Year 8

Dear readers,

Eight years ago I started this blog with the ambiguous goal to visit all Alvar Aalto sites around the world. Now eight years later, I have almost reached my goal, with only a few buildings left on my list. Also in this year I was again able to visit new and exciting Aalto sites. A special highlight certainly was the visit to Villa Schildt in Tammisaari that had been opened to the public for the very first time this summer. The remaining site visits focused more on Aalto's work in my current home town, Jyväskylä. While having a closer look at Aalto's first works also attending the Aalto Week brought many new in-sights on my understanding of Alvar Aalto's work. Besides that, it was also exciting to re-discover the University of Jyväskylä's main building, that had undergone a very long renovation. It was interesting to see the building brought back into its original stage.

While slowly running out of new sites to discover I decided now to focus more on buildings that I had already visited in the past. Especially in Jyväskylä there are several buildings that are currently under renovation and I am happy to report more about them once they have been brought back to their old glories. Nevertheless, there are still a few buildings outside Jyväskylä that I haven't visited yet. On top of the list certainly is the Library in Vyborg / Russia. I hope I will be able to visit this exciting site in the upcoming summer. Also have I kept an eye on the guided tours of Finlandia Hall in Helsinki and the Villa Kokkonen in Järvenpää but unfortunately so far they have never matched with my busy schedule. I hope, however, that I will be successful in visit those three sites in the upcoming year.

Until now, I would like to thank all of you for your active readership and for leaving so many friendly and encouraging comments on my blog. As always please stay tuned!

Alvar Aalto Week in Jyväskylä

Hi there!

During the last week of August (27.8-2.9.2018) the Aalto Foundation in collaboration with the City of Jyväskylä and other partners in the Central Finland region organized the very first Alvar Aalto Week in and around the Aalto City Jyväskylä. It was a fantastic week with a rich program and many great opportunities to have a look behind the scenes and get access to places that are normally not open to the public. I was lucky enough to find time to participate in many of the events and this post is dedicated to the first Alvar Aalto Week in Jyväskylä.

The week started off for me on Tuesday with the rare opportunity to visit the Aalto Foundation's archive that is located in Jyväskylä not far from one of Aalto's first realized projects, the Nuora House, which I reported about earlier this year. Although the Aalto Foundation's chairmen had invited me already last year to visit the archive, I was glad that I had the chance to participate in one of the guided tours that were offered during this theme week. Indeed, I was lucky as I was the only participant in one of the hourly organized guided tours and received therefore a more customized tour based on my own needs and interests. It was impressive to see how many documents the archive has on file, we are talking here about tens of thousands of documents. These were not only all the original drawings and pictures taken of all the Alvar Aalto buildings but many more documents such as business letters as well as personal letters of Alvar Aalto, almost all publications ever produced about Alvar Aalto and even invoices his office had issued for their architectural services. This archive is certainly a gold mine for any researcher or historian who wants to understand better who Alvar Aalto was and how this translated into his work. I had a very inspiring conversation with the staff of the archive that helped me a lot in increasing my understanding of Aalto's work from a totally new perspective compared to the classic site visits and books that I have read about him and his work so far.


On Wednesday I visited the Alvar Aalto Museum and participated in the free guided tour on the temporary exhibition: The Housing Problem - Alvar Aalto's Housing Architecture. The exhibition gave an interesting in-sight into Alvar Aalto's approach on housing, discussing both private houses and mansions as well as the housing of factory workers and the latter design of high-rise buildings. Although, I had visited almost all the buildings that had been presented in the exhibition, the guided tour gave me still some new understanding on certain aspects of this buildings and answered some of my questions that had remained open during the visits. What certainly stood out in the exhibition were the many original photos from the time when the buildings were completed as well as several scale models and original furnitures that were on display.

On Thursday I briefly visited the so-called Aalto Lounge that was compiled as a temporary exhibition in the Jyväskylä Art Museum consisting of furniture and other decorative elements designed by Alvar Aalto.








On Friday I participated in one of the guided bus tours which the City of Jyväskylä offered for free. Starting point of the three hours tour called Aalto Bravo was at the City Theater that was, as well, designed by Alvar Aalto. Although there were still plenty of tickets left the day before when I got mine, the bus was quite full when it left.

