Today is a flag day in Finland in celebration of Alvar and Aino Aalto and Finnish architecture and design. Today is the 125th anniversary of Alvar Aalto’s birth as well.
Alvar Aalto’s life
Alvar Aalto was born in 1898 in Kuortane, a small municipality in Finland. When Alvar was young, his favourite subject in school was drawing. After matriculation he moved to Helsinki where he qualified as an architect in 1921. Alvar received first commissions soon after that. He established an office in Jyväskylä in 1923 and received a lot of work.
In 1924 Alvar married Aino Marsio who was his assistant. They travelled quite a bit and had a daughter when arrived back in Jyväskylä. The family moved to Turku and family grew with one son. Alvar was inspired by functionalism which showed up in his work.
He travelled to the United States in 1938 and 1939, before the Second World War. Alvar worked as a visiting professor in MIT in Cambridge, Massachussets. He started to think how to rebuild Finland after war. When Aino passed away in 1949, Alvar tried to seek comfort in travel and in work. He had the first commission in Helsinki and won many competitions.
He married his colleague, architect Elsa-Kaisa (Elissa) Mäkiniemi in 1952. Alvar built his summer home to a countryside in Central Finland and started to design a fast motor boat. He started experimenting with bricks which were used in the buildings he designed. Alvar and Elissa travelled very much.
Alvar Aalto passed away in 1976. He has designed furniture, textiles, glassware, sculptures and paintings. He is definitely one of the most important architects in Finland.
Enso-Gutzeit Headquarters
Today I visited on one of buildings designed by Aalto. There are many buildings to choose from and this time I selected the Enso-Gutzeit, later known as Stora Enso headquarters in Helsinki. It was completed in 1962 and is one of the most controversial building Aalto has designed. The surface is white Carrara marble, which reflects sunlight beautifully.
Finnish-Swedish Stora Enso is in the top 5 forest products companies in the world. Construction for the new headquarters has started and it will be ready in 2024. Stay tuned, more on that later!
Finnish Architecture and Design Days are celebrated on the first week of February as well. Check out my post here.
