FINLAND.- The Alvar Aalto Symposium 2006 will be titled LESS AND MORE - Extending the Rational in Architecture and will be held on July 28-30 in Finland.

If man is a rational animal, is the architect a rational artist? Can rationality be seen as a structural or a mental framework that either liberates unpredictable poetic thinking or harnesses and channels personal expression? What are the ways to extend the very concept of rational, which Alvar Aalto saw as the only future for rational architecture?

The Jubilee Alvar Aalto Symposium will present contemporary architects and artists with their works, ideas and visions, where an underlying rational thinking is present in one way or another. In spite of, or even as a result of their approach, poetry prevails and personal beauty is strongly present in their works. A question arises: is this "paradox" possible only through exceptional artist talent?

keynote speakers

Florian Beigel Architecture Research Unit, London, UK
Gavin Bryars Composer, UK
Sean Godsell Sean Godsell Architects, Australia
Dorte Mandrup-Poulsen Dorte Mandrup Architects, Denmark
Manuel Aires Mateus Aires Mateus Architects, Portugal
Samuli Miettinen JKMM Architects, Finland
Fuensanta Nieto, Enrique Sobejano Nieto Sobejano Architects, Spain
Martin Rein-Cano TOPOTEK 1 Landscape Architects, Germany
Brigitte Shim Shim-Sutcliffe Architects, Canada.