This book is a unique comparative study of two of the greatest figures in modern architecture - Le Corbusier and Alvar Aalto. By assessing the historical, personal and intellectual influences of their attitudes to nature and the creative direction of their work, this study offers a new understanding about the diversity at the heart of modernism. Through an analysis of the architects' own writing about their ideas and philosophies, a better understanding is gained of their ideas for urban living and by looking at their most widely known work, the authors analyse the architects' intentions to build nature into the heart of their architecture. The authors argue that there are many similarities between the attitudes towards nature held by Le Corbusier and Aalto, and that these similarities had an important place in the generation of their architecture.