Theme: Office buildings

Alvar Aalto in Alajärvi – life and work

Alvar Aalto spent many summers in Alajärvi in his childhood and later had a summer house of his own. For Aalto, Alajärvi represented leisure time with family and relatives in contrast to the hectic work at the office. Aalto called this small rural town his spiritual home.

In the scenic Alajärvi one can see buildings from the long span of Aalto’s career, from the earliest assignments to the last of his office. At the Alajärvi Aalto Centre there are 11 locations, including the recently renovated Villa Väinölä, a home Aalto designed for his brother.

The countryside was his retreat during the busy creative years with the assignments and architectural competitions. Alajärvi is located near to Aalto’s childhood home Kuortane, so the region played an important role in his life.

The gems of Aalto’s architecture in Helsinki, Jyväskylä and Seinäjoki

Experience Jyväskylä the capital of Alvar Aalto’s architecture combined with Seinäjoki where Aalto also left an indelible mark.

Jyväskylä, which is located in the heart of the Finnish Lakeland boasts more Alvar Aalto buildings from different periods of his career than any other city in the world. Jyväskylä has thus really earned its title as the Capital Alvar Aalto ‘s Architecture.

Alvar Aalto has left an indelible mark also on the city of Seinäjoki, situated amid the open landscapes of Ostrobothnia. The Aalto Centre in Seinäjoki is a globally significant architectural complex at the cutting edge of modern architecture.

A visit to both cities will give an in-depth insight into Alvar Aalto’s architectural thinking through the decades, while also hearing exciting stories about Aalto not only as an architect but as a designer and a private person. During the tour, you will also see the beauty of the Finnish Lakeland and the vast open fields of Ostrobothnia and enjoy a glimpse of the traditional Finnish way of life in the two towns and the nearby countryside.

Aalto & Bryggman – the Pioneering Modernists

Explore the signature buildings of Turku’s modern architecture on foot and see the fascinating urban environment along the way.

Architect Alvar Aalto resided in Turku between 1927 and 1933. During this time Turku played a significant role in the emergence of new architecture and furniture design. Your guide will introduce you to the exterior of three transitional works of Aalto’s functionalism: Southwestern Finland Agricultural Cooperative Building, Office Building for Turun Sanomat Newspaper as well as 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.

Turku and the Office Building for Turun Sanomat Newspaper

Architect Alvar Aalto lived in Turku 1927 – 1933. This period saw the rise of a new era of architecture and furniture design. Aalto co-operated with Erik Bryggman, one of the earliest representatives of Finnish functionalist architecture, who had founded an office in Turku in early 1920s.

The office for the newspaper Turun Sanomat is an Aalto-designed office building located in city centre, constructed in 1928-29. Turku region is also home to furniture factory Korhonen, the traditional manufacturer of Artek furniture.

The Office Building for Turun Sanomat Newspaper, along with Aalto’s other works, Southwestern Finland Agricultural Cooperative Building and the Standard Apartment House, are included in the listing of Built Cultural Environments of National Importance. The international Docomomo organization also includes these sites in its list of iconic 1920s-1970s Finnish modernist sites.

Alvar and Gösta – two Masters

What significance does art, architecture and design have for Finland and its people? What is the relationship between art, architecture and design and the forest industry, the traditional lifeline of the Finnish economy? How close to nature is it possible for Finnish architecture and design to get?

The Alvar and Gösta tour offers, on a human scale, a unique insight into the Finnish way of living in close rela-tionship with nature. The tour offers unforgettable experiences for fans of culture and those who would like to learn more about the Finnish way of life in the midst of the most beautiful Central Finland landscapes, where lakes, rivers and forests are ever present.

Säynätsalo Town Hall

The invitational competition for Säynätsalo Town Hall was held in 1949. Aalto won the competition with an entry marked ‘Curia’, and was immediately commissioned to prepare working drawings. Completed in 1952, the building is one of Aalto’s most admired designs. The dominant element of the building is the council chamber, which soars tower-like above the complex. The main material used for the exterior as well as for the representative areas of the interior is bare red brick.

