Theme: Aalto homes

Alvar Aalto Kymenlaakso Cycling Route

Kymenlaakso is the single region in Finland with the most buildings designed by Alvar Aalto. If Jyväskylä is called the Aalto capital, Kymenlaakso can rightly be called the Aalto region. In total, Kymenlaakso has dozens of buildings designed by Alvar Aalto: detached houses, apartment buildings and blocks of flats, as well as industrial plants.

On the cycle route you can discover Alvar Aalto’s architecture of the 1930s-1950s in Karhula, Sunila, Hamina and Inkeroinen.

Most of the buildings designed by Alvar Aalto were placed freely in the landscape, taking into account the shapes of the terrain. As a result, the connection to nature is a natural continuum for the views of the houses and apartments. Nature, light and their connection to the dwellings were important to Aalto. The overall architectural approach and the typical elements of Aalto’s formal language are repeated in all the Aalto projects in Kymenlaakso.

Aalto succeeded in adapting his buildings to nature and adding both creativity and artistry to their austere simplicity, and even today people are still attracted to Aalto buildings.

A tourist interested in architecture, history and design can easily spend several days exploring the buildings designed by Alvar Aalto, but also stay overnight in apartments designed and decorated in his style.

There are 4 areas on this route with buildings designed by Aalto:

Inkeroinen factory area

The buildings designed by Alvar Aalto for the Inkeroinen Factory Hill were completed between 1937 and 1956. The complex consists of factory buildings, semi-detached houses on the Rantalinja, terraced houses on the Tervalinja, three detached houses, three blocks of flats, a school on the Tehtaanmäki and detached houses on the Karhunkangas.

Hamina Petkele residential area

In Hamina, you can discover the environment of the Summa paper mill designed by Alvar Aalto and the housing designed by him for the paper mill workers and management in the Petkele residential area.

Apartment buildings in Karhula

Alvar Aalto’s design in Karhula is represented by the apartment buildings completed on Karhunkatu between 1945 and 1947, known as the ‘tennis houses’.

Sunila factory and working-class housing area

Alvar Aalto’s handiwork is immediately recognisable from the moment you arrive in the extensive and coherent residential area. The factory, completed in 1938, and the adjacent residential area, originally built between 1937 and 1939, form a whole whose design clearly shows the influence of Alvar Aalto’s 1930s modernism.

For more details and directions see the route in Outdoor Active

By Visit Kotka-Hamina

Villa Tammekann

Situated in Tartu, the Granö Centre of the universities of Turku and Tartu was opened in April 2000.

The Granö Centre is located in a house designed by Alvar Aalto in 1932 as the residence of Professor August Tammekann and his family. The Turku University Foundation purchased the building from the children of the family in 1998 and the Villa Tammekann was repaired following Alvar Aalto’s original designs as closely as possible. In 2001, The Turku University Foundation was awarded the prestigious EuropaNostra -medal.

The centre has been named after J. G. Granö, former rector of the University of Turku and professor of geography of the University of Tartu. J. G. Granö was one of six Finnish professors invited to Tartu in the early 1920’s and he contributed greatly to further Finnish-Estonian university cooperation, founding, for example, the Finnish-Estonian school of geographical thought. His son, Fellow of the Academy of Finland, Olavi Granö was the initiator for establishing the cooperative centre for the universities of Turku and Tartu.

The Granö-center operates  today mainly as a residence for researchers. The stay for the individual scholars at Villa Tammekann lasts from 1-2 weeks up 12 months. The cosy athmosphere and good architecture creates new ideas and good motivation!

In 2012, Villa Tammekann was accepted onto the Iconic Houses -website, the international network connecting architecturally significant houses from the 20th century.

Villa Tammekann belongs to The Alvar Aalto Route – 20th Century Architecture and Design, as the only site in Estonia.

Scandinavia in Berlin and Wolfsburg

Take part on a three-day tour, where you get to spend two days in Berlin and one in Wolfsburg. On this tour you can admire and get to know the architecture, landscapes and sights accompanied by an exclusive English-speaking guide. During the tour, you will also get to experience a few interesting buildings that Alvar Aalto designed in Germany.

The tour begins by exploring Berlin, a city where there is definitely plenty to see and do. The first two days of the program provide an in-depth tour of the city’s interesting architecture and attractions. You will also get to enjoy the exciting atmosphere of the city and also do some shopping while you are at it. After taking over Berlin, the tour continues on a day trip towards the city of Wolfsburg, which has a lot to offer in particular for Aalto enthuastictics.

