A new web service for lovers of architecture and travel opens 24 May 2018 at visit.alvaraalto.fi. The site introduces you to a selection of prime examples of Alvar Aalto’s architecture and high-quality travel services, forming fascinating Aalto-themed routes around Finland. Along with renowned architectural classics and lesser-known gems, you can savour local natural, cultural and culinary experiences.

The routes include a unique riverside sauna designed by Aino and Alvar Aalto in Kauttua village, Eura, where you can enjoy a wild herb bath and hearty homestyle meal, surrounded by art and design classics. At the Noormarkku area, visitors are welcomed into Villa Mairea, a pearl of a private home designed by the architect couple for their friends Harry and Maire Gullichsen. In south-west Finland, you can explore a tour de force of functionalism, the Paimio Sanatorium, built high in a pine forest from the late 1920s to early ‘30s.

The administrative and cultural centres of Seinäjoki, Rovaniemi and Alajärvi are focal points for people and events. Towns along the River Kymi and the pine forests of Varkaus, meanwhile, convey the history of the Finnish wood industry and the Aaltos’ role in modernising workers’ housing around the mills and improving their standard of living. Set amid the wooded hills of Central Finland and the Päijänne lake district are Alvar Aalto’s famous Säynätsalo Town Hall, the Experimental House, his own summer villa in Muuratsalo, and the Alvar Aalto Museum, where you can delve into his wide-ranging output and his life story.

The routes have been designed in partnership among experts from the Alvar Aalto Foundation, tourist guides from each area and local business operators. This Alvar Aalto Foundation-coordinated project has received backing from the Ministry of Education and Culture’s project fund for the productization of cultural tourism. The website will be available in English and Finnish.

For more information:
Alvar Aalto Foundation
Director Tommi Lindh, tommi.lindh@alvaraalto.fi, Tel. +358 44 562 1625
Producer, the Alvar Aalto Route, Noora Kiili, noora.kiili@alvaraalto.fi, Tel. +358 44 976 7810
Communications, Mirkka Vidgrén, mirkka.vidgren@alvaraalto.fi, Tel. +358 40 168 5142