Around 1919 - Herrenas
Manor, a training assignment
at the Institute of
Technology. The plan
comprises a main building,
outbuilding, stables, a
cowhouse with its pile of
manure, and labor
housing. A symmetrical plan, with
narrow staircases and
corridors, and a monotonous
facade with a central
pediment and tall pilasters
in diluted Neo-Classical
style. Unbuilt.
1923
- The Terho Manner
House, Toysa.
Aalto received an
assignment from his
mother's cousin, Terho
Manner, to design and
build a manor-like
complex near Lake
Ponnejarvi. The small
wooden corps de logis
has a verandah with a
colonade in Empire
style. From the
octagonal hall, there
are doors to a salon,
dining room, and bedroom
on the ground floor and
a staircase to the upper
story, which contains
two bedrooms and a room
with log walls in rustic
style. The house is
framed by two L-shaped
lengths with mannered
Classical facade
ornamentation, which
contain a garage, varous
sheds, and the servants'
quarters. There is a
samll summerhouse in the
form of a Classical
temple in the garden.
From the main entrance,
a monumental stairway
divided by garden
terraces leads down to
the lake. The lakeside
buildings have been
demolshed, while the
rest are well preserved.
1923 - The H.
Heinonen Commercial and Residential Building,
Jyvaskyla. A two-story stone
townhouse with a
monumental, centrally
placed entrance niche,
with access to the shop
interior and the
dwelling on the upper
floor. The facade of the
ground floor has an
arcade with desplay
windows between the
columns and a Classical
figure frieze beneath
the entablature.
Unbuilt.
1923 - The
Chief Constable Karpio's
Summer Villa Renovation,
Jyvaskyla. Aalto's
original plan involved
sweeping changes: it
featured a central hall
to permit a two-story
extension of the
building on the steeply
sloping plot. It even
had a garage as one of
its principal motifs.
The renovation was
carried out in
considerably reduced
form in a single story.
Now belongs to
the Alvar Aalto Museum.
Photo from 1979.
1924 - House
for Alatalo Farm,
Oksalankuja 1, Tarvaala,
Laukaa. Recently
restored, the house is a
two-story log villa with
symmetrically composed
facades and a hip roof.
A hall containing a huge
fireplace runs thourgh
the building, connecting
the closed porch at the
front with the verandah
on the garden side, with
large mullion windows. A
large dining
room-kitchen in
traditional farmhouse
style on one side of the
ground floor contrasts
with the rooms in
manorial style on the
other side.
1926 -
Railway Official's Block
of Flats, aka the Aira
Building,
Tapionkatu 12,
Jyvaskyla. The
3-story brick building
contains 18 identical
flats, comprising two
rooms, a kitchen,
bathroom, and hall,
grouped around three
stairways, entered from
the courtyard, which was
planned as a garden.
Around 1924 - The
Nuora House, Jykaskyla.
Wooden house which
originally contained a
baker's shop and cafe on
the lower floor and
three dwellings of one
room and a kitchen
upstairs. The house was
built, and still stands
facing the Taulumaki
Church. It has an
unusual balcony leading
to a staircase inside.
Around 1924 -
Agriculturist Vekara's
Summer Villa, Karstula.
On a surface of
approximately 18.5' x
25', Aalto designed an
exquisite miniature log
cabin with a porch, kitchen,
and living room on the
ground floor and two
tiny bedrooms in the
attic, heated evenly in
the winter by stoves
grouped around a chimney
wall. The house is still
standing.
Around 1925 - Railway
Inspector Tuurala's
Villa, Kintaus.
This stately villa with
Palladian touches was
built on an island in a
lake north of Kintaus
railway station. Destroyed by fire in the
1930s. It comprised
eight rooms and a
kitchen, in two stories
under a mansard roof.
The predominant element
was a magnificent
verandah with a flat
roof supported on eight
double columns. The
verandah roof formed a
balcony in front of a
huge semicircular window
in the top story.
1925 - Block
of Flats for 'Mendelin
Site', Jyvaskyla.
Unbuilt. Plan for
a commercial block of
rented flats, with four
stairways, a couple of
dozen flats, shop
premises at street level
and a cinema for 192
spectators in the
basement. Facade with
regular rows of windows,
rendered surface, and
horizontal moldings
between the stories.
High chimney resembling
a campanile, loggia on
the roof, and balcony
with Palladian window on
the third floor.
1928 - aka
Casa Lauren,
Vapaudenkatu 12,
Jyvaskyla.
Commissioned 1925.
Wooden two-family house,
completely altered in
the 1950s.
Around 1925 -
One-Family House,
unknown location.
Judging by the
inscription, this was a
competition entry. A
simple wooden type
building with a total
residential floor area
of approximately 625
square feet, comprising
a large dining
room-kitchen with a
baking oven, a bedroom,
clothes cupboard and
porch, a simple pitched
roof and a symmetrical
facade with a
Classicizing doorway in
the middle.
1925 - The
Vaino Aalto House, aka
the Atrium House.
Unbuilt. Aalto designed
it for his brother
Vaino who thought it
too expensive. There was
a courtyard in
the middle of the cubic
building, covered for
weather reasons.
