The Alvar Aalto Design Seminar has been held in Jyväskylä since 1995. It is a significant meeting place and discussion forum in its field, offering an excellent opportunity for partners to gain visibility among an international audience.
Please get in touch, and let’s think together, how you can be part of this year’s premier design event!
Below you can get to know some of our current partners.
Contact us at academy@alvaraalto.fi
With the population of 148 000, City of Jyväskylä is the seventh largest city in Finland and the commercial centre of the region.
In Jyväskylä you’ll find also the largest number of masterful buildings in the whole world designed by the world famous architect and academician Alvar Aalto. The impressive portfolio of 29 locations includes, for instance, the Alvar Aalto Museum (part of the new Aalto2 museum centre opened in May 2023) and Säynätsalo Town Hall, which is regarded as one of Aalto’s finest works. A boat designed by Alvar Aalto, Nemo propheta in patria, is permanently on display at Jyväskylä’s Lutakko Harbour in a shelter built expressly for the craft.
The University of Jyväskylä is one of the largest and most multidisciplinary universities in Finland.
It was here, in 1863, that Finnish-language teacher education began. The University is a collaborative community of nearly 2,800 experts and over 14,600 students.
The Jyväskylä University campus is largely made up of the buildings designed by Alvar Aalto for the Jyväskylä College of Education, later the University of Jyväskylä, in the 1950s. The layout, based on the winning competition proposal, is derived from the American campus principle.
Aalto University was founded in 2010 with the merging of Helsinki University of Technology, University of Art and Design Helsinki and the Helsinki School of Economics. The university is named in honour of architect Alvar Aalto and it operates in the Otaniemi campus area originally designed in Aalto’s office.
Cumulus is the leading global association of art and design education and research
Diversity is a foundational value of Cumulus, an association started with the aspiration to build bridges for art and design education across borders.
Artek was founded in 1935 in Helsinki by the young idealists Aino and Alvar Aalto, Maire Gullichsen, and Nils-Gustav Hahl to “sell furniture and promote a modern culture of living by exhibitions and other educational means.”
Finnish Design Info serves to communicate about Finnish design and the value generated by it. The association invites design professionals to find a common voice through coordinated communication activities, and also works towards increasing the visibility of the design field in both Finland and around the world.
Finnish Design Shop, founded in 2004, is an online store, which sells Finnish and Scandinavian design goods all around the world.
HABITARE is the leading furniture, design and interior event in the Nordics. Habitare is organized September 10–14, 2025.
Helsinki Expo and Convention Centre.
Habitare Pro is the trade show division of the fair and is an enhanced platform dedicated for B2B companies for the business of design. 10.–14.9.2025 Helsinki Expo and Convention Centre.
