Former mill manager’s house Kantola was built in 1937, and it’s located in the residential area of Sunila, in the city of Kotka. Kantola has its own park-like yard with pine trees and a unique view towards the sea and the Sunila pulp mill. Sunila mill was once told to be the most beautiful mill in the world.
Kantola is available for groups to visit all the year round, but the visit must be booked in advance. Events held in Kantola may affect the availability. Kantola’s spaces are also available for meetings and get-togethers, and there is plenty of beautiful and unique space to set up an exhibition or some other event in the main building or the yard. You can use Kantola for small private meetings or bigger events up to 80 people. There is a seaside sauna which is made from logs, with room for 10 people. The view from the sauna’s terrace is wonderful, when looking at the mill’s silhouette and lights against the night sky.
Located within the Noormarkku Works area, Villa Mairea was built in 1939 to serve as the home of Maire (née Ahlström) and Harry Gullichsen. The progressive couple were patrons of the arts, and
they were interested in the clean-cut expression of modernism. Their good friends, the architects Aino and Alvar Aalto, had an opportunity to apply free and experimental design in the planning of Villa Mairea.
These favourable circumstances gave rise to a unique work of art, which is currently considered an international masterpiece in 20th century architecture. Interior design for Villa Mairea was in the hands of Aino Aalto.
Through the life’s work of Maire Gullichsen, Villa Mairea is linked in many ways to the arts institutions and design sector of Finland, for example to the furniture business Artek and Galerie Artek, Free Art School and Pori Art Museum. She played a decisive role in the establishment of all of these.
Erottaja Pavilion is one of Helsinki’s earliest Aalto-designed buildings. This small building intended as an emergency-shelter entrance is close to Helsinki’s city centre.
The Pavilion building is part of a larger plan for a traffic system for the Erottaja district. Aalto’s office won the architectural competition for the entire Erottaja district, but the traffic system was never implemented. The iron-framed pavilion is clad in bronze and granite.
Erottaja Pavilion, close to the Akateeminen Kirjakauppa bookshop, is a curiosity in Aalto’s production, a reminder of his larger, unrealized plans for Helsinki’s city centre.
The Enso-Gutzeit Headquarters building was completed in the centre of Helsinki, in a prominent place in the Southern Harbour, in 1962. Now Stora Enso’s Headquarters, the building is one of Aalto’s most controversial works.
Aalto wanted to design a new head-office building to be part of Helsinki’s shoreline silhouette. The white Carrara marble chosen as the surface material links the building with the row of white facades on the North Esplanade. The building has six floors above ground level. The receding top floor creates room for a roof terrace. The building’s main entrance is through a portico.
The furnishings were carefully designed, right down to the smallest detail. Many of the pieces of furniture and light fittings were designed specifically for the building.
The Rautatalo Office Building was completed in Helsinki’s city centre in 1955. The building got its name (‘Iron House’) from the federation of Finnish hardware dealers that commissioned it. The main space is the light court, or marble courtyard, that extends from the first floor upwards.
Aalto’s office won the architecture competition for the building in 1951. Progressive in its day, the interior of this office building was meticulously designed, right down to the details.
Shop premises were sited on the lower floors. The office floors are built around a covered marble courtyard. The details of the light court lit by natural light evoke the architecture of the Mediterranean countries.
The Rautatalo is still in use as an office building. The building itself and some of its valuable interiors are protected by the Act on the Protection of Buildings.
The House of Culture was completed in 1958 close to the centre of Helsinki. It was designed as a multi-purpose building for the Communist Party of Finland. Apart from the concert hall, the building was intended to accommodate a variety of cultural activities.
The concert hall and theatre are in the redbrick, fan-shaped section of the building, and the office wing is in the rectangular section behind the copper façade. The main entrance is in a low section connecting the other two. The low canopy projecting over the entrance courtyard marks it off from the street, and links the parts of the building together.
With its Aalto furnishings and light fittings and its wealth of details, the House of Culture is protected by the Act on the Protection of Buildings. The building is in use as a concert and event venue.
The tour takes you to the buildings by the renowned Finnish architects Alvar Aalto and Eliel Saarinen, and to see some contemporary wooden architecture.
Transfer to Lahti from Helsinki. After arrival, guided wooden architecture tour in the Lahti harbour area. The wood architecture park is constructed in the vicinity of the Sibelius Hall in Lahti and it consists of buildings and structures designed by the winners of the international Spirit of Nature Wood Architecture Award. The tour also includes visits at the Sibelius Hall and Pro Puu “Pro Wood” Gallery, which promotes the collaboration of wood professionals. The premises include a gallery and shop.
Later on, transfer and lunch at Restaurant Roux, which was chosen Restaurant of the Year in 2016. After lunch it is time to explore the designs of Alvar Aalto and Eliel Saarinen in Lahti with a guide. During this guided walking tour, you will admire the work of Alvar Aalto and Eliel Saarinen. The tour starts from the Lahti City Hall designed by Eliel Saarinen (please note: short indoor tour is possible only during working hours). The Lahti City Hall was completed in 1912 and represents the art nouveau style. From the city hall the tour continues to the Church of the Cross designed by Alvar Aalto and completed in 1978. The acoustics of the church were designed by Alvar Aalto’s son, Hamilkar Aalto.
After the tour, transfer back to Helsinki.
Travel back in time to medieval Turku and follow the footsteps of the modernist architects Alvar Aalto and Erik Bryggman.
The guided walking tour in Turku introduces you to the masterpieces of modern architecture and other interesting historical sites. After the tour we shall have a delicious lunch. After that the tour continues with medieval history of Turku, by the charter bus of the group. You can learn a lot about the history of Finland along the way.
Architect Alvar Aalto resided in Turku between 1927 and 1933. Turku played a significant role in the emergence of new architecture and furniture design. On this tour a guide will introduce you to the exterior of three transitional works of Aalto’s functionalism: Southwestern Finland Cooperative Building,Office building for Turun Sanomat newspaper and the Standard Apartment House.
Having established his own office here in Turku at the beginning of the 1920’s, Erik Bryggman was one of the earliest representatives of functionalism in Finnish architecture. Among others, the tour presents his Hotel Hospits, Atrium and Student Union buildings.
The attractions on the Medieval bus tour are Turku Cathedral, Turku Castle and the Aboa Vetus Museum. As the National Sanctuary of Finland since the 1300’s, Turku Cathedral is steeped in history. In addition to the cathedral you will discover much about old Turku at Aboa Vetus, where the excavated foundations reveal the medieval lanes of the old quarter and are left exposed for the fascination of visitors. The third destination – 700 year-old Turku Castle – offers much to experience. From the top floor, renaissance banquet halls and the round tower prisoner cells, to the scale models of the castle detailing its historical development through to the present day.