1926 -
The Vaino Aalto House,
aka Villa
Väinöla, Alajärvi, Finland. A simplified version of the Atrium
House. Here the
atrium disappeared,
otherwise the room
arrangement remained
basically the same. The
arcade on the garden
side shrank to a high
temple-like porch
flanked by two columns.
The present building has
been extended by one
room on one side and a
loosely connected shed
on the other.
1926 - The Ollila Farm,
Main Building, near
Jyvaskyla.
A discreetly Classical
wooden farmhouse of
villa character.
The house was built, but
was in such bad repair
in 1984 that it was to
be demolished.
Needs verification.
1926 - The Three-Story
Luxury Apartment House,
location unknown.
The house, for
which complete plans
were drafted but which
were probably never
built, contains one
larger and one smaller
luxury flat on each
floor, and has central
heating but no elevator.
1926 - Renovation of
Wooden House, corner of
Vapaudenkatu and
Vaasankatu, Jyvaskyla.
New upper floor facing
Vaasankatu, 19th-century
French doors replaced by
New-Classical Italianate
doors. The renovation
was carried out but the
building was later
demolished.
1926
- The Alvar and Aino
Aalto summer cottage, aka Villa Flora, near
the village of Alajarvi. Designed by
Aino. Low wooden
stuccoed single-story
wing with an originally
sod-covered pitched roof
and a colonnade all
along the long wall
facing the lake.
Contains kitchen, living
room, and bedroom. In
1938, an extension was
built, consisting of two
bedrooms.
1926-27? - Town Plan
for Sammallahti
Industrial Estate in
Jamsa Municipality.
Aalto's first preserved
town plan. It groups the
residential, service,
and administrative
buildings around the
existing factory
buildings. The functions
are divided into various
zones with easy access
to a natural park and
surrounding recreation
areas. The following
types of housing are
indicated: five
four-family houses with
two-room flats, fifteen
two-family houses with
their own gardens,
divided among three
different zones,
allotment gardens for
all families without a
house garden, two large
buildings for unmarried
workers, and two
separate one-family
houses for foremen.
Office building with
tower-like fleche
(spire). Huge
multi-story sheds and
storehouses with
Classical colonnades
along the facades.
Unbuilt.
1926 -
Town Plan for Keuruu.
Aalto took great pains
over this commission and
even received a fee for
it, but his plan was
never carried out. The
drawings have
disappeared.
Around 1927 -
Three-Story Residential
and Commercial Building,
for unknown site.
Simple corner block of
rented flats, with shops
on the ground floor,
four luxury flats with a
tiny servant's room and
a windowless columned
hall in the middle.
Probably not built.
1927 - Employee Housing
for the Wilhelm Schaumann
Company, Joensuu Plywood
Mill. Built. Well-preserved.
A symmetrical rendered
two-story building
containing two flats,
both of them running
through both levels.
In addition to a kitchen
and amenities, one
contains four rooms, the
other six. Do you
have a current photo?
1929 - Standard
Apartment Block, aka the
Tapani Building,
Lantinen Pitkakatu 20,
Turku. Aalto's
interest in
International
Rationalism, which the
Kinkomaa plan had
already hinted at,
blossomed forth.
Commissioned 1927 by the
Tapani construction
firm, which manufactured
standard precast
concrete units: beams of
standard 50 cm width and
wall units one foot
thick; all hollow in
order to facilitate
installation of pipes,
air ducts and
electricity wires. The
six-story building has
shops on street level
and three stairways, and
displays a great variety
of apartments in
instructive contrast to
the standardized
construction methods,
from one-roomers to
three-room flats with a
kitchen and servants'
room. Some of the
facilities contain a
living room which can be
partitioned in various
ways. Aalto furnished some of
the flats with high
quality standard
furniture, which was
exhibited to the
public. Some was
made by the Tonet
company, some specially
designed by Aino Aalto.
Kumeli
Merry Go Round
1928 - Three Summer and
Weekend Cottages for the Aitta
Magazine Competition.
Aalto
won 1st prize in
both categories with "Merry Go Round"
and "Konsol."
The third, "Kumeli," did
not win but gained him a
client. Some examples
of "Merry Go Round" have
been built. One is in
Saynatsalo, altered later so that it
could be lived in during
the winter.
1928 - Block of
Flats at
Uudenmaakatu 6,
Turku. Arvo
Ketonen, owner of Turun
Sanomat, commissioned
the drawings for a block
of rented flats and
shops from Aalto in May,
1928. His plan comprised
seven shops at street
level and 42 flats (from
1-4 rooms) on the six
upper stories. The
depression which
paralyzed the
construction business in
Finland in 1929
prevented implementation
of the project.
1928 - Modernization
of Ilmari Katajas Home,
Tuureporinkatu 3, Turku.
The main alterations
were a new bathroom, a
kitchen with specially
designed cupboards, and
several new doors and
windows for the 8 rooms,
some of them painted
with classical
ornaments.
1930 - Minimum
Apartment Exhibition.
Aalto was the initiator
and chief arranger of
this publicity event for
social housing, opened
on November 29, 1930.
The idea of the
exhibition was borrowed
from the similar CIAM
exhibition in Frankfurt
the preceding winter.
Aalto was responsible
for the complete
furnishing of a bedroom
and a living room with a
dining alcove, while
wife Aino furnished a
minimum kitchen with
various Rationalist
details. The exhibit was
important as an outlet
for the new trends in
home interior design and
architecture, and it was
also significant for
Aalto's furniture
design.
