Name: Alvar Aalto
Location: Helsinki, Finland
After Alvar Aalto's firm had outgrown the small studio space in his family's home the Atelier was built in 1955 in a residential neighborhood just a short walk away from Riihitie 20, west of the Helsinki city center.
Like his home, the Atelier facade is nearly windowless and quite plain. The majority of windows are on the rear and sides of the building where they can take full advantage of the limited (in winter) Finnish sunlight.
Upon entrance, the building is home to the office of the Alvar Aalto Foundation, the Alvar Aalto Academy and the Alvar Aalto Museum Architectural Heritage. The foundation maintains both the home at Riihitie 20 and this studio building. The majority of the space that is open for touring is the second floor office and meeting space.
The office include a large group drafting room, a small private conference room and a large studio space that was the private office Alvar Aalto. Check the image captions within the tour for details of furniture and lighting designs.
The kitchen and group dining area "The Taverna" was added in 1963. Check the image captions in the tour for kitchen details like the ingenious pass-through cabinets and drawers.
Images: Aaron Able
MORE AALTO IN HELSINKI
• House Tour: Riihitie 20: The Aalto Family Home, Studio & Laboratory
• Dwell | Alvar Aalto in Lights
• HOUSE TOUR ARCHIVE Check out past house tours here
• Interested in sharing your home with Apartment Therapy? Contact the editors through our House Tour Submission Form.
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Great design. I wonder if someone has come up with a low end -aka cheap- version of the floor lamp on photo 16
view carmenlu's profile
Holy moly--what a nice treat this was. Thanks for setting this up, Aaron.
My favorite part is the skylight-lit pin-up board.
view klt108's profile
speaking of timeless design...
great tour!
view Elise_B's profile
Fantastic--what an inspiration. Thank you.
view dcirene's profile
Fantastic tour! I love how he's made such timeless pieces and yet his house and architectural firm were both quite modest looking, at least from the outside, but step in and it's almost another world inside with the house showcasing a modest restraint but yet stylish in its own way.
The Artelier has more of a commercial aspect to its design, but still a very interesting building non the less.
Thanks for sharing this.
view ciddyguy's profile
this is how to do "modern" right. so many lessons and great examples.
view davidsl's profile
Great photos.
view notsocooldad's profile
awesome!
view heathereve's profile
This was a total treat. I LOVE Aalto's work so much, and I want that orange poster really really badly!
view becky's profile
beautiful! does anyone know whether the sconce in photo 8 in alvar aalto's design? is it available retail?
view stephenm's profile