Rovaniemi – the world’s northernmost Aalto city – celebrates Alvar Aalto Week on 29.9–5.10.2025. Its theme, “Arctic, everyday Aalto”, brings Aalto’s legacy to the public in a rich, interdisciplinary programme, with exhibitions, music, film screenings, architecture tours, light art, seminars, lectures, a circus, events for children, and more.

Aalto’s buildings in Rovaniemi are meeting places, part of the vibrant urban environment and of people’s everyday lives. This year marks the 60^th anniversary of the completion of the library in Rovaniemi´s Administrative and Cultural Centre. It will also be 50 years since the opening of the renowned theatre, concert and congress venue, Lappia Hall. Renovation work on Rovaniemi City Hall is due for completion in 2026. The original construction project was overseen by Elissa Aalto following Alvar Aalto’s death.

“Aalto and his workgroup designed not only buildings, but a whole lifestyle,” says Mayor of Rovaniemi Ulla-Kirsikka Vainio. “The Tapiola garden district, or Korkalorinne, forms a community-oriented architectural whole. The district’s layout, known as The Reindeer Antler Plan, is a vision of a human-centred city where people, nature and the built environment live in harmony,” Vainio adds.

The City of Rovaniemi will also host the Alvar Aalto Cities Mayors’ Meeting on 1.10.2025. “The Network of Alvar Aalto Cities established in 2017 currently comprises 22 Aalto cities from Finland and abroad, along with the Alvar Aalto Foundation. We are happy to help cities to combine forces and share knowledge and proven good practices, for instance, in the preservation and repair of Aalto’s built heritage, keeping sites open, architecture and design education, and communications”, says Tommi Lindh, CEO of the Alvar Aalto Foundation.

New experiences for adults and children
On the opening day of Alvar Aalto Week on 29.9.2025, film director Virpi Suutari’s outstanding film, Aalto, will be given an atmospheric outdoor screening. The Administrative and Cultural Centre, the Aalto Centre, will be filled with light and media art, installations, and concerts.

During the three-day “Aaltoilmiö” Light Art Event, local media artist Arttu Nieminen and his workgroup will enliven the Aalto Centre’s buildings with the aid of light and sound. They will also resound with the virtuoso accordion music of Kimmo Pohjonen and Harri Kuusijärvi, while the yoik and techno of Hildá Länsman and Tuomas Norvio create northern soundscapes and rhythms in the midst of Aalto’s architecture.

Aalto Week’s offerings for children include a jolly, playful concert by Siina Toimela in the Library, plus urban-planning workshops and guided tours at Rovaniemi School of Visual Arts. On the Children’s Aalto tour, children can go on an exciting behind-the-scenes journey into the Theatre’s secrets.

A peek into Aalto homes on Tapiola’s Open Doors Day
During Open Doors in Tapiola on 5.10.2025, visitors will get a chance to take a peek at some Aalto-designed private homes in the Korkalorinne Residential Area, which combines the ideals of the garden city with community-minded living. Aalto’s garden plans and the dialogue between architecture and landscape can be also explored. All this also includes home concerts in the district’s former heating plant, while Mohammad Riazat takes us on a musical journey through different cultures.

The theme of the Seminar is architecture as part of urban culture and tourism
On 2.10.2025 the Uusi Aalto Seminar will bring together experts, entrepreneurs, city residents and students to consider the role of architecture as a part of the future of urban culture and of the development of sustainable tourism. There will be inspirational speeches, a panel discussion, and an opportunity for networking. Speeches will be in Finnish in the morning and in English in the afternoon.

Speakers at the Seminar include: Tommi Lindh (Alvar Aalto Foundation), Tapani Mustonen (Architects Mustonen Oy), Anssi Joutsiniemi (University of Oulu), Valentino Tignanelli (Aalto Siilo ry), Charlotte Skene Catling (Skene Catling de la Peña), Johan “Emppu” Pietarinen (Valoasema ry). The theme of the panel discussion is Aalto in contemporary design. Participants include: Mirkku Kullberg (Paimio Sanatorium Foundation), Henri Käpynen (TUNDRA Architecture, Tampere Architecture and Design – TAD, TamSAFA), Karoliina Erkinjuntti (Karoliina Erkinjuntti Art & Design). The afternoon’s keynote speech is: Tuija Seipell – Aalto Speaks Finnish. More about the Seminar programme here.

Alvar Aalto Week is arranged by the City of Rovaniemi, Alvar Aalto Foundation, and numerous local event organisers and partners. Check out the entire programme for Alvar Aalto Week in Rovaniemi here.

To commemorate the Week the Alvar Aalto Foundation has produced a book: Alvar Aalto Architect, Vol. 25 Rovaniemi Centre (1961–87), Editor Aila Svenskberg. The articles shed an interesting light on how Rovaniemi’s Reindeer Antler Plan, drawn up under Aalto’s guidance in 1945, was part of the broader post-war reconstruction plan for Lapland, and a pioneering prototype in its own right, with its traffic arrangements and residential and green areas.

Rovaniemi is Chair of the international Network of Alvar Aalto Cities in 2025. Alvar Aalto Week is held annually in the Network’s Chair city. The first Alvar Aalto Week took place in Jyväskylä in 2017.

Rovaniemi Cultural and Administrative Centre (1961-88). Photo Maija Holma © Alvar Aalto Foundation.

Lappia Hall, interior. Photo Maija Holma © Alvar Aalto Foundation.

Lappia Hall, section drawing 1969. Drawing © Alvar Aalto Foundation.