student dormitory building for MIT, the Säynätsalo Town Hall, and the Kulttuuritalo (House of Culture) in Helsinki. 

Robin Boyd is not known to have met Alvar Aalto, but was an admirer of his work long before his sole visit to Finland in 1964. In 1947 Boyd dedicated a Small Homes Service column to Aalto’s Villa Mairea (1939), calling Aalto “One of the great leaders of contemporary modern architecture.” Boyd photographed Aalto’s Baker House Dormitory (1949) while teaching at MIT in 1956, and caught at least a glimpse from afar of the Alvar and Aino Aalto-designed Savoy Hotel (1937) in 1964.