1931 - Competition
Entry for Lallukka
Artists' Home, Helsinki,
Finland. Aalto
took part with 3
entries, 'Lucca' and
'The Bees'. His main
entry 'Lucca' shows 2
building volumes, one
with ordinary flats
facing Apollonkatu, the
other with studios
facing Hesperiankatu,
and linked by corridor
bridges crossing an open
planted courtyard, in
addition to which the
buildings have roof
gardens. The studios are
two stories high and
have a gallery loft. The
five stories of the
studio building are
interwoven in a highly
intricate way, making
all of the apartments
different, partly
because they go either
upward or downward from
the 8 separate entrance
levels. Aalto's entry
was rejected by the jury
because he exceeded the
stipulated 4 stories on
the Apollonkatu side and
placed the studio
windows in the short
walls of the rooms.
1931 - Plan for a Dock
Workers Housing Block in
Kotka. The Kotka
stevedoring (dock
workers) federation
commissioned sketches
from Aalto. Unbuilt.
Early 1930s -
Hunting Lodge for an
unknown client.
Undated drawings in the
Aalto archives which can
be traced back to the
early 1930s show a
semi-Functionalist
single-story wooden
cottage with a
verandah-type porch at
both ends. At one end is
a large living room in
farmhouse style, at the
other two bedrooms,
between them a kitchen
and a cubicle which can
be curtained off.
1932 - Competition
Entry for The Insulite
Company of Finland's
Type House, aka Bio.
The assignment involved
designing a house of
approximately 800-970
square feet fit for
winter habitation using
insulite board, an
insulating material made of sawdust, paper
pulp, cotton waste as the main
material. The Aalto
Archives contain a large
number of sketches for
several variant entries,
including an overhanging
loft inspired by
Norwegian mountain huts.
The single-story plan
which was sent in was a
simple L-shaped box with
strip windows and 4
identical cubicles in a
row. Aalto did not win but his entry
was purchased and
published in Arkkitehti
magazine.
1932 - Competition Entry
for Enso-Gutzeit Weekend
Cottage. This
firm produced
hardboard for building,
arranged a competition
in Spring 1932 for a
small holiday cottage of
approximately 270-377
square feet and a larger
one of approximately
538-645 square feet to
be made of the company's
"ensonite" board. Aalto
sent in a highly
original entry, 'Tuli',
with a fan-shaped plan.
Though it did not win, it was purchased
and praised by the jury
for its clear, cozy, and
practical layout, but
criticized for having
"too many corners".
The drawings were
later published in the
advertising brochure by the company.
1932 - Villa
Temmekann, Tartu.
August Tammekann, an
Estonian professor of
geography, commissioned
drawings from Aalto for
a small private house.
For technical and
financial reasons it was
finally built in a form
(middle photo) which
differed considerably
from Aalto's design. It
had a hip roof instead
of the intended
horizontal, the walls
were made 25 centimeters
thicker so rooms and
corridors are narrower.
It was renovated in
1999-2000 (bottom photo)
using the orignal
drawings.
1934 - Physician's
Residence for
Enzo-Gutzeit, Enso.
In connection with his
exhibition in London in
1933, Aalto came into
contact with the
Enso-Gutzeit
Wood-Processing Company
which hoped to boost its
exports to Britain with
the help of an
experimental house
designed by Aalto for
the Ideal Home
Exhibition at the
Olympia in London. His
serious illness at the
end of 1934 prevented
this project from
materializing. In spring
of 1934, however, he
designed two type houses
for the company to
demonstrate how Le
Corbusier's domino
system could be combined
with light interior and
exterior walls of Enso
bard. The first of these
pedagogic projects was a
two-story house called a
'physician's residence'
which gives the
impression of being a
rather dull, square
'functional box'. No
houses of this type were
ever built.
1934 - Home for
Enso-Gutzeit Officials,
Enso. The project
had the same background
as the 'physician's
residence'. The roof
slab of this bungalow is
supported by 8 concrete
columns and all of the
walls are free-standing.
The house contains 4
rooms, a kitchen, a
large terrace, and a
garage. In spite of the
uncompromisingly
Rationalist idiom, the
flat roof and low
horizontal lines make
the house aesthetically
pleasing; however, this
house also remained
unbuilt.
1934
- High-Rise area for Oy
Stenius, Munkkiniemi,
Helsinki, Finland.
At the end of 1934,
Aalto was commissioned
to design several
residential blocks on
the slope above the
present site of the
Kalastajatorppa
restaurant. Striving to
maximize the sea view,
he placed 4 high blocks
in free-fan formation on
the plot. The size of
the buildings varied
from a narrow tower
block to a building 200
meters long and 14
stories high, containing
over 300 flats behind
the monotonous strip
windows of the vast
facade. This exceptional
colossal design, which
marked the culmination
of Aalto's orthodox
Rationalism, attracted
favorable notice at the
1939 exhibition "Art in
Our Time", at the Museum
of Modern Art in New
York. It was not built.
1936 -
The Alvar and
Aino Aalto House,
Riihitie, Munkkiniemi,
Helsinki, Finland.
In 1934, Aino and Alvar
Aalto acquired a site in
almost completely
untouched surroundings
at Riihitie in
Helsinki's Munkkiniemi.
