Aalto's often-idealistic reform projects - his Renaissance revival, his rationalistic utopia - his writings as a propagandist during the war years; his comments on his own crucial travels to Italy, the 1939 New York World's Fair, and the "decadence of public buildings"; critiques of building and furniture design - all reveal the progression of ideas and convictions that grew and changed throughout Aalto's life, both reflecting and influencing the course of architecture in the twentieth century.
