Viipuri Library and Como Kindergarten: a climatic reading

Aalto's Viipuri library and Terragni's Como kindergarten were built at about the same time in two very different climates. Architectural theory rarely considers environmental moderation as part of the task of architecture and yet the spatial and poetic stances and attitudes to natural light in these two buildings are, in part, informed by their response to very differing climates. Today, when so much environmental moderation is self-conscious and explicit, these buildings show how it can become an enriched part of a wider spatial and compositional whole.