Alvar Aalto in Turku (2)

After my first visit to Turku in Mai this year, I got now in December a second chance to visit this exiting town at the west coast of Finland again. Last time I already presented the first of altogether three buildings designed by Alvar Aalto in Turku the Office Building for Turun Sanomat Newspaper. Now it is time to present also the two buildings left. The participation in a EU-project brought me again to Turku and at this point I would like to thank the EU for paying the trip and the exiting stay in a hotel designed by Alvar Aalto!!! Yes you read right I spend a night in a Alvar Aalto building. A dream became true.


Site No. 38: Southwestern Finland Agricultural Cooperative Building in Turku (1927-28)

After my arrival at Turku railwaystation I had to find the Southwestern Finland Agricultural Cooperative Building located in Humalistonkatu 7 because this was not only my place for spending the night we also had our EU-project's meeting in that building.

The meeting took place in Alvarium a conference and meeting center which is located in the ground floor of this very building. The building is not anymore used as for what it was originally designed for by Alvar Aalto. While nowadays different shops and restaurants found a new home in the ground floor, the upper floors are manly used for accomodation a hotel. Even so the function of the building has changed over the years and many things have been rebuild still some of the typical elements of Aalto's early works can be seen. Here are now some pictures from the entrance hall of Alvarium:

After the meeting and a fine christmas dinner it was time to accomodate the hotel. The hotel is run by the Finnish low-cost hotel chain "Omenahotelli" or apple-hotels. Unfortunatelly the hotel did not show any elements of Alvar Aalto's work, inside it looked like any other hotel as you can see in the pictures below:

After a good night sleep in this very Alvar Aalto building the next morning started with a proper breakfast. Then it was time to discover the third building designed by Alvar Aalto in Turku.


Site No. 39: Standard Apartment House in Turku (1927-28)

This apartment house is located in the city center of Turku in a silent side road surrounded by many other residental buildings. That was also why I passed by several times before I finally realized that I already found the building I was looking for. The address is Läntinen Pitkäkatu 20. The building itself does not look any special, there are some shops in the groud floor and appartments in the upper floors.Unfortunatelly the weather was not that great during my stay in Turku, the quality of the pictures are quite bad and i apologise for that.

During a third visit to Turku in July 2013 I finally could re-do the outside shots under much better weather conditions than when I was there the last time in December 2011.

Alvar Aalto in Helsinki and Turku

After I have been absent for a longer time, well my final thesis kept me quiet busy, now I am back and today I am going to present two new Aalto buildings which I visited during this spring.

Site No. 16: The Finlandia Hall (1962-75)

The Finlandia hall locate in Helsinki is maybe on of Alvar Aalto's most famous work. According to my opinion it is one of Aalto's greatest building he ever desinged. The Finlandia hall contains a concert hall as well as a congress wing and became quiet famous as in 1975 the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe had its meeting there. During that meeting the Final Act was signed. The Finlandia Hall located at Mannerheimintie 13 was build between 1962 and 1975. I briefly visited the Finlandia Hall in the end of April but did not had the chance to enter the building as it was closed at that day. I also could not get proper pictures as some renovation work was going on at the time of my visit. I hope I will later be able to deliver more pictures also from inside.

More pictures and information on the interior and the upper floors as well as the concert halls can be found the Update 1 and Update 2 of the Finlandia Hall.


Site No. 17: Office Building for Turun Sanomat Newspaper (1928-29)

In Mai I had a short visit in Turku where I got the chance to have a very brief look at the office building of the local newspaper Turun Sanomat which belongs to Aalto's early works designed in the late 1920s. Thanks also to my friend Antonio who is a big Alvar Aalto fan as well and who showed me this building among many other nice places in Turku.Well the building itself does not look any special I guess if Antonio would have not know where it is located I would have passed it many times without even noticing it. The address anyhow is Kauppiaskatu 5.

On my arrival at the railway station I also found this kind of announcement  regarding Alvar Aalto and Turku. Turku is by the way the European Capital of Culture 2011 together with Estonian's capital Tallin.