{"id":42060,"date":"2018-06-14T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-06-14T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.travelemiliaromagna.it\/alvar-aalto-riola\/"},"modified":"2025-05-28T15:49:03","modified_gmt":"2025-05-28T14:49:03","slug":"alvar-aalto-riola","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.travelemiliaromagna.it\/en\/alvar-aalto-riola\/","title":{"rendered":"Alvar Aalto in Riola: dialogues between Architecture and Nature:"},"content":{"rendered":"

A few minutes from Porretta Terme, in the direction of Bologna, we find the parish complex of Santa Maria Assunta, designed by the Finnish master Alvar Aalto, one of the greatest architects of the Twentieth Century<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The work is inspired by the surrounding nature (the course of the river Reno and the caves of Soprasasso) and local stone constructions (the provincial park of Montovolo and the village of Scola). The architect, commenting on the project, said: “I do not want to disturb with my project what God has always done in this place”<\/em>.
\nThis was his only project realized in Italy<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Aalto went to Riola for the first time in 1966<\/strong> to examine the land on which to build the new church, taking note of the surveys and preparatory studies, illustrating the area on which the project entrusted to him should born. On this occasion, he admired the profile of the three surrounding mountains: Monte Vigese, Montovolo and Monte di Vigo. The master, in harmony with locals, invited everyone to walk together to carry out this great undertaking, both on a spiritual and on a physical level.<\/p>\n

The “organic” functionality with which the master designed his work, led to consider space and man in their harmony, through the light element<\/strong> that, thanks to its descriptive function, generates the form, which creates the structure and the function. The terms environment and architecture, supported by Alvar Aalto, can not be left aside in his juxtapositions with the brightness of the sky, the water of the flowing river and the colors of nature: the ray of light, the river and the church became one.<\/p>\n