The purpose of this research is to rethink Alvar Aalto's architecture on the basis of the aesthetic concept of play. This attempt is valid because he had asserted the importance of play in his design. But more fundamentally, his critical view of the instrumentalised rationalism implied the idea that a human being is “Man the Player” as well as “Man the Thinker”, of which theory was elaborated in Johan Huizinga's Homo Ludens (1938). Premised on it, this paper investigated the evolution of the play idea in aesthetics and located Aalto's concept within the map. Summing up, his play was an intuitively grasped desire opposed to a rational requirement, which leads to a dialectical synthesis. This schema is similar to that of Schiller, in which Spiel reconciles the reason and the sense. However, Aalto's play could be differentiated into the "astonishingly rational" and "a jest", each of which roughly corresponds to the Spieltrieb (play impulse) and the sinnliche Trieb (sensuous impulse) in Schiller's thinking. On the other hand, Aalto's architecture illustrates play that could be interpreted as the overflow of surplus energy. This play is the very concept that can bridge the gap in the form-function formula of modern architecture. Aalto's play idea seemed to basically originate from his personality but its value must be confirmed by the Finnish litterateur Yrjö Hirn as Aalto mentioned in his statements (1953 & 1972). It appears that Aalto's play concept was materialised in architecture through his typical design language, such as the undulating wall, the aperspective space, the imitation of nature and the collage of heterogenous elements. However, we should be careful not to reductively analyse the application of play in practise. As Huizinga's comprehensive theory suggests, the play element exists in any cultural areas including any architectural activities. In conclusion, this paper argues that Alvar Aalto the Homo Ludens presented the possibility of critical rationalism in modern architecture by imbuing dry modernism with "the life enhancing charm" of "the art of play".

The Villa Mairea (1937-39) designed by Alvar Aalto (1898-1976) has been studied by many researchers from various viewpoints. However, few studies have devoted their attention to the major issue raised by Aalto at the Yale University lecture and "Mairea" article in arkitekten in 1939. The issue is to fuse art with life in the living room with mobile partition walls that can function both as art exhibition walls and as art storage cabinets at the same time. Through this device, he maintained, the client can change displayed pictures easily according to the situation and so "painting and everyday life can evolve in a more direct manner." This paper argues that Aalto's concept originated from Japanese 'tokonoma' in Tetsuro Yoshida's Das japanische Wohnhaus (1935), which he referred to during the project. Differently from other Japanese features in the house, this tokonoma idea is more than formal, but more decisive than passing in driving the plan. And, whether coincidently or not, his idea exactly corresponds to Japanese aesthetes' and critics' own interpretation of the tononoma as the symbolic centre of Japanese people's everyday life. More importantly, however, this art display concept discloses secret strata of modern architecture during the time when the petrified rationalism was still at its power Even through the tokonoma motif alone, we see diverse trails in modern architecture: fusion of the East and the West, fusion of the traditional and the modern, to say nothing of fusion of art with life.