BAKER HOUSE AT MIT

Walk to the back side of the building. That, in a nutshell, describes the Transparent Drawing mindset when looking at a piece of architecture.

We were in Boston on Wednesday, and I had a couple of free hours. So I walked across the bridge in the windy drizzle to see a building that I have not seen in decades, Baker House at MIT by Alvar Aalto. Baker House has been and continues to be one of my all time favorite buildings.  It captured my imagination when I first saw photos of it in my student architectural history books.  And it’s sense of magic has never left me.

Yet this is my first visit with a Transparent Drawing state of mind. And so after walking along the iconic undulating south side of the building along Memorial Drive, I thought, hmmm, I don’t think I have ever seen the other side. So there is a walking route around the west end of the building that takes you past the trash removal building, and along a raised terrace.   And you are then deposited on Amherst Alley, which runs along the north side of the building.

And what a revelation the Amherst Alley side of the building reveals. There is of course the entry. The stairs are expressed with cantilevered stepping forms which run along the facade. There is an interesting faceting that Alto employed so as to break up long wall expanses.

In short, the north side of the building, while not containing the iconic pull of the south side, has a great deal to teach us. It is Aalto in his more natural, Scandanavian, being.  The axis of the entry is the same as the dining pavilion which extends thru the building to the south. And the axis of the entry is diagonal to the street grid, and the entry is aimed toward an open plaza across the street which contains the Saarinen Chapel.  This really is the side of the building that everyday users see and experience.

And there is much pedestrian traffic along Amherst Alley as students enter and leave the building. While on the Memorial Drive side there are few pedestrians and only cars.

I did the above drawing using the always fun Choisey One Point perspective method. I did this drawing this morning using the photos that I took along with drawings of the building that are on the web.  Great fun.