The building has a variety of functions. Aalto laid out four two-storey wings around a square courtyard set one storey higher than its surroundings. The raised courtyard provides access to the former municipal administrative offices and the library, which continues to serve as the local library for Säynätsalo. The office spaces now function as art galleries and exhibition areas. The municipal officials’ residences located in the west wing of the building now primarily serve as accommodation. The spaces on the lowest floor still serve their original purpose as rental commercial spaces for local businesses. During the summer, the Town Hall keeps its doors open daily for visitors, and guided tours are conducted in Finnish and English.

Säynätsalo Town Hall offers guest rooms and apartments for overnight stay and also for longer-term accommodation for researchers and students. The Aalto Residency Programme is an international residency programme focused on architecture and design. The residence is designed mainly for students, researchers, or professionals of architecture and design, however representatives of other arts and sciences are also welcome. The residence apartments are located in the residential wing of the town hall. Read more about the Aalto Residency Programme here.

Helsinki Energy Office Building

Helsinki Energy Office Building was designed for Helsinki Energy, former The Office Building of the Helsinki City Electricity Company. It is located in the the city centre of Helsinki, in Kamppi area. The building’s location is part of Aalto’s city-centre plan from 1961. Together with Finlandia Hall, Helsinki Energy Office Building is the only building realised part of Aalto’s city-centre plan. The designing process started in 1965 and the building finished in 1973.

Aalto designed the new building to form an integrated architectonic whole with the electricity substation already on the site from 1939. The electricity substation was designed by Gunnar Tacher. The buildings are linked by the line of their roofs. Therefore Helsinki Energy Office Building is a good example of the seamlessly combination of a new building with an earlier one. Helsinki Energy Office Building is nowadays a substantial part of the Kamppi cityscape. 

Apart from housing the company’s the head office, the building also has the main electricity and heat-generation control rooms, the electricity substation and the customer-service department. The street level was to be the customer-service floor, while the upper floors were reserved for offices. There were conference rooms on the top floor, plus the staff restaurant. The street-level customer-service hall got natural light from skylights, which resemble the ones that were also used in the National Pensions Institute building in Helsinki earlier.

Helsinki Energy Office Building was also a total work of art for Aalto’s office, therefore all the original interiors were also designed by Aalto. Over the years the interiors have been changed but in some spaces they have restored the furnishings back to the originals. The façades of the building are corrugated sheet copper and the current façade lighting is from the 1990s. Glazed blue and white ceramic tiles designed by Aalto were used for the interior walls of the building. 

Helsinki Energy Office Building is well-preserved in its original state as it has been in the care of its single owner for over 40 years. The building is still used for its original purpose and only a few alterations have been made, so Helsinki Energy Office Building has certainly withstood the passage of time well.

The surrounding areas in Kamppi district have gone through some changes over the years. The latest change being the Kamppi Shopping centre that was built in 2006. Helsinki Energy Office Building is nowadays linked partially to the centre for example with its underground passage. After the renovations, a coffee shop was also opened at the Helsinki Energy Office Building customer-service floor.

National Pensions Institute, Main Building

National Pensions Institute (The Social Insurance Institution of Finland KELA) Head Office is close to the centre of Helsinki. The richly nuancedly monumental main building represents the best of Aalto’s office buildings. The building (1953-1956) is still in its original use.

Aino and Alvar Aalto won the design competition for the head office in 1948. New designs were made when the first plot was changed for another. The floor plan for the building on the new triangular plot was divided into smaller building units, which reduced the impression of a large building mass. A raised inner courtyard sheltered from the traffic in the street is left in the middle of the building. Its character as a public building has been emphasized by its exceptional siting in contrast to the neighbouring buildings. The building is split-level and is lower on the park side.

The complex comprises 310 rooms and 22,500 m2 of floor space. The facade materials are red brick, copper, and black granite. The building is distinguished throughout by workmanship and materials of high quality: all details are carefully studied and the interior design is exquisite, especially that of the management floor and the conference rooms. Aalto developed several new variants of his standard furniture for the Institute, a whole series of new light fittings, ceramic wall claddings, and a variety of textiles.

