Collections and research

THE ALVAR AALTO FOUNDATION’S COLLECTIONS ARE OF MAJOR NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL SIGNIFICANCE. THEY FORM A UNIQUE WHOLE THAT SPANS THE ENTIRE DIVERSE LIFE’S WORK OF ALVAR, AINO AND ELISSA AALTO.

Research services

The Alvar Aalto Museum’s research services are concentrated in Jyväskylä, where both the archives and other collection facilities are located. The Museum offers services to customers on site and also online by providing materials in digital format. On-site visits must always be arranged separately in advance.

Services are invoiced according to the current price list. Some materials are restricted by copyright rules and/or the Finnish Personal Data Act. Their use may also be limited by the condition of the original material.

 

ENQUIRIES

research@alvaraalto.fi

Alvar Aalto Collections

Drawings

The core of the Alvar Aalto Museum’s collections is an unusually richly detailed bequest consisting of original drawings by Alvar Aalto and his architect’s office. Besides Aalto’s own sketches and drawings, plus material produced in his office, the collection includes plans by both of Alvar Aalto’s wives, architects Aino Aalto and Elissa Aalto. The collection of approximately 90,000 original drawings and other documents relating to construction projects was transferred to the ownership of the Alvar Aalto Foundation in 1990.

 

Documents

The construction-project document collection has been arranged into two parts: construction documents and letters. The construction-document collection, which consists of building descriptions, site-meeting minutes, technical drawings, and other building-design materials, takes up approximately 80 shelf metres. The documents vary from a few pages to several shelf metres per site, depending on the scale of the site.

Besides letters relating to the work of Alvar Aalto’s architect’s office, the letter collection contains personal correspondence with friends, relatives and architect colleagues. The letter collection comprises approximately 30,000 letters.’

Alvar Aalto Object Collection

The Alvar Aalto Object Collection consists of products resulting from Alvar and Aino Aalto’s design work. Over the years, the original few donated objects have grown into a design collection of international importance. The collection, which currently includes about 2300 objects, is being expanded with items deposited by private individuals, communities, and businesses, as well as with the Museum’s own acquisitions. The Alvar Aalto Museum also accepts donations that complement its object collection.

The collection contains unique objects and factory-made serial products: furniture, lamps and light fittings, glassware, bent-wood furniture, jewellery, fabrics, and other design products, as well as paintings and personal-history items. The collection further has approximately 260 scale models, most them made while Alvar Aalto’s architect’s office was still active.

The Alvar Aalto Museum also holds the estate of the Valaistustyö Viljo Hirvonen Ky lighting company. Master metalsmith Viljo Hirvonen was an important collaborator for Alvar Aalto in the design and manufacture of lamps and light fittings from the 1950s onwards. The collaboration resulted in the creation of most of the Aalto lamps that are still in production today. Valaistustyö Viljo Hirvonen Ky’s estate includes tools, materials, lamp moulds, semi-finished and finished lamps, door handles, and other small, factory-produced items that were also in the Artek store’s range. The material is still being catalogued.

 

Photographs

The photograph collection contains over 60,000 photographs relating to Aino and Alvar Aalto and Artek. Most of them were taken by professional photographers and show architecture, designs and exhibitions. The collection also includes photographs of Aalto’s family, friends, collaborators, and his travels. The photograph collection is continually being expanded.

The Alvar Aalto Museum’s photograph collection provides services to the media, book publishers, exhibition producers, researchers, and private individuals. All images are supplied in digital form to suit the customer’s requirements.

There are some 15,000 photographs taken or commissioned by architect Alvar Aalto and his office. They were needed to present design objects in various publications worldwide. This means that almost all of Alvar Aalto’s production from the 1920s to 1970s was photographed. The pictures are black and white, and were taken by photographers such as Gustaf Welin, Eino Mäkinen and Heikki Havas. There are about 3500 portrait, travel and event photographs relating to Alvar Aalto’s work as an architect and to his family.

The Alvar Aalto Museum has been expanding its photograph collection ever since the Museum was founded in 1966. It has had its own in-house photographer since 1978. The Museum now has a catalogued collection of approximately 30,000 black-and-white and colour photographs relating to Alvar Aalto’s architecture and design, along with pictures of the Museum’s own exhibitions and other activities.

A substantial amount of as yet unorganised documentary material, especially the preceding inventory listings, is being gathered on the renovation of buildings designed by Alvar Aalto.

Artek Collection

The interior-design company Artek was founded in Helsinki in October 1935, to manage the export and marketing of Aalto furniture, which had attracted attention internationally, and to serve as a comprehensive interior-design store “promoting rational living and interior design”.

Furniture, lamps and light fitting, fabrics and small items were designed in Artek’s drawing office. Numerous interior-design plans for both private properties and public buildings were also created there.

Artek’s drawing office personnel in Rautatalo office building in 1975. Photo: © Artek Collection / Alvar Aalto Foundation.

 

Drawing and Document Collection
The archive collection relating to Artek’s inception, history and operations consists of founding documents, export and import documents, interior-design plans and furniture drawings, material models, product and exhibition catalogues, posters, and scrapbooks. The material is mainly from 1935−1970.

Artek’s photographs are in the Museum’s photograph collection. The material was created during Artek’s operations, and subjects include Artek’s furniture and design objects, as well as exhibitions, fairs, and interiors. There are about 10,000 photographs.

The “Store Collection” contains material from Artek’s drawing office, furniture, lamps, and small items by designers who worked there, as well as props from in-store exhibitions. Artek is still adding to the collection.

Enquiries

research@alvaraalto.fi

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