Alvar Aalto's Life

Hi there, and welcome back to my blog. Today I would like to present two new Aalto sites which I visited in Helsinki, The Studio Aalto and The Aalto House. It was really interesting to see where Aalto worked and where he lived. I guess from all the sites I visited to far these two were the places that brought me the closest to Aalto's work and his life.

Site No. 47: Studio Aalto in Helsinki (1954-63)

Both the Studio Aalto as well as the Aalto House are located in the district of Mukkiniemi which can most conveniently be reached by tram line 4 from the city centre of Helsinki in about 20 minutes. Get off at the stop called "Tiilimäki" and walk up the Tiilimäki street until you reach number 20. The house is run by the Alvar Aalto Foundation and open to the public. Guided tours are arranged for visitors. Further information for opening hours and entrance fees can be found here. If you visit both the Studio Aalto and the Aalto House you will get an discount at the second site so safe your entrance ticket!

The building itself is a bit hidden from the street by a large wall, the front entrance doesn't show towards the street but towards the drive. Behind the building there is a inner yard with a small nice garden and seating facility in form of a half circle with different levels like which reminded me of an ancient theater. Large windows allow a lot of natural light to flow into the building.  

The entrance area in the ground floor contains also a small collection of books about Alvar Aalto his work and life:

The offices of the architects, still in use by the staff of the Aalto Foundation:

Alvar Aalto's desk:

The show room of the Studio:

Very efficient use of day light:

The Studio contains many models of buildings designed by Alvar Aalto among them also a model of the Studio Aalto itself:

A model of the Töölö area (a district in central Helsinki) which supposed to be entirely redesigned by Alvar Aalto. In the end unfortunately only the Finlandia Hall was realized:

A model of the "Neue Vahr" High-rise apartment house in Bremen / Germany, a site I haven't visited so far:

And finally a model of the impressive Aalto centre in Seinäjoki which I visited in Summer 2011:

Site No. 48: The Aalto House (Riihitien Talo) in Helsinki (1935-36) 

Not far away from Studio Aalto is Alvar Aalto's home the so called Aalto House or "Riihitien Talo" in Finnish. The Finnish name obviously came from the address of the property which is Riihitie 20. Also this building is run by the Aalto Foundation and open to the public, guided tours are arranged for visitors. For a exact schedule, entrance fee and opening hours please consult the following link.

Finally I got to see the house Aalto designed for his family and of course for himself as well. Before the Studio Aalto was built Aalto used parts of his house as his studio. Once his architecture company had out-grown the space of the facilities he moved his work to the 1950s new build Studio Aalto. But still the Aalto House contains the original studio:

The largest part however of the Aalto House contains the living space for the family Aalto which is devided into two floors. The living room is located next to the former studio which can be seen in the background of the following picture:

The dinning room next to the living room:

The stairs leading to the second floor where the bedrooms are:

Various bedrooms for the parents, the children and guests ...

 

Bathrooms

... a small living room in the second floor ...

... and a large balcony:

Finally many of Aalto's design elements can be found on display at various spots in the house:

Alvar Aalto in Imatra

Site No. 46: Church of the Three Crosses (Vuoksennikska Church) in Imatra (1956-1958)

Once again a new site from Finland and a new city as well. The Church of the Three Crosses is a very well known work of Aalto in Finland maybe one his most famous work in Finland after the Finlandia hall. I visited the church last summer while spending some time at my relative's place which are living close to Imatra. Once I told them about the blog I am writting they were more than pleased to drive me to the church. Therefore this post is dedicated to them, thank you for the lift M.!

Covered by forest the Church of the Three Crosses is located in the town part of Imatra called Vuoksenniska which is also the reason why the church carries the name Vuksenniksa Church. The architecture of the church shows a lot of commons with other churches designed by Alvar Aalto, typically the shape of an irregular trapezoid. A special feature of the church is that the main space can be devided into three different sub-spaces or areas separated by walls that can be moved. During my visit all the three spaces were connected and the walls removed. Each of this three spaces have a own individual lighting and color theme. The church is also famous for its good acoustics.

The Three Crosses which gave the church its name:

Alvar Aalto in Germany

Site No. 45: Hansaviertel Residential Building in Berlin / Germany (1955-1957)

My flight to Berlin

Finally after a long absence I am back with a new Aalto site and a new country, Germany. After Finland, Germany is the country with the second most buildings designed by Alvar Aalto and it is also my nativ or nowadays second home country. A business trip brought me to the capital Berlin which is one of the four Aalto cities in Germany. Even though my stay wasn't very long I had the chance to visit the Hansaviertel Residential Building located in Klopstockstraße 30-32 errected in the mid-1950s in West-Berlin. But here are now first some impressons from German capital Berlin:

U-Train 9 at Hansaplatz station

The easiest way to get to the Hansaviertel is by U-Train 9 untill the stop "Hansaplatz". The underground station is located right next to the building. Leave the station in the direction of Kloppstockstraße / Hansabücherei. When leaving the underground station turn right and you will already see the white Hansaviertel Residencial Building.

Here are now some pictures from the building seen from the street. Even though it is just a a residencial building like any other and kept in a very simple way still when having a closer look you can see so many details which make this building unique like all the other Aalto buildings I have visited so far. Unfortunatelly it was not possible to visit the inside of the building.

A speciality of this building is the painting on the ceiling in the entrance area. According to the information given at the spot this painting was drawed by Aalto himself and he also supervised the choice of the exact color and the painting process itself. During renovation work in later years the painting however as overpainted by white color and it was in 2007 that the painting was recovered. The painting shows clear elements of Aalto's savoy vase which is currently produced by Iitala.

Some information about the building and especially about the painting in German provided by the embassy of Finland who has financed this exhibition.

The second Year

Hi there!

Another year has passed and this blog has now been existing for two years. This is a great chance to look back and summarize a bit what has happend so far. Altogher 44 out of 80 Alvar Aalto sites in four different countries have been visited and those visits have been documented in form of various posts containing my personal impressions as well as more than 500 pictures. So far more than 6 000 people have visited this blog, in average about 20 visits take place every day. Thank you very much my dear readers for your interest I hope you will also stay tunned in the future!


Also in the past month I visited many stunning Alvar Aalto sites mainly here in Finland but unfortunately I could not find time to write about those visits or to post pictures so far. I hope I can post more in the upcoming weeks, among the new discovered sites are:

Church of the Cross Lahti

• The Aalto House in Helsinki (Alvar Aalto's home)

• Studio Aalto in Helsinki (Alvar Aalto's offices)

• Church of the Three Crosses in Imatra

• Church of the Cross in Lahti

and I also have taken new pictures from the inside of the Finlandia Hall in Helsinki, the Muurame Church and the freshly renovated Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences at the Univerisity of Jyväskylä. Beside that my next visit is scheduled which will be in Germany where I am planning to visit the Hansaviertel Residential Building in capital Berlin.

Studio Aalto Helsinki

Church of the Three Crosses Imatra