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Studio Alvar Aalto
Tiilimäki 20, Helsinki (Munkkiniemi)
1954 - 1955 / 1962 - 1963
In the 1950s Alvar Aaltos workload increased so far, that the old studio became much to cramped. In 1954 Alvar Aalto got the opportunity to purchase a plot in Munkkiniemi, located at convenient walking distance from his home at Riihitie 20. With the construction of the new studio, completed in 1955, the Riihitie house became his personal studio, whereas the main part of the work was moved to the new building. The white rendered brick building is composed of two wings arranged in a L-shape with an angle between the volumes, creating a space that can bee interpreted as a garden, a Classical theatre cavea, or an open-air auditorium for lectures. Originally the building consisted of a high studio wing in which Alvar Aalto himself worked, and an office wing containing workroom for a staff of 15 persons and a conference room on the upper floor, as well as an architects' lunch room downstairs, an office, an archive room, a small caretaker's flat and a garage. The long glazed wall of the studio, shaped as a circle segment, opens onto the mentioned garden. The office section was enlarged in 1962-1963 by the addition af a new wing, containing a drafting room upstairs and a new, larger lunch room downstairs. This allowed the old taverna to be converted for administrative use. After Alvar Aalto's death, the building was purchased by the Alvar Aalto Foundation and is open to the public still today.