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Alvar Aalto won the design competition for the new Vyborg Central library in 1927 with a proposal to which he gave the pseudonym ‘W.W.W.’ The design was modern, yet still steeped in the Classical tradition. Funds for building the new Central Library had been left in the will of Maria Lallukka, wife of Juho Lallukka, a Vyborg business tycoon. 

Designed in

1927-1935

Location

Russia, Vyborg

— 1

Alvar Aalto Library, Viipuri. Photo: Gustaf Welin, Alvar Aalto Foundation

— 2

Facade towards the park. Photo: Maija Holma, Alvar Aalto Foundation.

— 3

Entrance floor. Drawing: Alvar Aalto Foundation.

— 4

Photo: Maija Holma, Alvar Aalto Foundation.

— 5

Aino and Alvar Aalto together with architect Aarne Ervi in 1930s in the library entrance hall. Photo: Gustaf Welin, Alvar Aalto Foundation

— 6

The lecture hall in the 1930s. Photo: Gustaf Welin, Alvar Aalto Foundation

— 7

In order to improve the acoustic properties of the long and narrow lecture hall, Aalto designed an undulating wood-panelled ceiling. Drawing: Alvar Aalto Foundation.

— 8

Detail of the lecture hall ceiling. Photo: Gustaf Welin, Alvar Aalto Foundation

— 9

The gently undulating wood ceiling in the lecture hall was made of Karelian red pine. Photo: Maija Holma, Alvar Aalto Foundation.

— 10

Acoustic study of the hall. Drawing: Alvar Aalto Foundation.

— 11

Aalto used many themes in Viipuri Library that were to be repeated in his later work, such as skylights and a sunken library. Photo: Gustaf Welin, Alvar Aalto Foundation

— 12

Drawing: Alvar Aalto Foundation.

— 13

The unpartitioned space of the library section is illuminated primarily through the skylights. Photo: Maija Holma, Alvar Aalto Foundation.

— 14

Most of the furniture ordered for the building consisted of standard items designed by Aalto. Photo: Maija Holma, Alvar Aalto Foundation.

— 15

The children´s department, with a special curtain designed by Aino Aalto as a room divider. Photo: Gustaf Welin, Alvar Aalto Foundation