The Aalto House in Helsinki surprises with its timelessness

The Helsinki home of Alvar and Aino Aalto, and later Elissa Aalto, remains as modern today as it was nearly a hundred years ago. Discover the charming home of the Aaltos in Helsinki with Design Stories!

WARM SUNLIGHT filters through lush wild vines into the living room. It illuminates the sofa group placed in front of the fireplace. In the hearth, a couple of birch logs sit askew, as if they were forgotten there from the previous evening’s gathering. In front of the black grand piano, a slender rattan chair awaits a pianist.

Architect Alvar Aalto’s (1898–1976) family home in Helsinki, completed in 1936, exudes an atmosphere that is neither ostentatious nor pretentious. It is, as a whole, strikingly modern and its decor is downright trendy.

However, the passage of time is indicated by the yellowed spines of books in the living room’s bookshelf and the dial-operated bakelite phone standing on a table in the hallway. Upstairs, in what used to be Elissa Aalto’s (1922–1994) bedroom, an alarm clock has stopped. Its hands point to twenty minutes to one.

THE 300-SQUARE-METRE private residence designed by Alvar Aalto for his family is one of Finland’s best-known homes and among the first buildings designed by Aalto in the capital, completed between the wars in the 1930s. Alvar lived there for forty years, first with his wife, architect Aino Aalto and the couple’s two children, then with his second wife, architect Elissa Aalto. After Alvar passed away, Elissa continued to live in the building for the rest of her life.

The Aalto House has a harmonious, gentle ambience.

The scale in the house feels intimate and varying, the layout that meanders on different levels pulling some wonderful spatial surprises. The interior repeats Aalto’s signature style of a range of wood combined with red and white brick. Textiles stick to a minimal colour palette: muted, earthy tones, blue and green, and black and white graphic elements here and there. In addition to its Finnish roots, the style evokes a Mediterranean and Japanese feel.

When looking at old photographs of the home decades ago, it turns out that the interior hasn’t always looked the way it does now. The family, too, – or especially – enjoyed changing things around. The dining room adjacent to the living room originally housed a round Artek table, which was replaced by a larger, rectangular extendable table to provide plenty of space for both family and guests.

The dining chairs remained: Aino and Alvar had bought the ornamental, revivalist-style wooden chairs on honeymoon in Italy.

In the living room, the armchairs and sofa would change places at times, and the lid of the black grand piano became concealed under a piece of fabric. Perhaps the dark finish felt too domineering at times? The sliding doors separating the living room and atelier where the couple ran their architecture firm was sometimes kept closed, sometimes open, and used for displaying works by Alvar.

Also lamps would change around until the living room became crowned by a white ‘Beehive’ A331 pendant designed by Alvar for Artek.

THE HOME WAS turned into a museum in the early 2000s. With more than 10,000 visitors annually, it is an internationally renowned architectural destination. The building is part of the selection of modern Finnish architectural masterpieces of Docomomo Finland and has been protected under the Finnish Act on the Protection of the Built Heritage since 1982.

The Aaltos’ home has remained largely unaltered for decades.

The presence of the Aaltos can still be strongly felt in the home, which with the exception of minor changes, has remained unaltered through the decades. Gazing at souvenirs brought from trips or treading on the soft, Moroccan rug in the living room, one cannot help but imagine the sound of chatter filling the atelier, alternating with a focused silence to a backdrop of swooshing pencils. A piece of Finnish history was being drawn.

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What: The Aalto House

• The Aalto House was designed by Alvar and Aino Aalto for themselves and was completed in 1936. The house represents Aalto’s early functionalist style, combining homeliness with modern design.
• The house is situated in a peaceful and verdant area of Helsinki’s Munkkiniemi. Its design emphasizes Aalto’s endeavor to create buildings that are both functional and aesthetically pleasing, as well as harmonious with their surroundings.
• The house served not only as the family’s private residence but also as an architectural office before Studio Aalto was completed in 1955. The house is an example of Aalto’s design, where natural light, spatial openness, and natural materials played a central role.
• The Aalto House is now a museum, which can be explored on guided tours.

See also:

• All designs by Aino Aalto >
• All designs by Alvar Aalto >

Text: Anna Varakas Images: Katri Kapanen Styling: Anna Pirkola

This story was originally published in the Asun magazine.