From my point of view, the most amazing collection of Aalto philosophy of design is able to be found in the
Aalto Museum of Jyväskylä.
We went there couple of weekends ago, and it was, from the city, what I liked the most. It is located close to the University, it is sited on a slope leading down towards Lake Jyväsjärvi. Completed in 1973, the building, together with the Museum of Central Finland (Alvar Aalto 1961) form a centre of culture in the vicinity of the University of Jyväskylä (Alvar Aalto 1951-1971).
We had to pay a 2€ fee for the access, (with the student discount) and we were there for 2 hours (and another 45 minutes in the café), so trust me when I say that it is worth visiting.
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| Entrance of Aalto Museum |
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| Aalto Store. Verkkokauppa (in finnish) |
This time I couldn't resist and I did some shopping... One measuring tape designed by artek and a new moleskine, is there any better place to start a new moleskine than in Aalto Museum?
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| Up we go! |
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| Finnish average house. Aalto furniture and overhead lighting. |
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Model of the church of the three crosses (Imatra). Awesome.
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| Taking pictures of Aalto experimental house for the blog... |
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| Muuratsalo experimental house model. |
Among his original drawings, sketches and models, in the inside of the museum we can find a 1:1 model showing a piece of the cladding that Aalto designed for the
Finnish Pavilion for New York's Exhibition in 1939. It is a
wonderful space, I wouldn't believe that it was designed almost 40 years ago... I would believe it is from nowadays.
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| Inside the museum |
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| Detail of the cladding |
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Model of the Finnish Pavilion
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Prefabricated Aalto chairs. We find this furniture in every single place of Finland. In the architecture studios, at school, in the stores, I even have one at home (I'm sitting on it right now!)
By the end of the post I am giving you a link that shows
how to bend plywood, so you can learn how they are doing this kind of furniture.
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| Components of the Artek most produced furniture. |
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| How to bend the wood. |
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| Machine used for bending the wood. The process takes quite long. |
After watching the whole exhibition we took some time just sitting around and enjoying the museum. There was almost nobody and
the feeling was amazing. I would never get tired of being surrounded by such nice piece of arts. I was sitting in front of his chairs writing, drawing, just relaxing and enjoying
finnish peaceful way of live...
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| Nuk in Finland |
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| Sweet celebration of the experience at the Alvar Café. |
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| We'll be back |
Interesting links:
Alvar Aalto Museum
Artek
Finnish Pavillion (ESP)
How to bend plywood
Comentarios
(y me he visto también el tutorial de doblado de contrachapado)
I'm from Croatia and I'm student of architecture on the Zagreb university. I have to write a seminar about House of Culture - Alvar Aalto in a short period of time. So I was looking for some informations about it on the internet and encountered on your blog. Like you said it takes time and it's not easy to gather in and shape all those informations in the way they could make sense, especially to my professor. I saw that you offer your help, so I would be grateful if you could send me some pictures and informations about it.
Thanks in advance, Mia.
p.s. If you need anything about Croatian or Mediterranean architecture, I'm ready to help.
Please to hear from you, send me an e-mail and explain me what you need to write about and I can send you the things I have.
The House of culture is a very specific and its most important issue involves the way Aalto used the bricks, the made special ones. I am sure you can find more information in http://www.alvaraalto.fi/
I could use everything you have, from building plans, location, exterior to lighting, interior, and concept of development of the building. Some photos and accompanying text would be nice too. My e-mail is triva.mia@gmai.com.
Thanks!