Architecture of the Essential is the proceedings of the 6th International Alvar Aalto Symposium. The event took place in Jyväskylä, Finland in 1994. The book contains the lectures of the invited keynote speakers who were Paul Oliver, Glenn Murcutt, Elias Torres, Zissis Kotionis, Pekka Korvenmaa, Peter Zumthor, Toyo Ito, Alberto Campo Baeza, Juhani Pallasmaa and Mary Miss.
The early 1990s was a time of economic and social upheaval. As stated in the introduction, the Symposium topic – Architecture of the Essential – stresses “the need to discuss what should be the essence of the art and technique of building when all that one can afford are the basic essentials”. The book captures a significant moment in recent architectural history. Digital design was new to the industry and the starchitect cult was just about to unfold. The essays by Zumthor, Ito and Pallasmaa are in this respect especially interesting.