The gems of Finnish aviation history in Vantaa

During this day tour you will learn about the history of Finnish aviation and get to admire a special Aalto destination in Vantaa. The Aviation Museum offers a lot to see and experience for both aviation enthusiasts and novices, and is ideal for a family trip. The museum displays approximately 70 aircrafts from different eras, as well as many other aviation-related artefacts such as engines and scale models. Visitors can get acquainted with travel, hobby and military Finnish aviation by touring the two large permanent exhibition halls and a third hall for changing exhibitions.

The architecturally significant terraced house complex Aerola, designed by Alvar Aalto, is also located in Vantaa, within the Veromies neighbourhood, and it is strongly linked to the history of the Helsinki-Vantaa Airport. The terraced houses were designed as apartments for the employees of Finnair’s predecessor Aero Oy, and they were built on Pyhtäänkorventie street during 1953–1955. Aerola’s terraced houses are also the only buildings designed by Aalto that are situated in Vantaa, and they are a valuable part of the city’s cultural heritage.

Nelimarkka Museum and Villa Väinölä in Alajärvi

Nelimarkka Museum

The Nelimarkka Museum in Alajärvi was founded by the painter and professor Eero Nelimarkka (1891-1977) in 1964. The building was designed by his friend, the architect Hilding Ekelund. Since 1995 it has functioned as the Regional Art Museum of Southern Ostrobothnia. It focuses on displaying regional Ostrobothnian art, but art education also plays an important role in its activities.

Temporary exhibitions, workshops and events for visitors of all ages are organized regularly. Since the mid-1980s the museum has also run an international residency program for artists. In the summertime you can enjoy coffee and cake in the light atmosphere of the museum’s: “Café de Nelimarkka”. The museum shop is open year-round. You can book a customized tour or a workshop at the museum. The Nelimarkka museum maintains as well the nearby Villa Nelimarkka and Villa Väinölä, located in the centre of Alajärvi.

Villa Väinölä

Alvar Aalto designed Villa Väinölä as his brother’s home and office. It is said that Aalto drew the first version of the building after his honeymoon to Italy. Villa Väinölä’s original plan, sketched in 1925, was based on drawings made by Aalto of ancient roman atriums witnessed in Italy. However, the plan was found to be too expensive and visionary to implement, so Aalto simplified the design according to his brother’s wishes, and a more affordable version of the building was completed in 1926. Aalto also designed an outbuilding at the north end of the main building, which was completed in 1938.

Väinö Aalto and his family moved away from Alajärvi in the early 1950s, and in 1952, the municipality of Alajärvi bought Villa Väinölä. During the ownership of the municipality of Alajärvi, an additional wing was added to the southern end of the building, in order to function as a reception area for a doctor’s office that operated in the Villa at the time. Villa Väinölä has at one time hosted also a tax office, a dental office and leisure offices of the municipality of Alajärvi, as well as housing and building inspection offices. The ownership of the building was moved over to the Nelimarkka Museum in 2015.

The latest renovation of Villa Väinölä was completed in the spring of 2018, and it was financed with the help of the National Board of Antiquities, Aisapari and the City of Alajärvi. Exhibitions, events and architectural residencies are currently organised at Villa Väinölä. Through the Nelimarkka Museum, the building can also be booked for meetings and private parties.

Aerola Terraced Houses in Vantaa

When Finland was selected to host the 1952 Summer Olympics, it also contributed to the construction of the current Helsinki-Vantaa Airport. Scheduled air traffic in Finland had also grown rapidly at the turn of the 1940s and 1950s. Malmi Airport, which had been completed in 1936, was no longer able to meet the growing demand, and a decision was taken to build a new airport. The Helsinki-Vantaa Airport (1952) was completed just a little over a month before the start of the Olympics, and soon afterwards Alvar Aalto’s Architect Office was commissioned to design employment housing for the staff of Finnair’s predecessor Aero Oy in proximity to the new airport.

In early drafts from 1952, the terraced houses of Aerola were originally placed right next to the brand new airport. Later, in 1953, the site for the new residential area was relocated to its current location, a little further from the airport. Aerola’s terraced house complex consists of two identical 2-storey terraced houses stepping on a slope, each comprising 20 apartments of different sizes.