The general public has access only to the customer service hall, three stories high and lit by three prism-shaped lantern skylights. This room originally contained twenty-eight unroofed interview cubicles in which applicants could present their cases undisturbed to the staff. Of special interest is the tiny library, it is a miniature version of Aalto’s renowned early work, the Viipuri Library.

The intended site was a block marked off by Mannerheimintie, Töölönkatu and Kivelänkatu, though a neighbouring block facing Hesperiankatu was given as an alternative. The entire project was to be funded by the the Social Insurance Institution of Finland, which looked forward to obtaining a good, reliable return on its investment.

Aalto was commissioned to develop this extensive plan further, and he worked on it until 1952, when problems with the site led to the decision to build on another site altogether. The entire original plan for the National Pensions Institute was scrapped in 1952, when a much smaller, triangular site in Taka-Töölö (bordered by Nordenskiöldinkatu, Messeniuksenkatu, and Minna Canthinkatu) was selected.

In order to avoid the oppressive feeling of a large office building in a crowded urban setting, Aalto differentiated the workplaces for over 800 employees into a ramified organism spread out among several seemingly individual building volumes with excellent internal communications both above and below ground. The complex forms an irregular U surrounding a raised, planted courtyard sheltered from traffic noise and exhaust gases and with a view of an adjacent park; the height of the building volumes is stepped down towards the park.

Book House

The Academic Bookstore, or ‘Book Palace’, is in Helsinki’s city centre, in the same block as the Aalto-designed office building, the Rautatalo. The building was finished in 1969 and it is still in its original use. The Academic Bookstore moved in to the building in October 1969.

The plot’s owner, Stockmann, held an architectural competition for the design of the building in 1961–62. Aalto won this with a proposal using the same ideas as in the nearby Rautatalo.

The design of the copper-clad façade on Keskuskatu takes into account the adjacent building’s façade. The building’s main interior space, the central hall, corresponds in its ideas to the marble interior courtyard of the Rautatalo. The central hall gets natural light from the prism-shaped skylights. The floor and closed balustrades of the balconies running round the central hall are of Carrara marble.

Alterations have been made to the interiors. Some of the rooms on the upper floors originally used for offices have been taken over for the bookshop. Nowadays, there are two cafes. The one in the second floor is partly furnished with original Aalto furniture from the Rautatalo cafe. Open for public as a bookstore and cafe.

Studio Aalto

Alvar Aalto designed the building at Tiilimäki 20 in Munkkiniemi as his own office in 1955. Because of a number of large commissions, the office needed more space to work in. The building is only a short walk from Aalto’s own house, where the office had previously been located. Studio Aalto is one of the best of Alvar Aalto’s 1950s buildings.

“You can’t create architecture in an office environment,” is how Aalto described working in an architect’s office. Aalto designed a free-form studio section for the building, and a drawing room using natural light. The building curves around a stepped, amphitheatre-style courtyard sheltered from the wind. On the upper floor there is a drawing office on a narrow plan, beautifully encircled by natural light from a band of high-level windows. In 1962-1963 the building was extended by building a dining room for the staff, the ‘Taverna’, in the courtyard behind the high brick wall, with an office above it.

Many of Aalto’s best-known works were designed here at the Studio. Alvar Aalto ran the office until his death in 1976. After that, the office continued under the leadership of Elissa Aalto until 1994. The building came into the custodianship of the Alvar Aalto Foundation in 1984 and today it houses the Alvar Aalto Foundation staff. You can visit the Studio Aalto in guided tours for groups. There are public guided tours of the Studio throughout the year.

The white-rendered, wall-like, closed-in mass of the building conceals a garden shaped like an amphitheatre in its inner courtyard. The office staff could sit on the slate steps of the amphitheatre, listen to lectures or watch slide shows projected on the white wall.

The principal space in the building is the curving studio which has a view opening onto the courtyard. Horizontal battens fixed to the high walls of the studio allowed drawings to be displayed there. The rear wall is covered with climbing plants reaching up to the high-level windows and prototypes of light fittings designed by Alvar Aalto are hung in front of the wall.