They started designing
their own house which
was completed in August
1936. The house
was designed as both a
family home and an
office.
The slender mass of the
office wing is in
white-painted, lightly
rendered brickwork. The
cladding material of the
residential part is
slender, dark-stained
timber battens.
Around 1935 - Block of
Flats for the Riviera
Housing Company,
Kaivopuisto Park,
Helsinki, Finland.
This plot now occupied
by the U. S. Embassy
contains some 20 luxury
flats ranging in size
from 484 square feet to
approximately 1,600
square feet. The plan
features a sauna and an
open-air terrace with a
fountain on the roof.
The plan solutions are
neither original nor
particularly successful,
some of the living
rooms, for example, are
poorly lit.
1936 - Summer house for
John M. Gylphe, aka Sonnenblick,
Gloskar Island outside
Hanko. Never built
on account of the war.
The plan contains a
living room with an open
fireplace and fixed
sofas, a small bedroom,
and a miniature kitchen.
The building is in the
shape of an L.
1936 - Master Plan of
Sunila, an
industrial estate. Allto separated the factory
from housing by placing
it on a rocky island
with access from the
mainland via a road
embankment and with a
steep cliff in front of
which ocean-going ships
could be moored. He
scattered the housing
among the hills on the
mainland, creating
Finland's first 'forest
town', that is, a
combination of urban
blocks of flats and a
forest (or what remained
of it). He continued
this work in the 1940s
and 1950s.
1) Sunila factory manager's
residence.
2) Typical worker
housing in Sunila, built
in 1938.
1936 to 1939 - Varkaus.
Aalto's long-standing
association with the A.
Ahlstrom Company began
in the summer of 1936
with the assignment of
improving previous plans for the
industrial town of
Varkaus. Aalto designed the
following housing in Varkaus:
1)
Koivikko House, a chain
house for factory
officials on a plot next
to the church. This
three-story building is
faced with brick and has
bearing transverse walls
reaching through to the
facade, horizontal
weatherboarding between
the windows producing a
strip window effect, and
a room disposition
providing one three-room
and one four-room flat
on each landing for each
of the three flights of
stairs. At one end of
the building is an
indoor ballgame court.
The outbreak of war
prevented construction.
2) House on Savantie for
lower officials. A
two-story chain house
with four flights of
stairs providing access
to two, two-room flats
with kitchenette and one
studio with kitchen per
landing, making a total
of 24 apartments. With
its flat roof and
balonies, the design
makes a very modern
impression, but the
kitchens have wood
stoves, though the house
is centrally heated. The
house was not built.
3)
Wooden houses for
Savonmaki housing area.
The drawings are dated
August - November 1937
and marked as "type A1,
A3, B2, C, and G". They
are evidently prototypes
of the "AA House"
introduced in the 1940s
by the Varkaus house
factory. They have an
asymmetrical hip roof
and feature, a food
cellar, porch, large
living room, kitchen,
two bedrooms, and wood
heating, and have
neither toilet nor
bathroom. Only four such
houses seem to have been
built in the area. The
best-preserved among
them is known as
the "Alvari of
Savonmaki".
4) Allotment
Huts for workers wishing
to cultivate a small
garden patch. The huts
consist of one room of
just over 75 square feet
containing a sofa which
can be converted into a
bunk bed, a tiny table,
3 chairs, and a cooking
recess. In front of this
room is a relatively
spacious roofed verandah
and a tiny larder and
shed. Aalto designed 3
variants in 1939, the
most interesting having
an arching back wall
which merges with the
slanted ceiling.
1936 to 1942 - Master Plan
for Karhula, another Ahlstrom
Company industrial
community. The plan was
executed in stages and
completed in 1942.
1938 - Staff Housing
for Karhula Factory
Employees. Aalto
designed the
prefabricated housing
built by the
construction firm EKA in
1938 to his type
drawings (#6 and #7 for
Sunila) as well as
wooden one-family houses
variable in 3 ways,
built in the Otsola
housing area from 1938
on. Their floor area was
approximately 645 square
feet, sufficient for an
entrance hall, living
room, kitchen, 2
bedrooms, and verandah.
The toilet was in the
large cellar.
1939 - The Anders
Kramer Waterside
Retreat, Karhula.
Unbuilt.
Plans
are missing but the
project is
mentioned in several
letters.
1937 - Staff Housing
for Tampella at
Inkeroinen Pulp Mill.
1)
Aalto made extensive
alterations to the
residence of the local
plant manager, which had
been designed by Finnish
architect Birger
Federley in the 1910s.
The building is now used
as the office of the
wood-processing
division.
2) The Chief
Engineers house,
designed at the
beginning of 1937, is
the centermost of 3
similar two-story houses
with steep hip roofs of
red tile and white
rendered brick walls
built for the mill
engineers. Aalto
designed two variants,
the more interesting of
which foreshadows the
Villa Mairea in the way
the vestibule, large
hall with open
fireplace, library,
living room, dining
room, and verandah are
run together, forming a
spatial continuum on the
lower floor. The
kitchen, pantry, and
servants rooms form a
separate zone running
through both stories.
The upper story contains
another large hall with
an open fireplace, 4
bedrooms, and a bath.
