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Alvar Aalto Week is an open, interactive urban event that invites us to explore everyday-life environments through architecture, design and art. The fourth successive Alvar Aalto Week will take place on August 23–30, 2020, in two Alvar Aalto Cities, Pori and Eura. This year’s theme is “Everyday Life”.

The programme brings together a wide range of cultural experiences, from concerts to exhibitions, and from events for the whole family to unique sightseeing tours. Other obvious highpoints of the 2020 programme are the Alvar Aalto-designed Villa Mairea at Noormarkku, Pori, and a number of buildings in Eura, the best-known being the Terraced House in Kauttua. There will be guided tours of both during the Week.

The many enjoyable events on offer in Pori include an evening concert by Pori City Orchestra at the Noormarkku Club and a visit to the Maire Gullichsen, Alvar Aalto and Galerie Artek exhibition at Pori Art Museum. The Week’s programme has something for people of all ages and diverse interests, with Aaltoileva muoto (wavy shapes) workshops for babies, while exercise lovers can throw themselves into the dancing whirl of Aalto zumba. “After such an abnormal spring, by now, people are sure to be missing culture and special events. We have tried to fill the Week’s programme not only with strictly Alvar Aalto and architecture-related items, but also, as fits the theme of the Week, with everyday items that will interest the whole family,” says Head of the Cultural Unit at the City of Pori, Jyri Träskelin.

The houses and spaces designed by Alvar Aalto at Kauttua in Eura are still mostly in their original use. “During the event Week, people will be able to take a peek inside many of the Aalto sites and other spaces in Ruukinpuisto Park that are in private use, with the programme including open doors to the Chief Engineering Manager’s House and Riverside Sauna. Eura has especially many fascinating things to experience for those interested in Aalto’s solutions for living and interior design,” says Eura’s Mayor Juha Majalahti. Also promised are a lively tour of Ruukinpuisto Park for the whole family and a Sunday-evening singing tour of that same landscape. Meanwhile, visitors to the Arkielämän kuvia and esineitä Aallon suunnittelemista taloista Kauttualla (pictures and objects from everyday life in Aalto-designed houses in Kauttua) exhibition in the Main Library can travel back in time to revisit the area’s past decades.

Alvar Aalto’s importance for Satakunta is closely tied to the history of the A. Ahlström company. Aino and Alvar Aalto’s good personal relations with company CEO Harry Gullichsen and his wife Maire, a well-known patron of the arts, gave them an opportunity to create an architectural gem, one that was exceptionally modern, yet designed with a human touch: Villa Mairea in Noormarkku in Pori. Aalto’s extensive production at Kauttua in Eura is associated with the area’s industrial development and with the everyday life of the industrial community.

So, once again, this year’s Alvar Aalto Week offers a great variety of events. See the programme in Finnish here.

The Alvar Aalto Week tours Alvar Aalto Cities around Finland in turn. The cities of Pori and Eura are arranging Alvar Aalto Week 2020 together with the Alvar Aalto Foundation and numerous partners in collaboration.

We are closely monitoring COVID-19 developments and will announce any changes as the situation requires.

 

Further information:
Alvar Aalto Foundation
Programme Manager Nina Heikkonen
+358 44 500 1257
nina.heikkonen@alvaraalto.fi

City of Pori
Head of the Cultural Unit Jyri Träskelin
Tel. +358 44 701 1251
jyri.traskelin@pori.fi

Municipality of Eura
Director of Cultural Services Sirpa Wahlqvist
Tel. +358 44 422 4825
sirpa.wahlqvist@eura.fi