As an architectural whole, the Administrative and Cultural Centre in Seinäjoki is unique on a global scale.
The Seinäjoki Aalto Centre was designed by world famous architect Alvar Aalto. As an architectural whole, the Administrative and Cultural Centre in Seinäjoki is unique on a global scale. The six buildings are gathered right in the middle of Seinäjoki city centre, within walking distance from Seinäjoki railway station.
A guided walking tour led by a local guide from Seinäjoki will include the The Cross Of The Plains Church, Seinäjoki City Hall, Seinäjoki City Theatre, Aalto Library and the world’s largest collection of Aalto glassware. You will also see the architecturally spectacular Apila Library, designed by JKMM Architects.
The Alvar Aalto Library in Vyborg, completed in 1935, was one of the buildings that brought Aalto worldwide fame. The history of the competition and design for Vyborg Library is crucially linked with Alvar Aalto’s changeover from classicism to functionalism. The ideas developed for the Viipuri Library competition remained central to the work of Aalto’s office throughout its existence.
Amongst Alvar Aalto’s buildings, the Vyborg Library has had an unusually varied history. Aalto won the competition for the Library in 1927 with a completely Classical proposal, but because of the Great Depression, the construction of the Library was postponed several times. The planned site for the library building also changed from the original plans and also funding initially allocated to the Library was used, instead, to erect a statue of an elk in front of the site where the Library would have later been. The Library was eventually completed in 1935, a modern and progressive building with a formal language developed from Aaltos previous projects: the Turun Sanomat building and Paimio Sanatorium.
The building has two main elements: firstly the library itself, with its various departments, and secondly the socially active part of the library, the clubrooms. The Vyborg Library was also one of the first libraries in Finland at that time, that offered possibilities for other social activities in addition to the library itself. A lot of attention was also focused on the transformability of the spaces inside the building, where for example curtains were used as a room divider. The building consists of three separate libraries: the main hall, the children’s library and the newspaper hall. The main entrance to the building is placed in the library’s northern facade, while the children’s library and the newspaper reading room are located on the eastern and southern facades of the building. In addition to the distinct design language of the building, functionalist features can also be recognized in its light and unostentatious façade, flat roof, skylights and in long rows of windows running the length of the building.
In the Second World War, Finland lost Vyborg to the Soviet Union. The Vyborg library survived the war period, but it remained unused for a decade before some renovations were carried out under the Soviet authority. After the Soviet repairs, the Library functioned again as the Municipal Central Library as originally intended, and was the soul of cultural life in Vyborg.
However, eventually over time the Library fell gradually into disrepair. Eventually, at the start of the 1990s, the city of Vyborg asked Aalto’s architects office for help with planning the repair work. With support from the Finnish Ministry of the Environment, architect Elissa Aalto set up a restoration-working group, which developed into the current restoration association. The goal of this restoration project that spanned national borders was to re-instate the building’s original architectonic value. The renovation, which initially progressed slowly for financial reasons, was given a boost in December 2010 by funds from the Russian government.
The restored Library was opened to the public in November 2013; marking an end to twenty years of work. The restoration work of the library has since received awards for the exceptionally high-quality result and the laudable international cooperation. Nowadays the library is considered to be an important public building for the locals as well as a popular destination for travellers.
Alvar Aalto was chosen to design Ekenäs Savings Bank in 1962. The bank is located right in the center of Ekenäs town, within Raseborg city. From the market place of Ekenäs, the bank appears to be a two-storey building, but actually it has three stories altogether. The impressive marble façade, opening to the side of the market place of Ekenäs, is similar in style to the Enso-Gutzeit main building in Katajanokka, Helsinki. The other facades of the building are slammed brick. Alvar Aalto was given complete freedom in the design process; most of the interior spaces and furnishings are also his creation.
