The Alvar Aalto Museum’s summer exhibition in the Aalto2 Museum Centre’s Gallery tells 13 stories about Alvar Aalto’s design and human-centred thinking.

”In the afternoon, I reach a floor where, unlike all the others, the surface is wood. People unknown to me sit in chairs in a queue along the corridor. They are waiting to get into the closed rooms on the other side. I catch onto the brass of the low-hanging lamps and fall onto the faces of those waiting, leaving gold beneath their tired eyes.” Quote: Sanna Puutonen

The summer exhibition, 13 Stories about Humane Design, tells stories about architecture. The Alvar Aalto Museum has invited writer Sanna Puutonen to empathise with Alvar Aalto’s buildings via the experiences of their users: the result is thirteen fictional stories. The stories are snapshots that bring the buildings to life. They add a human layer to the architecture, the main character in and around the built space can be someone settling into a house, sensing its atmospheres or, for instance, watching the play of light on the surfaces of its different materials.

The exhibition stages an intriguing dialogue between Aalto´s designs and fictional users’ experiences. What does a new home look like through the eyes of a child? What does it sound like when architecture resonates? How does a hospital building boost patients’ sense of community? The exhibition seeks new approaches to architecture – and, above all, it views Aalto’s buildings from a humane perspective.

The thirteen architectural sites in the exhibition form the Aalto Works series, which has been proposed for designation as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The sites are: Aalto House, Muuratsalo Experimental House, Villa Mairea, Studio Aalto, National Pensions Institute (KELA), House of Culture, Finlandia Hall, Seinäjoki Civic Centre, Sunila Pulp Mill residential area, Jyväskylä University (Aalto Campus), Paimio Sanatorium, Church of the Three Crosses and Säynätsalo Town Hall.

The artefacts, photographs and drawings on display are from the Alvar Aalto Foundation’s archives and collections. The exhibition’s visual identity was designed by architect Justiina Mäenpää.

Read more about the exhibition here.

More information on the exhibition:
Mari Murtoniemi
Alvar Aalto Museum
+358 40 355 9162
mari.murtoniemi@alvaraalto.fi

View from the living room of Villa Mairea (1938–39) towards the garden. Maire Gullichsen and Aino Aalto in the doorway in the 1940s. Photograph by Gustaf Welin © Alvar Aalto Foundation.