After viewing a few important Aalto buildings from the bus, such as the Administrative Center of Jyväskylä or the University Main Building, the bus made its way out of town to its first real destination, Säynätsalo. The town on the island is famous for its Town Hall which is regarded as one of Aalto's most important works. I had plans to re-visit this site this summer because the purpose of the building had changed a bit since the city council and administration had moved out of the building. After the building had been standing partially empty for some time an entrepreneur had started to open the building again for the public with a new concept of turning the building into a tourist destination with exhibitions, a bakery-shop and rooms for rent. I was curious to see the changes and happy that the tour stopped for quite a while at the town hall. The guide even showed us around before there was time left to explore the building further on our own. It was nice to be able to access more of the rooms that were formally restricted to the employees in the building only. The Town Hall of Säynätsalo is certainly a masterpiece and it is nice to see that it is now better accessible to the public as well.

After leaving Säynätsalo the tour went on to another site that I had planned to re-visit as well, the Muuramme Church. Since my last visit in 2011, the church had undergone major renovations and the ceiling and the benches had been repainted in the original colors, giving the church a totally different look.

You can still find pictures on my 2011 post in case you want to compare the changes as such. The guide provided us with some interesting in-sights on the church and the renovation it had undergone. The main aim of the renovations was to bring the church as close as possible back to its original state as it was designed by Alvar Aalto. After the visit to Muuramme Church the bus returned directly to Jyväskylä where the tour ended.

One of the highlights of the week was certainly the last day. On Sunday visitors were able to view several apartments in four different Alvar Aalto buildings in Jyväskylä and Säynätsalo. This was certainly an event many local people had been looking forward for long and so did I. The cues at each building were long as everybody wanted to get a climbs of what it must be like to life in an Alvar Aalto building. The first building I visited was the Viitatorni high-rise building.

For years I had dreamed of getting access to this building and one of its apartments. The chairperson of the Alvar Aalto Foundation was kind enough to let visitor to see his own studio apartment that is located in this building. The view from the 11th floor was quite impressive.

The second building open to the public that day was the Aira Apartment House that was originally designed for railroad workers. Here the cue was even longer and some had to wait up to one hour to enter the building. In this building a three room apartment was on display and I was also approached by a journalist who asked me about my opinions on the building. Although my name was not mentioned, my comments were printed the next day in the local newspaper.

Finally, the third building that provided visitors with access was the Alvar Aalto Museum itself. However, this meant not only the regular exhibition space but also the small apartment in the back of the building that was originally designed to accommodate the janitor of the building.

Today, the two room apartment is occupied by the Aalto Foundation and mainly used as office space. The second room, however, is kept as a guest room for visitors of the foundation and shows still many elements of Alvar Aalto's original design.

All in all the Alvar Aalto Week was quite exciting as it provided many interesting in-sights and access to some spaces that I had hoped for quite some years to finally be able to see. I really hope that the organizers will consider to put up similar events also in the future. One could certainly see the large interest among the general public and important role Aalto and his work still plays in this city even decades after his career ended.

Aalto and Tammisaari

Hi there,

Departing Jyväskylä

just a few days ago I did a nice day trip to the city of Tammisaari which is located at the south-west coast of Finland. What is special about this small 15,000 people town is the fact that it is home to two Aalto buildings, a private home and a commercial building. While the commercial building is quite well know the private home has more been of a hidden spot. This was also due to the fact that the original owner, for whom Aalto had designed the house, had been living in the building until the beginning of this year. Because coming of age the owner moved at the beginning of 2018 to a flat and the house was finally opened to the public. Now the Christine and Göran Schildt foundation is taking care of the house and offers a limited amount of guided tours during this summer. Thanks to a work colleague who has read about those guided tours in the newspaper and alerted me I was able to attend one of those few and rare tours. Although the tours are still running until July 19th, they are all sold out by now. I was lucky enough to still get a spot in one of the tours.

However, coming the long way from Jyväskylä, I almost missed the rare chance to attend the booked tour because of a train delay due to a technical fault. Luckily I had booked tickets for the first train from Jyväskylä to Tammisaari departing at 5.28 am in order to be on time for the booked tour at noon. While I supposed to arrive in Tammisaari at 10.02 am, I just arrive on the spot a few minutes before the tour started at 12. Luckily the train company paid for a taxi that drove right to house.

