WINDOW RESEARCH INSTITUTE

The high windows of the council chamber are the main light source in the room, 3.5 m wide and 3.7 m high, divided into four rows and five columns, each cell incorporating a louver made of pinewood. Among the top three rows, the three columns on the right have louvers facing right, and the two from the left have louvers facing left; only the louvers in the bottom row face downward. In this way, the louvers filter the changing light and view according to the angle of view and time of day. Warm air from the radiators rises from the gap between the pinewood benches and brick walls to prevent cold drafts.

Säynätsalo Town Hall
Alvar Aalto
Parviaisentie, Säynätsalo, 1952

This article is an excerpt from “Windows Stranding the Ethnological and Industrial Networks,” a joint research project concerning windows and the behaviors around them done in collaboration with Institute of Science Tokyo’s Yoshiharu Tsukamoto Laboratory.