5 Years of following Alvar Aalto

Dear reader,

University of Jyväskylä

today exactly five years ago for the first time I set foot into the Alvar Aalto Museum in Jyväskylä. Before visiting the museum I had only known the Finnish architect Alvar Aalto's name and perhaps seen some of his buildings here and there. I always had an interest in design and architecture but it was this particular visit that changed my life in some way. I got so inspired by this museum's visit that two days later on October 31, 2010 I started writing this very blog. Five years have pasted since. The goal I formulated at the very beginning, namely visiting all 80 Alvar Aalto buildings that exist in the world sounded at that time almost unfeasible. Today five years later I feel I have come closer to this goal than I ever thought. While it was easy to visit first local sites in Jyväskylä and nearby towns, things became more concrete when I did a two days train trip to Seinäjoki, Alajärvi and Rovaniemi in summer 2011. Then in 2012 the destinations became international with Estonia, Denmark and even Iceland as well as Germany later that year. It got a bit more quiet during 2013 and 2014, but I was still visiting key landmarks in Finland such as the Paimio Sanatorium, the House of Culture or Finlandia Hall. Nevertheless, the biggest challenge seemed always to reach the sites across the Atlantic. Finally this year the dream became true and I was able to visit all three sites located in the United States of America, while staying there for a one year research visit at UCLA. I was able to combine all three visits with a 45 day USA roundtrip by train that not only gave me the opportunity to see the entire country but also to visit all three Alvar Aalto sites at once.

By now the amount of visited sites has almost reached 60. Visits have been documented in 45 posts and with more than 1 000 pictures. There are not many of Alvar Aalto's key landmarks left that I haven't visit and covered in this blog. Among the very few ones is certainly the Viborg Library in Russia, the Neue Vahr High Rise-Building in Bremen and the Essen Opera House both in Germany, Maison Louis Carre in France as well as the Church of Santa Maria Assunta in Italy. In Finland remains still the inside of the Finlandia Hall and the Villa Maire in Normakku and Villa Kokkonen in Järvenpää.

But also in terms of readership this blog has seen a steady increase. By now almost 43 000 visitors have been counted and every month approximately 1 500 new visitors are joining. I am especially thankful for this interest which also keeps me up and traveling, photographing and writing about all this wonderful pieces of architecture made in Finland.

Säynätsalo Town Hall

Also the sixth year of this blog will be seeing many new posts related to new site visits. I am currently planning to capture the missing sites in Central Europe with a round trip in summer 2016 by train. Besides that still many sites remain in Finland. Also the update of previous posts will continue as soon as I am able to find time in order to revisit some of the sites especially located in and around Jyväskylä and Helsinki. So dear reader stay tuned and thank you for your ongoing support by reading this blog.