The Alvar Aalto Museum’s last gallery exhibition before it undergoes complete renovation will show the architect Alvar Aalto’s museum designs.

Over his career, Aalto designed 15 museum buildings, only three of which were built: the Museum of Central Finland (1957–61) and the Alvar Aalto Museum (1971–73) in Jyväskylä, and the Kunsten Museum of Modern Art Aalborg in Denmark (1957–58, 1963–72).

Aalto’s unbuilt museum designs include both detailed and more sketch-like plans, along with competition entries for Finland and abroad – from the Nordic countries to Europe and the Near East. The arc of development of these museum designs extends from the 1920s classicism of his early years to the modernism of the 1960s and 70s. All of them show that as a building type the museum was an inspirational design object for Aalto, and that his image of the ideal museum developed with each new commission.

Sketch for the Baghdad Art Museum in Iraq (1957–58). Original drawing Alvar Aalto Foundation.