Construction began officially in the summer of 1967, and was completed in November of the same year with the roofing, followed by celebrations. The first tenants of the building gradually moved in as early as February 1968, while the bank’s operations did not move into the premises until March 1969. In 1967, the name competition for the new bank building was also announced, won by the Ekecenter – Tammikeskus. The official inauguration of the bank building was held on the 110th anniversary of the Savings Bank in August 1969. Drawings for the second phase of Aalto’s project were published in 1976. Extension work was completed in 1986 under supervision of architect Sverker Gardberg.
Ekenäs Savings Bank still operates in the building. The bank hall is located on the ground floor and a lunch restaurant called Piazza is located on the third floor of the building. The building has included restaurant services since 1968.
Aalto also designed a restaurant to the upper floor of the bank building. Nowadays restaurant Piazza, with interiors inspired by Aalto, welcomes lunch goers
Restaurant Piazza also offers, upon request, a special Bank Manager menu, alongside a brief introduction to the interesting history of the building.
The Bank Manager’s menu includes:
Appetizer served to tables (mushroom soup served in a cup)
Main course from the buffet (fish, vegetable or meat option)
Desserts served to tables (small treat)
The Bank Manager’s menu features high-quality, locally produced ingredients and includes favourite delicacies selected by the current Bank Manager at the Ekenäs Savings Bank. The price for the dinner is € 35 per person. The Piazza is also suitable for groups (a minimum of 10 people) throughout the year, from 4 pm to 8 pm on weekdays or at weekends, and also during lunch time.
In addition to the dining experience, you can also have a guided tour of the old town of Ekenäs. Guided tours can be ordered in Finnish, Swedish and English. Another design by Alvar Aalto, Villa Skeppet, is located within walking distance from the old town. Villa Skeppet will open to the public in December 2020.
Inquiries and reservations to the Piazza restaurant are handled by Päivi Purontaus, tel +358 50 387 1277, email
Detmerode is a residential community linked to the industrial city of Wolfsburg, a town where several Aalto buildings had found place: a cultural centre whose design started in 1958, and the Church of the Holy Ghost in 1960. For this small suburb, Aalto was commissioned a plan for a church in 1963, filling the gap between a much-frequented shopping centre and a park. The church, also intended to be used for secular events such as concerts, is sheltered behind a portico that connects it to the shopping centre´s plaza. It is equipped with 250 seats, which can be extended to 600 when needed.
Built in the shape of a truncated wedge, the church has a slightly pitched lean-to roof. The ceiling features nineteen circular acoustic reflectors 250 centimetres in diameter, that give the impression of floating in the air. Under the chancel is a grotto-like crypt reserved exclusively for more intimate church ceremonies, such as baptisms and weddings. To the right of the glazed entrance facade rises an unusual bell tower consisting of twelve concrete columns of equal height; amongst them, the bells are nested, hung in a stepped formation.
The L-shaped parish building west of the church is also connected to the plaza portico. The hexagonal parish hall and confirmation class premises are situated directly above the parish centre´s spacious entrance hall. The complex also includes facilities for youth clubs, a vicar´s office, and housing for the vicar and chaplain. The church centre was built between 1965 and 1968.
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.
The Seinäjoki Library was designed as a part of the Aalto Centre in Seinäjoki and the building completed in 1965. Originally the public and other working spaces were mainly located on the ground floor of the building whereas storage and exhibition spaces were located downstairs. Aalto also designed the main part of the built in fixtures, furniture and light fixtures as a part of the entity of the building.
Aalto’s library functioned as the main library of the city until 2012. In 2012 the new main library Apila was completed and Aalto’s library was connected to it with a under ground passage. Aalto’s library was renovated to its original state during 2012-2015. The renovation was considered to be a great success and an example to other renovation projects. Also the furniture and the lighting for the reading room were restored during the renovation and were then installed in their original locations. Nowadays the regional collections, genealogy and a separate children’s literature department operate in the library. Arts, architecture, history and ethnology literature is also placed in Aalto’s library.