3)
Two engineers villas,
some 650 feet smaller
than #2, but with
similar room
disposition. The 3
houses, overrun by
climbing vines, spacious
and reminiscent of
English country houses,
form a stately but
idyllic group on the
forrested ridge.
4) Five
houses for foremen, each
containing two mirror
image apartments with
their own entrance,
vestibule, living room,
dining room, and kitchen
below and a hall with a
sleeping alcove, bedroom
and 'future bathroom' in
the upper story, reduced
by the steep pitch of
the hip roof. These
houses, which were
built, resemble the
above described
engineers' residences in
style.
5) The Jukkala
housing area for
one-family homes was
planned by Aalto in
1937, and a few of his
type houses for
Savonmaki in Varkaus
were built there, but
the majority of the
houses were buit to the
residents' own plans.
6)
Four two-story workers'
housing units of wood,
designed in 1937 and
built in slightly
modified form, each
intended for four
families, with separate
entrance porches to each
flat. Half have two
rooms and kitchen, the
other half one room and
kitchen, all of them
have their own toilet
and runnng water in the
kitchen but no bath or
shower. The buildings
have a common heating
plant.
1938 - The Richmond
Temple Weekend House.
A British hotel owner
fell for
the Turku archipelago,
where he wished to rent
the small island of
Westerstryskar and build
a leisure house.
The long
benches underneath the
windows along three long
and narrow tables
provide seating for 35
dinner guests and a
perfect sea view through
the strip windows.
A round, open fireplace
is placed in front of
the windows on the north
side, with armchairs in
a semicircle for
admiring the sunset.
The kitchen and
servant's room are also
on the main floor, while
the master of the house
and the more fastidious
guests have 2 bedrooms
and a bathroom at their
disposal on the smaller
upper story. The
flat roof extends over a
large verandah.
The growing threat of
war made the client give
up his plans.
1938 - Terrace Housing at
Kauttua.
The only fragment of the
new Kauttua plan to be
carried out was the
first of the terrace
houses. Aalto started
working on it in
November 1937, and the
final drawings were
completed in May 1938.
This was a logical
development of the
Sunila Housing.
Aalto made use of the
sloping ground to give
each of four stepped,
single-story blocks
their own ground level
entrance. The 3
upper blocks have half
of the lower blocks roof
for a terrace, in this
way no one has a view of
his neighbors terrace.
The 3 lower dwellings
have a cellar cut into
the slope and contain 3
bedrooms, a kitchen, a
servant's room, and a
large living room
looking out onto the
terrace. The top
block cormprises three
small flats, two of
which face out over the
windowed back of the
building. The
terrace rails and
pergolas for climbing
plants consist of
unstripped saplings, as
in the Villa Mairea.
The master Kauttua plan
included a school
at one end and a sports
center at the other.
The plan, which does
honor to both the
architect and the client
(the Ahlstrom Company
through Harry
Gullichsen) was
abandoned on account of
the war.
1938 - The Maire and
Harry Gullichsen House,
aka Villa Mairea,
Noormarkku, the site of
the Ahlstrom family
estate near Pori.
The plan comprises an
L-shaped building volume
with three stories on the
entrance side and two
facing the walled
garden which contains a
sauna and pool.
This was the first of
several concept plans.
1938 - The Maire and
Harry Gullichsen House,
aka Villa Mairea,
Noormarkku, the site of
the Ahlstrom family
estate near Pori. This
version is called Proto-Mairea.
1938 - Engineer H.
Rydgren's Summer
Cottage, Espoo,
Suvisaaristo.
Originally consisted of
a concrete basement
block containing a sauna
and a guestroom, and a
main story comporising a
living room, a small
kitchen, and a servants'
room, a bedroom, three
small sleeping alcoves,
and a large verandah.
After the war, the
cottage was partially
rebuilt for year-round
use.
1938 - Master Plan for
Munkkiniemi. Aalto
continued town
planning work for the
Stenius Company, which
owned large areas of the
suburbs of Munkkiniemi,
Haaga, and the island of
Kuussisaar, near
Helsinki. This involved
"building for dense
settlement" in the area
above Kalastajatorppa
(Fisherman's Cottage)
restaurant, for which he
had drawn up a plan in
1935, and which he now
completed with a series
of low-rise buildings;
on ordinary streetside
plots he designed
freestanding houses of
one-, two-, or
three-stories, elsewhere
he placed pointblocks
("high apartment
buildings with the
circulation and services
in the central core and
the residential areas
grouped around it on
several stories") and
chain houses in free
formation. The plans
were all shelved shortly
after when the company
sold the land to the city of Helsinki.
1940 to 1941 - The Aseveli-Kyla
Housing for Ex-Service
Men (aka Standard Houses),
Nekala, Tampere,
Finland.
Thirteen semi-detached
houses were eventually
built, each with its own
garden polt - a vital
requirement for growing
food and enabling
self-sufficiency during
the rationing years. The
houses had symmetrical
plans of 2 small
apartments each, with
two rooms and a
kitchenette as well as
some storage space in
the basement. The area
also included a communal
sauna and laundry house.
The asymmetrical roof
lines and horizontal
boarding and windows
give the Nekala houses a
modern appearance, while
round tarred timbers
were used for the porch
structure, railings, and
ladders. The raking
columns supporting the
porch roof repeated the
detailing Aalto had used
in the Villa Mairea and
which would be typical
for him in other 1940s
buildings. Entrances to
the 2 apartments were on
opposite ends of each
house and the terraces
were oriented to
different directions,
thus providing privacy.
