When it comes to holiday bolthole settings, Finland has some of the best. Rich forests, fresh air and cool lakes make up for an invigorating landscape to relax and recharge - as well as the perfect scenery for some of the country's most striking modern architecture. The Finnish countryside is home to some of Alvar Aalto's best work.
This is also the focus of the Alvar Aalto Museum's latest show, La dolce vita - Summer paradises by Alvar Aalto, on display in time for the 2015 Alvar Aalto Symposium, which took place last weekend. Looking at the grand master's vacation house commissions, from one-off villas for friends and acquaintances to smaller cottages, country clubs and humble huts, built work and competition proposals, this exhibition has it all.
Tapping into a seminal page in the country's architectural history, this theme is also a very important one in the Finnish society's development in the past century. 'In a hundred years, Finland has become a land of half a million summer homes,' explains Alvar Aalto Museum Curator Mari Murtoniemi. 'From the very beginning, Finns have sought inspiration for building from various sources, including the summer homes of artists and architects. There were even architectural competitions set up to create drawings for summer villas and weekend cottages.'
The show presents architectural photography, drawings and scale models of selected houses, as well as rare footage of Aalto's family home videos, capturing them on holiday in the 1920s. On display at the museum's main gallery in the Finnish town of Jyväskylä, La dolce vita celebrates the traditional Finnish way of spending the summer through a tour of Aalto's subtly powerful designs.
It was the Aalto's family own vacation house. Photography: Aino or Alvar Aalto, Alvar Aalto Museum / Artek Collection
A building for the staff at Finnish manufacturer Enso-Gutzeit, this Country Club was built in Helsinki in 1952.
The Country Club was a project dedicated to leisure, but Aalto had also worked on the company's main Helsinki Headquarters.
Local magazine Aitta organised a design competition in 1928. The results were published as a book, titled 'Halpoja kesäasuntoja' ('Low-cost summer homes'). Aalto´s winning proposal (called 'Konsoli') appeared on the book's cover. The original watercolour by an unknown artist is in the collection of Museum of Finnish Architecture.
Alvar Aalto designed a villa for professor Päivö Oksala's family in Korpilahti, on an island in Lake Päijänne in the late 1960s.
The Insulite Company of Finland built the Weekend Cabinet, a cottage designed by Aalto for the 1937 Paris World Exhibition. Drawing from Alvar Aalto Museum drawing archive
ADDRESS
Alvar Aalto Museum
Alvar Aallon katu 7
Jyväskylä, Finland
-
Frieze London 2025: all the fashion moments to look out forThe best fashion happenings to add to your Frieze London 2025 schedule, from Dunhill’s curation of talks at Frieze Masters to an exhibition of furniture by Rick Owens
-
Artists reflect on Kate Bush lyrics for a War Child auctionPeter Doig and Maggi Hambling are among artists interpreting Kate Bush’s 1985 track ‘Running Up That Hill’ for War Child’s online auction
-
Explore Tom Kundig’s unusual houses, from studios on wheels to cabins slotted into bouldersThe American architect’s entire residential portfolio is the subject of a comprehensive new book, ‘Tom Kundig: Complete Houses’
-
A carbon-emission-busting house, yeast-biomass building, and more ‘Designs for a Cooler Planet’‘Designs for a Cooler Planet’ returns to Aalto University in Finland as part of the annual Helsinki design and architecture week, highlighting buildings, materials and solutions towards a better future
-
Meet the newly appointed architects of Finland’s Museum of Architecture and DesignJKMM has been announced the winner of the competition to design the prestigious new Museum of Architecture and Design of Finland in Helsinki
-
The Architecture Edit: Wallpaper’s houses of the monthWallpaper* has spotlighted an array of remarkable architecture in the past month – from a pink desert home to structures that appears to float above the ground. These are the houses and buildings that most captured our attention in August 2025
-
Maison Louis Carré, the only Alvar Aalto house in France, reopens after restorationDesigned by the modernist architect in the 1950s as the home of art dealer Louis Carré, the newly restored property is now open to visit again – take our tour
-
A guide to modernism’s most influential architectsFrom Bauhaus and brutalism to California and midcentury, these are the architects who shaped modernist architecture in the 20th century
-
Wallpaper* Design Awards 2025: celebrating architectural projects that restore, rebalance and renewAs we welcome 2025, the Wallpaper* Architecture Awards look back, and to the future, on how our attitudes change; and celebrate how nature, wellbeing and sustainability take centre stage
-
Alvar Aalto: our ultimate guide to architecture's father of gentle modernismAlvar Aalto defined midcentury – and Finnish – architecture like no other, creating his own, distinctive brand of gentle modernism; honouring him, we compiled the ultimate guide
-
Design Awards 2025: Alvar Aalto's Finlandia Hall is a modernist gem reborn through sustainability and accessibilityHelsinki's Finlandia Hall, an Alvar Aalto landmark design, has been reborn - highlighting sustainability and accessibility in a new chapter for the modernist classic
