Muuratsalo Experimental House by Alvar Aalto

The Experimental House, situated on the island of Muuratsalo in Central Finland, seemed like a pretty good one to delve into first as it was built to serve both as a leisure home and as a test site for a series of architectural experiments by Alvar and Elissa Aalto. 

This was a creative site that was changed on a regular basis, the most obvious signs are in the above photo where you see a variety of different red bricks being used in the middle wall. Some are horizontal and others are vertical, you also have small and large sizes, it’s basically a patchwork wall that had elements added to it over many years. This also followed through to the internal walls of the courtyard where he tested different ceramic materials, various types of brick pointing, also different brick sizes and the effect that it had on the eye.