In many works of Le Corbusier and Aalto, however, a balance, or perhaps a tension, is achieved between the rectilinearity of standard techniques, and the diagonal which expresses exceptional conditions. In his apartments at Bremen (76), Aalto has taken the rectangular order of Le Corbusier's basic dwelling unit, which makes up his high-rise apartment slabs (77). and distorted it into diago- " . .. " rials in order to orient the dwelling unit toward the south for light and for the view. The north-facing stairs and
circulation areas remain strictly rectilinear in plan. Even in the most extreme units an essential rectilinearity and regularity of space is maintained. And in Aalto's Wolfsburg Cultural Center (78) the rectangular configuration of the whole composition is barely maintained as he organizes the necessarily diagonal shapes of the auditoriums.