Nevertheless, I still recommend to use the train in order to reach Tammisaari. About 100 kilometers from Helsinki to the west Tammisaari is a comfortable day trip destination and this lovely coastal town has certainly more to offer and to do besides visiting Aalto's great works. It takes about 1.5 hours from Helsinki to Tammisaari by train including one quick change in Karjaa. From the station all sighs are within walking distance.

Site No. 75 Villa Schildt in Tammisaari (1969)

Villa Schildt, as named after the owner and close friend of Alvar Aalto, was one of Aalto's last works. Villa Schildt is in fact the last and the smallest private house Aalto ever designed. The building is also known under the name Villa Skeppet ('ship' in Swedish) which was formed by the local Swedisch speaking residents and also used by the owners although the official name of the building remains Villa Schildt. The name most likely came from the fact that the house had a bit the shape of a ship.

The house is located on Östra Strandgatan 6 in a quiet residential area close to the coast and only a couple of hundred meters away from the actual center and old town of Tammisaari.

As already mentioned Alvar Aalto and the owner of the house Göran Schildt were close friends. In fact Schildt, an art historian and writer, published in 1970 a biography about Alvar Aalto's work and life in four volumes which is probably until today among the greatest works that has been published on Alvar Aalto. Due to the age difference of 20 years but also due to the lack of a father figure, Aalto was like a father to Göran Schildt. What linked them both was their love for the Mediterranean.

While Aalto was designing the commercial building in Tammisaari he discovered the perfect building ground for the house. Aalto wanted to built a house for Schildt in order to bring him back to Finland. Schildt had lost his parental home just a few years earlier and spend most of his time abroad.

For the exterior Aalto used some ideas he had for an art museum in the Middle-East that unfortunately was never realized. Although the tour focused mainly on the interior it was not allowed to take any photographs during the tour. Entering the building through the main door one reaches the lobby that connects all rooms of the house.

The kitchen to the right features also the dinning room which is unusual for Aalto's private houses but is probably due to the small size of the house. The kitchen is kept open which is due to the fact that the lady of the house liked cooking and wanted to have some company while preparing food, providing enough room for people to accompany her. Behind the kitchen is the bedroom which, however, could not be seen during the tour. Opposite to the the front door is the study which functioned as Schildt's work room and is the only room in the house that can be locked. To the left stairs a leading up to the living room which is by far the largest room of the house.

Elevating the living room and putting it on top of the garage was due to the fact that Aalto wanted to use large windows letting in a lot of natural light but at the same time protect occupants to be seen by people passing by the house at the close by road. The living room features besides Artek furniture a lot of art works, such as the largest collection of paintings of the Italian artist Roberto Sambonet in Finland. Sambonet was a good friend of the house and also of Alvar Aalto. In addition there is also a painting of Alvar Aalto on display. Besides that, the chimney is hand sculptured by Alvar Aalto himself.

The backyard of the house features the separate sauna building and a pond that has the same shape as Aalto's famous Savoy vase. 

The sauna is kept separate from the house and in black while the rest of the house is kept in white color.

The backyard is a quiet oasis protected from the street by the house itself.

The guided tour starts in the yellow wooden building next doors that houses also a changing exhibition about Göran Schildt and Alvar Aalto's architecture. Even if you cannot currently participate in one of the guided tours you should definitely visit the exhibition and tour the villa from the outside.

Site No. 76 Tammisaari Savings Bank (1964-70)

The second Aalto site in Tammisaari is located right in the center of the town and you cannot miss it on your way from the railway station. Located at Stationsvägen 6 is the Tammisaari Savings Bank. What makes this building stand out is not only its white color but the fact that it features several elements of the Finlandia Hall, Aalto's landmark work in Helsinki.

The white marble and the large windows as well as the porch speak a clear language and remind anyone familiar with the Finlandia Hall immediately of this very well known building. 

In addition to the bank the building features on its side wing an amount of commercial spaces for shops.

Although less spectacular than the bank section the commercial section clearly features Aalto's hand writing. While the inner yard of the building features some space for pedestrians and benches for rest, the less spectacular back side of the building provides parking space for customers of the bank and commercial spaces.

After participating in the guided tour and admiring Aalto's great works that Tammisaari has to offer I spend the remaining day wondering through the beautiful and well preserved old town. After a visit to the local natural history museum and a short dip in the baltic sea it was time to start my long return trip to Jyväskylä. Without any significant delay I reached back home on the last train of the day. This was certainly a beautiful summer day well spent.