"I Live in an Alvar Aalto"

Tags:: Architecture; Culture

Thrusting its sinuous brick curves towards the Charles River, Baker House is one of only two Alvar Aalto works on this side of the Atlantic. As school gets underway, 300 students every year at MIT have the chance to sleep, eat, study, and play within the walls of this mid-century modernist masterpiece. For the second part in a series of glimpses inside unconventional spaces on campus, we talk to Jean Li, a four-year resident and an official architecture tour guide of Baker House.

— Tiffany Chu

Jean's room is a Pie, which is also the largest room in the entire dorm.

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Aaron Britt09.22.2009

Wonderful post, Tiffany. I went to school further west at Amherst, which is lovely but boats little modern architecture to be proud of. My favorite university building in the town was over at UMass, the Marcel Breuer-designed student union, with it's massive, underground auditoriums. I remember the cavernous concrete bowels of that building from a Seamus Heaney reading I went to in 2000. I'd love to see an "I Work in a Breuer" post. I think the building even doubles as a hotel, so you could head out there and stay for the weekend. Great work!
Brittany Watson09.22.2009

Love it! Did you make it to Finlandia Hall in Helsinki?
chelsea09.23.2009

beautiful i love it
alan (avram) gur arye09.23.2009

As we all asked in Sybil Moholy Nagy's architectural history classes at Pratt in 1959 concerning the work of Louis Sullivan: Where are the floorplans, at least of the apartments? Please show some plans of existing old Masters in the future.
Hong Eie09.28.2009

I wish I had the opportunity to live in an Alvar Aalto building when I was in univ. Recalling the high level of use, damage and consequent repairs that Univ dorms and halls are subject to, I am curious how MIT manages to preserve this masterpiece, even the original furniture.
Noel11.03.2009

I had a chance to live in an Aalto for a year, as a freshman at MIT...Alice I second everything you said. One thing of note that wasn't mentioned is that Baker Hall is nearly unique in being a single loaded corridor dormitory. All of the dorm rooms are on the south side, and the hallway on the north side grows and shrinks with the undulations in plan (the back is not curvy, but angular). This means that when baker students have their dorm room doors open (which is almost always), and the dozens of windows on the north side common spaces are open, the building has wonderful natural cross ventilation, especially because it is so narrow in plan. This makes up for the fact that, at least when I was there, it did not have air conditioning. Glad to see you write this post as so many people are fascinated with the building, and so few students appreciate its place in architectural history. Thanks!
Flor06.02.2010

Hello!! My name is Florence, Im an architect from Argentina and Im planning to visit the Baker house in August, by any chance do you know who should I contact to have a guided tour of the building?? I always admire Aalto's work and I think the Baker is fantastic it must be great to live in it! :) Many thanks in advance! Flor

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