AlvarAalto (1898-1976) was born Hugo Alvar Henrik Aalto in the small village of Kuortane in western Finland. After choosing a career as an architect, he traveled to Helsinki, where the Polytechnic (now Helsinki University of Technology) was the only place in Finland where architecture was taught. Aalto's student years took wing on a wave of revivalism and rising national identity. Finland became independent in 1917, but it was not a painless process. The Polytechnic students had to take part in a civil war that caused an enormous upheaval in society. Thanks to his original style and unique talents, Aalto is one of the greatest names in modern architecture and design. Alvar Aalto designed his first items of furniture even before he had become a qualified architect. After qualification, as a young architect, the design of artefact's took on a fairly important role in his office when he was commissioned to plan alteration works for the refurbishment of six churches. The design work for these commissions including furniture and sets of ecclesiastical objects. He also designed pieces of furniture for various clients, tinged with the revivalist styles that followed the spirit of the age. When the Second World War came to an end, Aalto began designing his first building to be constructed abroad, the student dormitory building for MIT. The MIT building in Massachusetts was constructed of brick. Brick, as a material, catalyzed Aalto into developing a special brick himself, which made it possible to use many different kinds of forms. This brick was used in the construction of the House of Culture in Helsinki in 1958, where the free-flowing lines are a continuation of the free-form glass vase he designed in 1936. The 1960s brought an ever-increasing number of honors of various kinds at home and abroad. Aalto acted as President of the Academy of Finland from 1963 to 1968. Aalto's importance to the architecture of the twentieth century is, nevertheless, still growing. His understanding about people as a part of the diversity and complexity of nature is completely in harmony with the new ecological way of thinking of today.