The slanting bay window of the conference room with its roof light creates the perfect conditions for examining models and drawings.

Alvar Aalto in Alajärvi

The city of Alajärvi in the Southern Ostrobothnia is located close to Alvar Aalto’s childhood hometown Kuortane. Aalto spent his childhood summers in Alajärvi and later had his own summer house there up to 1940s. For him Alajärvi represented leisure time with family and relatives in contrast to the hectic work at the office with all the assignments and architecture competitions. Later Aalto reminisced the place and called it his spiritual home.

In the scenic Alajärvi one can see buildings from the long span of Aalto’s career, from the earliest assignments to the last of his office. At the Alajärvi Administrative and Cultural Centre there are 11 locations, including the recently renovated Villa Väinölä, a home Aalto designed for his brother.

By the lake in Alajärvi there is the Alajärvi Church (1836), designed by the famous architect C.L. Engel. Aalto used to have a seat in the church loft in his youth. In the beautiful churchyard you can see e.g. war
memorials designed by Alvar Aalto and the Aalto family grave.

The Administrative and Cultural Centre in Alajärvi consists of two municipal offices, the Parish Centre, Youth Association building, the former Municipal Hospital, a Health Station, Villa Väinölä and the City Library, which was finished by the architect studio of Aalto.

In addition there are the three memorials and the summer house Villa Flora, that Aalto designed for him and his wife Aino Aalto. Today Villa Flora is under private ownership.

The lobby of the Alajärvi town hall houses Muodon Vuoksi, an exhibition of the classic 1930s glass design of Alvar and Aino Aalto. Alajärvi was a town dear to Aalto and he put his heart and soul into the local projects. The countryside was his retreat during the busy creative years.

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.

Temporary exhibitions, workshops and events for visitors of all ages are organized regularly. Since the mid-1980s the museum has also provided an international residency program for artists.

In summertime you can enjoy coffee and cake in the light atmosphere of Café de Nelimarkka. The museum shop is open year-round. You can book a customized tour or workshop at the museum. Nelimarkka museum maintains the near-by Villa Nelimarkka and Villa Väinölä, located in the centre of Alajärvi. Nelimarkka Museum is open all year round.

Seinäjoki Civic Centre

As an architectural whole, the Seinäjoki Civic Centre, or Administrative and Cultural Centre of Seinäjoki, is unique on a global scale. Seinäjoki is also the location of the Defence Corps Building built in 1924-26, one of the rare works from Aalto’s youth. The Administrative and Cultural Centre consists of six buildings and the Civic Square completed in 1988.

Aalto Centre

The Administrative and Cultural Centre in Seinäjoki emerged from two architectural competitions, and it was built in 1958 to 1988.

Alvar Aalto won a church architecture competition arranged by the Parish of Seinäjoki with his plan “Lakeuksien risti”, Cross of the Plains, in 1951. Seven years later, he won the design competition for the centre of Seinäjoki. Aalto was commissioned to design the town hall, library, theatre and government office building, all of which he had outlined in his competition suggestion.

Aalto’s architectural office designed not only the buildings of the Administrative and Cultural Centre but also the outdoor lighting fixtures, barriers, surface materials for yard areas and plants for the Centre.

Civic Square in Seinäjoki

Alvar Aalto’s plans for the centre of Seinäjoki were based on monumental but easily approachable squares and other open areas between public buildings. When Aalto was young, he admired the antique cultures, and this is reflected as a forum which was also influenced by the Italian piazzas.

The buildings around the Civic Square in Seinäjoki – the Town hall, Library and Seinäjoki theatre – border the square paved with granite paving and cobblestone. According to Aalto’s suggestion, the square was designed for conferences and summer meetings, and of course as a meeting place of citizens. Alvar Aalto wished that squares intended for the assembly of people would promote a “new renaissance” for the forming and exchange of opinions through social interaction.

The Aalto Centre was built gradually. The last part to be completed was the Civic Square with its fountain and plantings. The paving of the square continues on the eastern side across the street, linking the administrative and cultural buildings to the church buildings. This constitutes an overall work of art of six buildings and the square.