Entrances open on both sides: the west side gives access to the studios and one three-room apartment located on the south end of the building, while the three-room and one four-room apartments, which develop on two floors, have entrances on the east side. Each apartment has an independent entrance fronting onto a small courtyard area. The garages are located at the end of the buildings, and the basements include separate storage rooms for all of the dwellings. In the middle of the plot, between the two rows of houses, stands an L-shaped building that houses the sauna, laundry room and heating centre.

This whitewashed building complex was constructed between 1953-55, originally planned as part of a larger entity, which also included four apartment buildings and a few detached houses. After the first phase consisting of the terraced houses and the sauna and laundry building, however, the project was not developed further, and a vocational school was later built on the site.

Aerola’s terraced houses complex is an important historical entity within the city of Vantaa. In order to protect it, the city even altered an originally approved redevelopment plan in 2008. In addition, some elements of the interiors of the apartments are also protected by law. The year 2018 saw the beginning of renovation works in Aerola under plans made by the architectural firm A-Konsultit in connection with the Vantaa City Museum and the Alvar Aalto Foundation. Renovation of the first terraced house was completed in the spring of 2020 and renovations of the second house have since begun.

Kinkamon Aalto in Varkaus

Kinkamo is the first building that Alvar Aalto designed in Varkaus. Kinkamo was designed to be a weekend cabin in Kopolanniemi for the workers of the A. Ahlström factory. Kinkamo is a good example of Aalto’s efforts to adapt the building to its natural surroundings: it is located on a lake shore at the edge of the forest and it is not visible from the opposite shore, or from passing boats. The Warkaus Factory club-association approved the construction of Kinkamo during a general meeting held on May 12th, in 1937. The name Kinkamo was the result of a name competition organized in 1939.

Kinkamo is a joint project of Alvar and Aino Aalto: Alvar Aalto was commissioned a plan for the building in 1937, while the interiors were designed by Aino Aalto. The long building has a spacious veranda with a roof supported by sloping columns, a large open living area with a fireplace, and a separate sleeping wing. It also has a kitchen, drying room and a room for the housekeeper. The building’s horizontal line is emphasized by the horizontal timber cladding and narrow horizontal windows in the sleeping wing.

While designing Kinkamo, the architect couple played with historical motifs in an unusual manner. The originally open sleeping alcoves, furnished with built-in bunk beds, recalled a traditional Finnish rural style. The large dining table and separate chairs inside the dining hall, as well as the light fixtures, combine functionalism with medieval impressions in a unique way. The perforated decoration on the curved backrest of the dining chairs is also a practicality: it makes it easier to grab and move the chair. The medieval reference of the furniture conceived for Kinkamo is most clearly evident in one specific chair model: a high-backrest throne chair with four-leaved clover shapes pierced at the top of the backrest and a crown in the middle. Above the dining table is a straight five-lamp chandelier that repeats the motifs of the dining chairs.

Kinkamo is also equipped with a sauna: until 1976 in a structure re-adapted from a modular house designed by architect Kristian Gullichsen, which was then replaced with a sauna designed by architect Seppo Mykrä. The Warkaus Factory Club sold Kinkamo to A. Ahlström Oy in 1953, with the selling price being paid to the Varkaus branch of the General Mannerheim League for child welfare. In 1994, Kinkamo was transferred to Enso Gutzeit Oy, to be used for representation purposes. In the spring of 2019, Kinkamo was bought by Jukka Leväinen, a civil engineering entrepreneur from Varkaus, who then founded the company Kinkamon Aalto, which provides event and conference services.

Seaside museums – Architecture, art and home museums by the sea!

A self-guided museum tour around the Laajalahti bay, outside the usual tourist routes, reveals seven unique museum sites that can be experienced together or separately. In addition to the scenic surroundings, the sites are united under interesting architecture and the fact that they have originally been homes and / or workspaces. The Didrichsen Art Museum, Villa Gyllenberg and Gallen-Kallela museums also feature significant art collections and changing exhibitions.

In Alvar Aalto’s home and office building in Munkkiniemi you can take part in guided tours all year round. Aficionados of architecture and design will get an insight into the interesting life of the Aalto family and everyday life of architects’ office. During the visit, you can also explore the beautiful gardens surrounding the buildings.

On a guided tour in Tamminiemi you will learn about the house’s most famous and longest-lived inhabitant: president Urho Kekkonen (1900–1986), and discover the original interiors and design from the 1970s. Tamminiemi’s legendary tar-smelling, seaside sauna can also be visited during the summer season.