It is still a pleasant
residential area.
1939 - Villa
Mairea, final version.
The basement story disappeared while
the drawing rooms as
well as the art gallery
have been combined into
one large 'all-purpose'
room. The sauna now
stands at one end of the
open courtyard beyond
the kidney-shaped
swimming pool.
1939 - The Eino
Makinens' Residence,
Kuutamotie 7,
in Kapyla, a Helsinki
suburb. The first
version was too
expensive, so Aalto reduced
the size of the house,
shown above. The
client still did not
buiild.
1939 - Master Plan
for Inkeroinen.
The minor district plans
started by Aalto in 1937
were incorporated in
1939 in a master plan
which he further
developed during the
1940s in connection with
his many assignments for
Tampella in Inkeroinen.
1940 - HAKA Competition,
unrealized housing
development.
The movement toward
modern housing continued
in the 1940 Social
Democratic Building
Society (HAKA)
competition where the
emphasis was on
so-called high-rise
development.
Actually, the project
ultimately involved some
medium-rise blocks of
ten stories, considered
relatively high at the
time. The HAKA
competition was won by
Hugo Harmia and Woldemar
Baeckman, with Ekelund,
Valikangas and Bergstrom
coming second.
Aalto and Aarne Ervi,
who submitted a joint
entry, did not place.
1946 - The Site Managers
House, aka VOK Standard
House, for the A. Ahlstrom
Company, Pihlava, Pori,
Finland. Another
house type Aalto
developed based on the
AA-system was the
Varkaus standard houses
(single-family home,
known as VOK). Compared
with his other type-plan
houses, the VOK houses
were more spacious and
meant for officials.
Designed in 1941, they
would be built during
the next decade in
various industrial
areas. From the
terrace a view over a
small artificial pond
opens, and from here a
stone-paved path leads
to the garden, designed
by landscape architect
Paul Olsson. Private
spaces, including
bedrooms and a kitchen,
occupy the other half of
the house along an
L-shaped row. The house
is now privately owned.
1944 - The Managers
House, Yhteissisu
Company, Vanaja,
Hameenlinna, Finland.
In addition to
a house for the
company's manager, he
designed other staff
housing, including three row
houses, eight single-family,
and an apartment
building, although his
master plan for the area
was not fully carried
out. Located apart
from other staff
dwellings, the site for
the residence is wooded
and descends steeply
southward.
1945 - The Korpikoto
Hunting Lodge,
Pertunmaa, Finland.
Major Jorgen Schauman,
Works Manager of the
Tampella Factory in
Inkeroinen, commissioned
it. Originally
consisting of a single
room with a sauna, the
lodge's appearance has
elements of Finnish and
German vernacular
architecture combined
with features
reminiscent of wartime
front line dugouts, the
latter including the
roughly worked wooden
structure and details
such as wooden gutters.
1946 - The Heimdal
Housing Area, Nynashamn
area, Sweden, realized
but not to original plan.
While
working on the master
plan for Nynashamn
(also unrealized), Aalto and
Albin Stark designed this
housing area for
an unbuilt site above
the town center. The
site is in a bay
reasonably sheltered
from the Baltic winds,
with a magnificent view
of the sea.
The client asked for
simpler plans but Aalto
refused to compromise.
The area was built up in
1947-48 to plans drawn
up by Albin Stark and
credited to both men
but diverged
considerably from the
original plans.
1948 - Villa Kihlman,
Kuru, Ylojarvi, Finland.
Commissioned 1947.
A one-story summer home
The plan
shows a clear division
of spatial hierarchy
with a large living room
that has views in three
directions and a big
fireplace stove, and 4
private bedrooms grouped
together. The modern
kitchen with cabinets
designed by Aino Aalto
and an adjacent servants
room has its own
entrance.
1948 - Baker
House Dormitory, MIT,
362 Memorial Drive,
Cambridge MA.
Commissioned 1947. Baker House
was the first dormitory
on West Campus and the
first with a dining
hall. Ground was broken
for the dormitory in
October 1947 and
completed in 1948. The
dorm was originally
referred to as "New
Senior House" and the
"New Dormitory" but was
renamed Baker House in
honor of Everett Moore
Baker, MIT Dean of
Students. The
building designed in red
brick has an S-curve
plan that increases the
surface area of the
south facing side of the
dorm. Aalto designed the
building so that 90% of
the rooms have a river
and skyline view. The
rooms range from 105 -
445 square feet, and all
dorm furniture was
designed by Aalto.
Several renovations over
the years were completed
without harming Aalto's
design, including all
window replacement,
renovation of mechanical
systems, and updates for
students with special
needs. A restoration of
the birch furnishings
was completed in
1998.
1952 -
The Eero Aalto House,
aka Villa Manner, Sundby,
Porvoo, Finland.
Commissioned 1951.
The client was Aalto's
2nd cousin Eero, a
justice of the Superior
Court.
1952 - The
Alvar and Elissa Aalto
Summer House, aka the Muuratsalo Experimental
House, Melalammentie 2,
Muuratsalo, 40900
Jyvaskyla, Finland.