Aalto’s Seinäjoki library also has an important collection of design glass by Aino and Alvar Aalto on display in the library’s original magazine reading room. The collection is owned by the city of Seinäjoki.
Aalto’s Seinäjoki library has a very simplified façade and the strips of windows that are covered with slats dominate it. It is considered to represent a free-form hall library type. A lot of attention was given to the lighting of the building and especially in capitalizing the natural daylight. The lending desk is located right in the middle of the building. Behind it Aalto designed a lowered reading space which is a typical feature in Aalto’s libraries. The layout of the building combines forms of a rectangle and a fan, which also plays an important role in the surveillance of the building.
Jyväskylä Workers’ club building was the first notable public building that Alvar Aalto got to design after his graduation with Aino Aalto. Aalto was given the design commission for the new building in the city centre by the Jyväskylä Workers’ Association in 1924. The plans for the building were made in 1924 and it erected the following year. Aino and Alvar Aalto also designed the furniture, light fixtures, and fittings specially for this building.
This building also marked Aalto’s breakthrough and it is one of the principal works of Alvar Aalto’s Classical period. Workers’ club is also one of the most historically important building of its time. It was protected by law in the city plan already at the beginning of the 1970’s. The provincial government of Central Finland protected the building in 1978 and finally the Finnish Government protected the building in 1986.
The lower level of the building is basically a glazed colonnade containing a restaurant, two café rooms, and the entrance hall to the theatre. A monumental staircase leads up to the upper floor. The largely windowless upper floor contained an auditorium used for political assemblies and as a theatre with stage, parterre, balconies, and foyer. These facilities were used by the workers’ theatre and later by the city theatre until the new city theatre completed in 1982. Nowadays the building is used as a venue place for meetings and special occasions.
The foundation of the Jyväskylä Workers’ club were laid on 22nd of September in 1924. Into the stone foundation they hid old issues of their Työnvoima -magazine and the workers club 35-Year History, pictures and money.
When the Workers’ club completed it had a distinctively different character in the street scene of Jyväskylä. The building represents typical 1920s Nordic Classicism and it has features from Renaissance architecture. Such as the Palladian windows, the medallions details and the balustrades which dominate the facade. Also the restaurant space inside the building has a round atrium shape. The earliest sketches also show a large, colonnaded forecourt but it was not built.
Workers’ club has been refurbished and some changes have been made over the years. For example the restaurant spaces have later been fully remodelled. More restoration and repair work were done in the 1980’s and some parts of the building were brought back closer to the historically accurate condition. The latest renovation was in 2008 when the theatre space Aalto-sali was renovated.
The first buildings at the Seminar Hill were built already in 1880’s. Konstantin Kiseleff’s redbrick buildings are the oldest buildings in the area. Seminar Hill and the Jyväskylä University Campus area is nowadays protected by law. The University area represents many historical layers and it is therefore considered to be one of the areas richness as well. It is also considered to be a good example of an area where modern and older buildings go together seamlessly.
The Jyväskylä University campus is largely made up of the buildings designed by Alvar Aalto for the Jyväskylä College of Education, later the University of Jyväskylä, in the 1950s. Aalto won the architectural competition with his URBS proposal in 1951. Various buildings were then completed all the way to the 1970’s based on Aalto’s plan. The proposal name URBS refers to a city and therefore all the buildings were placed to the area in a city-like form.
The layout, based on the winning competition proposal, is derived from the American campus principle. Originally, it consisted of buildings designed to serve both the teaching and administration of the College, including the main building and library, the teaching-practice school, the refectory and hall of residence, two gymnastics buildings, an indoor swimming pool built by the student union and subsequently extended several times, plus a residential building for the staff and a boiler house. Aalto’s original scheme forms a crescent or ’horse-shoe’ around the sports ground.
The Defence Corps building was commissioned by the Southern Ostrobothnia Defence Corps, which used the three-storey building with mixed functions as its headquarters. The main building was originally used as offices for the Civil Guard of South Ostrobothnia and the Lotta Svärd Association. The top tier of the building was in residential use.