The nearby Seurasaari open-air museum comes alive in the summer. The beautiful and fascinating traditional Finnish buildings, immersed into the magnificent natural setting of the island, constitute a favourite destination for both Helsinki locals and travellers around.

There are as many as two high-quality art museums on the small Kuusisaari island. The Didrichsen Art Museum has 2-3 changing exhibitions each year. The neighbouring Villa Gyllenberg features museum’s permanent collection which includes, amongst other masterpieces, 38 works by Helene Schjerfbeck. In addition, the museum also organises changing exhibitions. On Saturdays during the summer, Kuusisaari can be reached also by water bus running between Market Square in the city centre and Kuusisaari.

The northern shore of Laajalahti bay also offers exciting museum experiences, as well as a pleasant museum café where visitors can spend a relaxing moment. The Gallen-Kallela Museum, located in a castle-like villa designed by artist Akseli Gallen-Kallela, presents the art and life of Gallen-Kallela and his contemporaries with changing exhibitions, as well as exhibitions of contemporary art. From April you can also cycle to the museum on a city bike.

Aalto masterpieces at the Ahlström’s Noormarkku and Kauttua Works

Get to discover the collaboration between Ahlström Ironworks and Alvar Aalto, which resulted in these architectural masterpieces surrounded by pine forests. These buildings receive visitors from every corner of the world!

Get to learn about architecture and lifestyle in the Ahlström’s Works sites designed by Alvar Aalto. In Noormarkku you will get acquainted with the sophisticated Villa Mairea, while in Kauttua you will explore the Terraced House and the Riverside sauna.

Human scale and a healthy lifestyle are an integral part of the architecture of the Kauttua Works area. Here, the visitor is presented with a diverse selection of architectural designs by Aalto. You can start your tour at the famous Terraced House, where you can explore an apartment furnished with Artek interiors. On a guided walking tour, you will also visit the Riverside sauna: the location of the public sauna and laundry for the Ahlström workers, designed jointly by Aino and Alvar Aalto. All around, you will spot several other architectures by Aalto, including the civil servants’ residence and standard housing on the Varkaudenmäki hill.

The visit to the Terraced House also offers the possibility to purchase the vintage Artek pieces on display, while the Riverside sauna also hosts a design shop that features secondhand items as well as new Finnish and Scandinavian design models!

From Kauttua, the tour continues towards Noormarkku Works. The world-famous Villa Mairea is located in Noormarkku, where it stands surrounded by a pine forest. Aino and Alvar Aalto designed Villa Mairea as a home for their friends Maire and Harry Gullichsen; the villa is still partly in private use by the Gullichsen family. On the inside, the beautiful original interiors designed by Aino Aalto are further enrichened by a significant international art collection.

While on the guided tour of the Works, you will also get to explore the Ahlström Voyage -exhibition, and the Makkarakoski sawmill museum.

Hansaviertel Apartment building “Haus 16”

The Hansaviertel residential area in West Berlin was built for the 1957 Interbau Building Exhibition. After the devastation of World War II, the area was rebuilt following principles of international Architectural Modernism. 53 architects from 14 different countries were invited to the project, Alvar Aalto being one of them. In Aalto’s office, design work for the apartment building began in 1954. Aalto made plans for several potential sites around the exhibition area until it was decided to build the “Haus 16” project right in the heart of Hansaviertel, near Hansaplatz Underground Station.

The design of the building was innovative. The building tilts slightly to the west and opens more to the east, allowing natural light to reach all of the apartments. Viewed from the west, the building looks straightforward, but from the east it appears as if it were two separate house buildings. In the middle between the two main bodies, the column-supported, open and covered outdoor atrium connects the opposite sides of the building. This space connects to two separate staircases and elevators, reaching the several floors of the building. This covered outdoor space also gives access to the common courtyard.

The lower floor of the building has 4 apartments on each side and the upper floors each feature 5 apartments. There are 8 floors in the building, which means that there are 78 apartments in total. The largest apartments are 83-90m² in area, and the smallest ones 35m². The building features more larger apartments than smaller ones. The largest apartments were designed according to a familiar courtyard structure, with different spaces grouped around a general purpose room, usually used as a living room, placed in the center. Balconies were also provided to all apartments, to create open-air liveable space for the residents. During the 1957 Interbau exhibition, one of the apartments in the building was open for visits, furnished with Artek furniture.

