My journey through Alvar Aaltos Jyväskylä continued and this time I visited one of Aaltos first works the Aira Apartment House he designed for Railway Workers in the early 1920s. The site was a bit difficult to find because due to arrival the building didn't seem any special to me. Finally when I found Alvar Aaltos signature on the wall of the building I could be sure that the adress I got was correct. The Aira Apartment House is located in Jyväskyläs city centre at Tapionkatu 2.
Site No. 14: Viitatorni High-Rise Apartment House (1960-61)
As I laid my focuse this time on apartment houses designed by Alvar Aalto I had the same day also a look on the famous Viitatorni Apartment House know by everyone here in Jyväskylä as the Viitatorni. This 13 stories building, by the way one of the highest building in Jyväskylä anyhow, was build in the early 1960s. Located at Viitaniemientie 16 this building seems first when coming from downtown Jyväskylä like any other apartment house. Nevertheless the impression totally changes when one is approaching the front of the building as displayed by the pictures below.
During a further visit in summer 2014 I was finally able to also get a brief view of the inside of Viitatorni. One of the residents were so friendly to open the front door for me so that I could at least enter the lobby of the building. The lobby seen in the pictures below contains mainly the staircase and access to the elevators.
For more pictures on Viitatorni visit also here
This is only a 13 stories building ;)
ReplyDeleteThank you for this correction, you are actually right this building has only 13 stories :-)
ReplyDelete