The semi-subterranean ground floor, which contains a circular assembly hall, foyer and cloakroom, is built of stone; the office level and the residential storey (at the top with its own access stairs) are of wood. Together with the main building, a separate outbuilding was designed and erected on the other side of the courtyard. The ground floor of this two-storey building of rendered brick contains a garage, guardhouse, arms depot, sauna, and laundry; there are four small apartments in the upper storey. An unusual stair arrangement on both sides of the arched entrance provides separate access to most of the various facilities. One of the short sides of the courtyard is enclosed by a low wooden storehouse, designed some years later. The courtyard itself was intended as a drill and parade ground.
After the Second World War the building was re purposed for other uses. Since then many tenants have been operating in the building, including The Federation of Finnish youth association, a school and a travel agency. Nowadays the building is managed by the Provincial Museum of Southern Ostrobothnia. Currently it houses the Civil Guard and Lotta Svärd Museum. The main building holds museum exhibition and meeting spaces, an info booth and museum shop. The outbuilding has more exhibition spaces and a administration space for the museum.
The Defence Corps building has been preserved in its original condition and it’s buildings and their yard have also been protected under the law regarding building protection since 2002.
The building represents refined neoclassicism and functionalist features as well as Ostrobothnian construction heritage. The building’s unusual stair hall, facade pilasters, and assembly hall painted in Pompeiian style make it one of the chief works of Alvar Aalto’s Neo-Classical period. Some part of the decorations in the buildings, including furniture, lamps and ornament details were also designed by Aalto.
Aalto originally designed a loggia-like staircase for the end entrance, but it was not built.
The Suojeluskuntalainen statue, work by artist Pentti Papinaho is located in the yard of The Defence Corps building.
AaltoAlvari is the only swimming hall designed by Alvar Aalto. AaltoAlvari also has a gym, sports hall and a cafeteria. AaltoAlvari is also part of the main campus of the Jyväskylä University campus that was designed by Aalto as well. The original design of the swimming hall is from the 1950’s. Soon after its completion the desire was expressed to extend the building. Further extensions were made in the 1960’s, 1970’s and in the 1990’s. The oldest part of the swimming hall was completed in 1955 and it has a 25 meter swimming pool. In 1964 children pool was added and in 1968 the gym was built. In 1975 a 50 meter swimming pool was also added. The latest addition to the building is the spa section which was completed in 1991. Following the renovation in 1991 the swimming hall was converted into a versatile spa-like centre, and was given the name AaltoAlvari.
AaltoAlvari was protected by law in 1992, except for the spa section. AaltoAlvari has also been renovated over the years. The first renovation started in 1998 from the 1950’s part. The latest renovation was completed in 2013 and then the focus was for the 1970’s part. The spa section from the 1990’s is in its original state. Renovation for the spa section as well as adding an extension to it, is being planned. The goal of the future renovations is to make AaltoAlvari a leading water sports centre which will serve both the locals as well as travellers better.
In 1950’s it became more common to build swimming halls in Finland, however it often involved various arrangements for example concerning funding. In the case of Aalto’s swimming hall the client-developer was different than for all the other building on the campus, where it has been the National Board of Building, that is, the Finnish state. Here the client-developer was the University of Jyväskylä Student Union whom the city of Jyväskylä and the Finnish state partially funded as well. At the same time when the architectural competition for the campus area was in preparation in 1950, Jyväskylä Student Union was in the process of designing a hall with Ilmari Niemeläinen, who was an architect as well as a Olympia swimmer. Therefore the hall eventually became to be a part in the architectural competition for the campus as well.