The Hansaviertel area consists mainly of high-rise apartment buildings and of some smaller residential buildings. Placement of buildings was designed in order to maximise natural daylight exposure and good park views for the apartments. Most of the buildings in the area are of concrete construction and feature predominantly white and gray color.

Terraced House at the Kauttua Works in Eura

The Terraced House in Kauttua is one of Alvar Aalto’s most prominent works also internationally. In 1937, Alvar Aalto received a commission from the A. Ahlström company for the town planning and infill building of the Kauttua ironworks area. The assignment also stemmed from Alvar Aalto’s friendship with the company’s CEO Harry Gullichsen and his wife Maire Gullichsen. Ties to the traditional architecture of the area were deliberately cut, and instead Kauttua was envisioned as a stage for both a new communal life concept, and modern architecture. The first house to be built in the area was a “stairless apartment block”, known as the stepped terrace house, completed in 1938.

The stepped terraced house was designed as housing for the company’s senior staff. Originally, there were to be several such houses placed on the slopes in the area. The stepped terraced house is a concrete example of the architect’s desire to place the building in close contact with nature: the elevation of the multi-storey residential house follows the slope of the hill, in such a way that the entrance to each dwelling is at ground level.

The three upper flats are equipped with a terrace that extends over half of the lower flat’s roof; this way no-one can look onto their neighbour’s terrace. The three lower dwellings have a basement cut into the slope, and contain three bedrooms, a kitchen, a housemaid’s room and a large living room looking out onto the terrace. The top block comprises three small apartments, two of which open with windows towards the rear of the building. The terrace rails and pergolas for creeping plants are unstripped saplings.

Architecture, interior design and art come together in the Terraced House, where one of the apartments (number 3) is open to the public. This apartment hosts varying exhibitions, and a sales exhibition of furniture pieces whose display is rearranged occasionally. The apartment is furnished with vintage Artek models and lighting fixtures, and some of the items are on sale.

Maison Louis Carré

The Maison Louis Carré is one of the most carefully executed and detailed of the private houses designed by Alvar Aalto. Built for a wealthy Parisian art dealer and collector between 1959 and 1963, the house is situated in the small village of Bazoches-sur-Guyonne, in the historic rural landscape near Versailles and Chartres. Although the villa is an expression of Aalto at his most mature, it also embraces the youthful architectonic ideas of his second wife, Elissa Aalto.

Aalto was contacted in January of 1955 by a well-known French art dealer Louis Carré and his wife, who wished to build a villa of the highest artistic quality and material comfort on a large plot Carré had acquired near the village of Bazoches, overlooking a vast panorama that merges historical landmarks and the Forêt de Rambouillet. In addition to the architecture, Aalto was to be responsible for the furnishings – as exclusively designed as possible – and for the landscaping of the whole plot with terraces and plantings.

He designed a house under an immense lean-to roof made of blue Normandy slate, pitched in imitation of the landscape itself. The base and parts of the walls are Chartres limestone; whitewashed brick and marble were also used for the facades. Since the purpose of the house was partly to exhibit gems from the dealer’s stocks to prominent clients in an exclusive domestic milieu, the rooms were divided into an entertaining section and a service section, the bedrooms being connected with the latter. The spacious entrance hall, with large panels that provide surface for the display of art, has a free-form wooden ceiling built in situ by Finnish carpenters, who also realized the stepped wooden ceiling of the large living room. Here, one of the walls entirely opens onto the landscape thanks to a large panorama window.

Specially designed light fixtures, fixed and movable furnishings with many unique touches complete the interior, which rivals that of the Villa Mairea with its modern comfort and magnificent works of art. Mr. and Mrs. Carré’s separate bedrooms are also lavishly appointed, and connected to a Finnish sauna and an intimate garden area sheltered from the wind. The rising pitch of the roof from the kitchen area, office, and the luxurious guestroom makes space for an upper storey containing four bedrooms for the household staff.

The surrounding garden, with its many old trees, was landscaped by Aalto with a system of ‘turf stairs’ i.e., low grassy terraces supported by cleft tree trunks (quickly replaced by stone ones), similar to those used in the Säynätsalo municipal offices and Aalto’s own Experimental House. The garden also contains a theatre cavea built of slate, reminiscent of that enclosed by Aalto’s own architectural office building. A garage, partly embedded into the slope, and a swimming pool complete the picture. The Maison Carré was inaugurated in 1959, but work continued until 1961.