Designed for his new wife Elissa,
whom he married after
Aino passed away in
1949. It was conceived
as an experimental
laboratory to test
construction and
architecture
philosophies with views out to
Lake Paijanne. The 3
surrounding enclosures
of the courtyard serve
as screen, living rooms,
and bedrooms. In the
middle of the courtyard
stands a fire pit. The
inner courtyard walls
show over 50 different
types of brick arranged
in countless patterns.
The bricks are placed
not only to test their
aesthetic values, but
also to gauge how they
hold up in Finland's
harsh climate. Inside a
raised loft area held in
tension by large wooden
beams was used as a
painting studio.Included
in the surrounding
property are Aalto's
boat, which he designed
in 1954, and a boat
enclosure designed by
two students from
Denmark in 1996.
1951 -
Sunila Mill Housing
Area. Commissioned
1936. The housing
for mill employees was
built in stages until
the 1950s, giving Aalto
the opportunity to
develop new ideas in the
meantime. The earliest
stages include:
1)
The
managers residence, also
known as the "A
Building, with its own
beach and landing-stage.
It contains some 15
rooms, kitchen
facilities, terraces,
and balconies. The
exterior is
characterized by
rendered white walls, a
flat roof and a cold
Functionalist style, but
certain accents such as
wood paneling soften the
overall impression.
Aalto also designed a
less pretentious variant
more coherent than the
version actually built.
2) Row house for
Engineering Staff, known
as the "B Building",
consisting of 5 linked
two-story units with
white rendering, which
splays out slightly into
the garden in front by
virtue of the diagonal
placing of the party
walls. The slight
indenting increases the
effect of mutual
isolation, which is
further enhanced by
screening vegetation.
These houses are by far
the most original and
successful at Sunila.
3)
Chain house for Foremen
or "D Building",
consisting of 14 white
rendered two-story units
laid in a row on a
slope, giving them a
hint of a stair form.
The flats contain a
kitchen and living room
on ground floor and 2
bedrooms and bathroom
upstairs, but no
balconies.
4) Chain
House for Workers,
consisting of two-story
rows similar to the
preceding building, but
with a strip window
along the front and two,
two-room flats plus one
studio flat for each
flight of stairs, no
balconies.
5) 13
standard wooden houses
were built in the
Puistolan housing area.
These resemble the
earliest single-family
houses in Varkaus.
The next construction
stage began in early
1938 and brought 2 new
types of housing to
Sunila:
6) Three-story
house, a variant of #5;
it has the same room
disposition, but Aalto
lifted each flat with a
balcony, which was so
small, however, that
residents hardly used
it. When he designed new
housing for a third
enlargement in 1951, he
corrected this error.
7)
Three-story housing
known as "type house
ROT", with two small
flats (living room, tiny
bedroom, and kitchen,
totaling 420 square
feet) on each floor. The
sloping plot made it
possible to give the
flats on the two lower
stories their own
ground-level entrances
at the front and back,
while the top story is
reached by a low
stairway from the back.
The ground floor flats
have garden patches
facing south in front of
the entrance, while the
upper levels have
spacious stepped
balconies also facing
south. In 1938 and 1939,
the EKA (South Kymi
Housing) Company built
75 flats in Sunila, 63
in Karhula, and another
sixty-odd in the village
of Halla to the plans
for this type house and
variants of the
three-story house, #6.
1957 - Hansviertel Block
Aparttments,
Klopstockstrabe 10,
10555 Berlin, Germany.
Commissioned 1954.
Constructed as part of
the Berlin International
Building Exhibition in
1957 along with projects
by Le Corbusier and Mies
van der Rohe. The
central theme of the
exhibition was the
rediscovery of the
historic city center of
Berlin having been
destroyed through war
and the building of the
Wall. For the first time
in the history of
building exhibitions the
IBA Berlin focused on
the renovation of old
housng stock and its
chances of integrating
new housing
successfully.
Two courtyard concepts
are applied here.
Entrance to the building
from the street is
through a partial
courtyard formed by the
projecting wings into a
lobby that may also be
interpreted as an atrium
space. Each apartment is
itself a miniature
atrium house, containing
a large paved, outdoor
terrace onto which the
living room, dining
room, and master bedroom
open. One-, two-,
and three-bedroom units
as well as studios are
available in each block.
Kitchen and bathroom
services are backed up
to adjoining walls and
corridor walls, freeing
all exterior surface for
bedroom windows. A
separate lobby area with
elevator and stairs
serves each building.
1956 - The Jaako
Lehmus House, aka Villa Lehmus,
aka Site Manager's House,
Typpi Company, Oulu,
Finland.
Commissioned 1955.
Engineer Jaako Lehmus
was a pioneer of the
Finnish nitrogen
industry. Located on a
site close to the
riverbank, the two-story
building is a compact,
squarish volume flanked
by a detached one-story
sauna and garage wing.
1959 - Maison Louis
and Olga Carre,
Bazoches-sur-Guyonnes,
southwest of Paris,
France. Access is
concealed behind the
walls intended for
displaying art work in
the entrance hall. The
housekeepers' rooms are
located on the second
floor. After
Louis' death in 1977
Madame Olga closed the
house to outsiders until
her death in 2002. Her
family inherited the
home and sold it in 2002. The home
was classed as an
important building in
France in 1996.
1960 - The Korkalovaara
Apartment Buildings,
Rovaniemi, Finland.
