A light touch of serenity

Aside from having a surname that guarantees him first place in encyclopaedias, Alvar Aalto is famous for being the nice modern architect.

Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe, the best known 20th-century architects, were inspired by the hard edges and straight lines of machines, but Aalto liked bricks, wood and curves.

Other architects proposed the ruthless replanning of cities on rationalist lines. Aalto, born and brought up among the forests and lakes of Finland, talked about harmony with nature, and using architecture to help make a better society.

The dominant mood here is serenity even if Aalto, a heavy drinker, might not have been completely serene in himself.

His work is beautiful but subtle, relying on the fall of light, the nuances of his materials and unobtrusive decisions about the placing of rooms or buildings. This makes his buildings hard to communicate at second hand, in books or exhibitions. Vibrant in the flesh, they can look flat and dull on the wall or page.

He is not often exhibited in Britain, which makes the Barbican's new exhibition very welcome. The Japanese architect Shigeru Ban has curated and designed the show, with a few works and sayings of his own inserted among those of Aalto. Ban, like Aalto, has a light touch and wants his designs to do good in the world. He is famous for, among other things, the cardboard shelters he designed for earthquake victims in Kobe.

It doesn't quite come off. Much of the show is mute and conventional - models, pictures on the walls, chronological order - with occasional interventions by Ban, including a cardboard ceiling that seems contrived.

The best parts are the handsome new models made by Ban's studio, and the chairs and door handles that Aalto himself designed. That said, Aalto was one of the greats, and this show is worth seeing for the glimpse it offers of that greatness.

Until 13 May. Information: 0845 120 7550.

Alvar Aalto: Through The Eyes Of Shigeru Ban
Barbican Art Gallery
Silk Street, EC2 8DS