The exhibition focus on themes of Alvar Aalto´s architeture, such as orientation and contours, nature and the use of the bedrock, vegetation and water features, as well as on Aalto’s way of dealing with enclosed gardens and terraces. In 1969–70, after his visit in Iran, Aalto designed a new Art Museum for Shiraz on top of a small hill set in a green plain at the foot of the Zagros mountains north of the city.

The exhibitions build a bridge between the main aspects of Aalto’s landscape thinking and the design for the unrealized Shiraz Art Museum. It includes some 40 archive photographs from the Alvar Aalto Foundation’s collections. The curator of the exhibition is the art historian Ms. Teija Isohauta.

The exhibitions have been arranged in a collaboration between the Alvar Aalto Foundation, the Embassy of Finland in Tehran, Safavi Museum & Aknoon Galleries, Isfahan and Khane Honar, Shiraz.

Read more from the press release of the exhibition.