綜合阿爾瓦・阿爾托激進且前衛的名聲，以及他在赫爾辛基的建築職涯所面臨的事業困頓及停滯不前，人們開始期待他能發想出激進的建築宣言，以強化他原先所具備的進步意象。然而，他設計的阿爾托自宅（Aalto House）所展現出的謙遜、保守、舒適和輕鬆氛圍卻十分令人驚訝，這清晰地表明了他對於正統現代主義中意識形態、風格化和形式特徵的抗拒，也說明了他著重於家庭氛圍的舒適感和感官上的愉悅，更同時揭示了這位三十七歲建築師出人意料之外的成熟。相較於創造出引人注目的形式和具備視覺效果的焦點，阿爾托夫婦選擇喚起根深蒂固的傳統價值和永不過時的家居喜樂。阿爾托自宅無疑是以牧場意象作為建造的發想設定，其散發出一種烏托邦式且具前瞻感的調性，但或許當這棟房子置身於現今富裕與唯物主義的社會環境時，它將不再顯得如此謙遜低調，例如在缺乏「斜屋頂」和「屋頂露臺」等這些基本家庭生活象徵的前提下，肯定會引起人們的驚異和質疑。⋯⋯（全文請見實構築季刊06期）

Considering Alvar Aalto’s radical and avant—garde reputation, as well as his professional disappointments and the hesitation with which he was received in Helsinki, one would have expected him to design a radical architectural statement in order to reinforce his progressive image. Yet, the humility, understatement, cosiness and relaxed atmosphere of the Aalto House are quite surprising. It clearly reveals his rejection of the ideological, conceptual and formal characteristics of orthodox modernism in favour of domestic comfort and sensuous pleasure. The design also reveals the unexpected maturity of the architect at 37 years of age. Instead of creating a strikingly formal and visual showpiece, the Aaltos chose to evoke images of deep—rooted tradition and the timeless pleasures of home. No doubt, at the time the house was built in its pastoral setting, it also exuded a utopian and Visionary ambience. Presumably it did not appear as humble and as it does in the middle of the wealth and materialism of today. The absence of a roof, the prime symbol of domesticity, as well as the image of the roof terrace, for example, must have evoked both wonder and suspicion.