In Aalto’s proposal URBS the new buildings were grouped around the sports field and he also preserved more of the older buildings in the area than the other competitors. URBS included the plans for the swimming hall and the Student Gymnasium Building already on the draft plan. The south-west end of the building was built adjoining to the Student Gymnasium Building. However, the main entrance to the swimming hall was designed on the north-west side of the building, that is, facing out from the campus area. On its completion the swimming hall was open not only to the college students but also to the citizens of Jyväskylä. This was one of the things in Aalto’s plan that got praised.
After Aalto won the competition, the swimming-hall also grew in size later. It was separated from the gymnasium building and a spectator seating and changing rooms and washrooms were added to the plan. The original sizes of changing rooms and washrooms meant that they could be used only by one group at a time. Aalto’s swimming hall opened for public on 19th of May 1955.
Alvar Aalto’s most prominent works in Kouvola are located in Inkeroinen within the area of the Ankkapurha Culture Park. The buildings designed by Aalto in Tehtaanmäki, Inkeroinen date back to 1937 to 1956. These include the industrial buildings of the Anjala Paper Mill and the Tampella Co. Housing Area, including Rantalinja semi-detached houses, Tervalinja terraced houses, three engineering personnel houses and housing blocks for the workers of the mill. While in Kouvola, also make sure to check the Kasarminmäki gateposts, which the young architect designed for the garrison area when he was doing his military service.
The area is complemented by the Tehtaanmäki Primary School finished in 1940 and the Karhunkangas housing area of single-family homes, where most of the residential buildings were completed in 1938. The Tehtaanmäki Primary School is the only elementary school designed by Alvar Aalto that is still in its original use. The town plan designed by Aalto in 1937 covered the entire centre of Inkeroinen, but only the Karhunkangas area and the area adjacent to the mill were ever implemented.
The centre of Kouvola is also an interesting attraction to architecture enthusiasts. The administrative centre of Kouvola representing modernism is a nationally significant built cultural environment catalogued by the National Board of Antiquities. The Town Hall of Kouvola (Bertel Saarnio, Juha Leiviskä, 1964 to 1968, 1969) is an outstanding work of modern architecture classified by the international DOCOMOMO organisation.
The renovated pedestrian street Manski with its shops and cafeterias beckons you to have a cup of coffee and a rest. Those craving for culture make their way to explore the high-standard exhibitions of the Kouvola Art Museum belonging to the Poikilo Museums, and the museum building flooded with light.
Villa Skeppet was the last home Alvar Aalto designed. Almost all the ideas and solutions that Aalto developed during his career are seen in Villa Skeppet. Aalto designed this house in for his friends the author Göran Schildt and his wife Christine. Göran Schildt’s passions in life; sailing and his love for Mediterranean culture were taken into consideration when Aalto designed the architecture and the furnishings for Villa Skeppet. Villa Skeppet is situated on a nearly level, park-like site with a view across the eastern bay harbour of the idyllic small town.
The lower parts of the villa are built of white rendered brick, whereas the large, fan-like living room which rises above the entrance and garage front is a timber construction, clad with vertical weatherboarding. The living room, which opens onto a wedge-shaped balcony, has large landscape windows on the sea side and an open fireplace designed by Aalto as an abstract sculpture.
Göran Schild alongside with his wife would residence Villa Skeppet mainly during summer. For this reason, the building has retained nearly its original condition. Nowadays the building is owned by the The Christine and Göran Schildt Foundation. It opened its doors to public momentarily for the first time in 2018. After renovations Villa Skeppet will be open for public permanently in 2020.
The living room is integrated with the central hall by means of a common ceiling borne by monumental beams, open balustrades, and two stair landings. The hall also provides access to the author’s quiet study, the bedroom, and the combined dining room and kitchen. The sauna is in a separate wooden wing linked to the main building by a latticework wall and a baldachin, both in free form.
In the centre of the inner yard is an amoeba-shaped lily pond and behind it a shed with a summer dining room. A lot of attention were also given to the landscaping designs. The garden is shielded from view by several screens consisting of diagonally placed vertical boards.
We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.Ok