Commissioned 1958
(Rakovalka Block
1958-59, Poroelo
Building 1960). In
the latter stages of
WWII, the town of
Rovaniemi was almost
completely destroyed.
As a special feature,
Rakovalkea had
'semi-balconies' which
were unheated spaces
built within the
building frame and
linked via glazed walls
to the living room.
1960 - Semi-Detached
Houses for the Enso-Gutzeit
Company, Summa Hamina,
Finland.
William Lehtinen,
general manager,
commissioned this in the
1950's. The area's
semi-detached and
single-family houses
reflect the hierarchy:
brick for engineer's and
site manager, wood for
other employees.
The one-story,
semi-detached houses are
placed in straight rows
of 3 and 6 units.
1960 -
Engineer's Housing,
Enso-Gutzeit Company,
Summa Hamina, Finland.
Commissioned 1959.
Houses for the upper
level staff are sited on
a western slope accessed
by a small winding road.
Aalto designed the group
with the landscape and
the surrounding forest
in mind. The exterior
material palette brings
together the lightness
of modernism with the
darkness of vernacular
architecture by
combining white-rendered
brick in the lower part
of the facade, with dark
stained wood cladding in
the upper parts of the
volume.
1961 - Housing and
Building Complex, Sundh
Center, Avesta, Sweden.
Commissioned 1955.
Ernst
Sundh commissioned a
plan from Aalto for a
residential and
commercial building to
be built on a
triangular-shaped site.
The complex is dominated
by an eight-story tower
block with a steep
mono-pitched roof. The
other two wings are
three stories. The
commercial and office
spaces are located on
the ground floor.
None of the apartments
have balconies.
1962
-
The Viitatorni Aparment
Block, aka the Tusk, Jyvaskylan,
Finland.
Commissioned 1957. The
13-story building
contains 72 apartments
with one-room flats
grouped in the middle
and three-room flats at
the sides.
1962 - The Neue Vahr
Apartment Building,
Bremen, Germany.
Commissioned 1958.
The 22-story apartment
building consists of
one- and two-room
apartments all
wedge-shaped, collected
together in a fan
oriented westwards. The
proximity of the
commercial center ties
the building intimately
to the urban space via a
small square. The ground
floor was reserved for
offices. Views of Bremen
open up from the top
floor roof terrace.
1964 - Site Manager's
House, Enso-Gutzeit
Company, Summa Hamina,
Finland.
Commissioned 1959.
Has a slightly
fan-shaped plan. The
pitched roof folds to an
almost concave form on
the rear of the house.
The main entrance is
reached from the side,
with the living room
opening at a
ninety-degree angle,
another familiar element
of Aalto's houses.
1967 - Apartment House,
Harjuviita, Finland.
The balconies are
'atriums' recessed into
the body of the
building. There are
ovbious similarities
between the Tapiola
apartment blocks and
those planned but not
built for the HAKA
Competition in 1940 and
the Heimdal district in
Nynashamn State, also
unrealized.
1963 to 1966 - Student
Housing, Helsinki
University of
Technology, Otaniemi,
Espoo, Finland. A
competition for the
design of the university
campus was arranged in
1949 which Aino and Alvar
Aalto won. This
building type was indeed
implemented in the
1950s, but by architects
Heikki Siren and Martti
Mela Kari. In 1962 Aalto
made a new plan for a
four-story student dorm,
a unit of cells linked
together. The plan was
carried out in a reduced
and adapted form, and
remained the only
residential building
designed by Aalto in
Otaniemi.
1965 - The Aarne
and Hilda Aho House, aka
Maison Aho, Rovaniemi,
Finland. Aalto
knew Aho through work he
had done previously for
Rovaniemi. In 1964 when
Aalto was working on a
library project for the
town, Hilda wrote to him
to ask if he would
design a small
two-family house for the
couple. Maison Aho was
completed the following
year. Located on a
residential block in the
center of town, the
house is introverted at
first sight. The
entranceway from the
street is hidden behind
a red brick wall.
1968 - The Schonbuhl
Apartments, Lucerne,
Switzerland.
Commissioned 1966. All
the apartments are
served by a common
staircase and one group
of lifts, with the
individual entrances
radiating off a hallway
or service area at each
level; the communal part
of the building is thus
reduced to a minimum and
in turn gives rise to
the fan shape layout and
reduces disturbance. The
broken up appearance of
the main facade is
caused by the varying
size of the apartments.
1969 - Villa Joonas
Kokkonen, Tuulimyllyntie
5, Jarvenpaa, Finland.
Today the villa is a
museum and is used as
space for live
performances.
1970 - Villa
Skeppet, aka The Ship,
aka Villa Goran Schildt,
Tammisaar, Finland.
Commissioned 1969.
The house's massing is
organic: it begins with
a low element that
engages the ground
plane, then increases in
hieght and complexity
until the major form,
the living room, splays
upward and possesses few
right angles.
1974 - Oksala Summer
Cottage, aka Villa Paivo
Oksala, Korpilahti,
Finland. Located
on an island on
Lake Paijanne.
Commissioned 1964. Aalto chose a
site adjacent to a low
cliff with a view of the
lake. The final version
of the cottage was drawn
and built in 1974.
Today, furniture and
lamps by Aalto are
included.
