Alvar Aalto's church in Riola

During my vacation trip, I had the opportunity to see the only building made by Alvar Aalto in Italy: the church of Santa Maria Assunta in Riola.

It was a pleasing encounter on my path of learning about modernism. The church is bright and it emanates order and simplicity. I think it uses some techniques employed in factories to create a more soft and uniform light diffusion, avoiding direct light.

There’s also a documentary about the church, but actually it talks more about the story of the building than about its philosophy and technical details. If you’re not interested in the wars inside the Italian church probably you can just skip it.

I didn’t know Aalto. I’ve made a little research and his point of view seems intriguing: although a modernist, instead of focusing only on rationalism he advocates for more attention about humans and psychological elements. That’s a position that I strongly agree with.

That’s just a superficial research anyway. I hope to learn more about him in the future.

Alvar Aalto Wikipedia page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alvar_Aalto

Santa Maria Assunta church Wikipedia page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Maria_Assunta,_Riola_di_Vergato

We do not thirst after scenography - documentary about the church’s story:
https://vimeo.com/ondemand/aaltoriolait