HELSINKI – ALVAR AALTO AND CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURE

DESCRIPTION – Helsinki: Center and Alvar Aalto architecture

Alvar Aalto is one if Finland’s greatest architects and designers from the twentieth century. He experienced architecture, furniture, textiles and glassware, as well as sculptures and paintings. He was inspired by the master Le Corbusier and he was the trendsetter for functionalism in Finland. For Aalto, architecture is a free play of volumes and forms in movement; on clearly arranged geometric structures he superimposes “soft” surfaces that make the whole less rigid and give it a more human spirit that is more in tune with the forms of nature.

In this guided tour with an architect you will walk through the center of Helsinki and discover different architectural styles: from the historical center of Finland to Alvar Aalto’s style and more contemporary architecture that we can find in the capital of Finland. We’ll start at the Senate Square, located in the heart of the city and an example of the Neoclassical architecture. We’ll see four buildings from Carl Ludvig Engel: Helsinki Cathedral, the Government Palace, the main building of the University of Helsinki and its library and the National Library of Finland.

From there we’ll go to the Enso-Gutzeit Building and the Rautatalo Office Building. Really near those buildings we find the Nordea Bank by Alvar Aalto and the Academic Bookstore, a commercial building designed by the finnish architect in 1969. We’ll see the Helsinki Central Station, a construction from the early 1900 designed by Eliel Saarinen.

The Kamppi Chapel of Silence is an example of contemporary architecture from 2012, designed by architects Mikko Summanen, Niko Sirola and Kimmo Lintula from the Helsinki-based practice K2S Architects.

We’ll see different museums in our itinerary: Art Museum Amos Rex that opened in 2018, an underground museum by JKMM and Kiasma (Museum of Contemporary Art) by Steve Holl Architects.

The Oodi Library (ALA Architects) is another interesting building located in the city center of Helsinki. A striking building with glass and steel structures and wooden facade, its design a combination of traditional and contemporary flavours.

With a short walk from the library we’ll arrive at the Musiikkitalo, the Helsinki Music Centre which main concert hall seats up to 1.704 people. With a walk through Karamzininranta street our next stop will be the famous Finlandia Hall (optional interior visit), a congress and event venue by Alvar Aalto and completed in 1971. Behind this building we find the National Museum of Finland with a National romantic style from early 1900. We’ll end our tour at the Temppeliaukio Rock Church (optional interior visit), situated in the heart of Helsinki. This church designed by architects Timo and Tuomo Suomalainen was excavated directly into solid rock and its construction was completed in 1969.

Discover this guided visit with Architectours and explore the main and most important buildings from the capital of Finland with an expert guide architect.