{"id":106631,"date":"2026-06-12T15:33:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T15:33:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/106631\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T15:33:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T15:33:16","slug":"alvar-aaltos-sunila-housing-estate-revival-in-finland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/106631\/","title":{"rendered":"Alvar Aalto’s Sunila Housing Estate Revival in Finland"},"content":{"rendered":"

Famed mid-century Finnish architect Alvar Aalto believed that people\u2019s lives could be transformed by pairing functionalism \u2013 design driven by use and not looks \u2013 with humanistic principles. It\u2019s an ethos that he and his wife, Aino Marsio-Aalto, tested with their design of an expansive residential development for the workers of the Sunila pulp mill. On the outskirts of the small city of Kotka, a 90-minute drive from Helsinki, the development was built in the late 1930s with some additional structures added after the Second World War. The project consists of 29 buildings, including terraced houses and detached homes, set in a lush landscape of rocky hills and verdant coniferous forests. For Aalto, who was in his mid-thirties at the time, a mass housing project of this scale was the perfect opportunity to show how his architectural philosophy could transform the lives of ordinary people by providing quality homes en masse.<\/p>\n

\"WhiteAlvar Aalto-designed workers\u2019 residence<\/p>\n

Despite these lofty ideals, the area fell into disrepair in the latter part of the 20th century. The Sunila mill\u2019s importance to the Finnish pulp industry waned (though it is still operational) and the Aalto homes, originally owned by workers, were sold off. Kotka\u2019s city hall used some of them for social housing, while private citizens purchased others at staggeringly low prices. Sunila had been all but forgotten as an architectural treasure until a recent surge of interest in the area was triggered by a host of design-savvy Helsinkil\u00e4iset buying apartments for weekend getaways. These new residents, who include museum directors and high-ranking public servants, have been restoring the interiors to their original state and giving fa\u00e7ades gentle nips and tucks. \u201cI just fell head over heels in love with this area,\u201d says Jani Kylm\u00e4nen, sitting on a vintage Aalto-designed Artek 69 chair in his compact Sunila apartment. The Helsinki-based property and furniture entrepreneur bought the residence in 2019 as a holiday home. Much of it, including the wooden kitchen cabinets and the foyer coat rack, was in its original state. Kylm\u00e4nen painstakingly restored the parts of the home that weren\u2019t true to Aalto\u2019s vision to their initial look and feel by exposing original surfaces and commissioning master carpenters to replicate the missing pieces using methods from Aalto\u2019s era. Kylm\u00e4nen also scoured vintage furniture shops for Aalto items from the 1930s, such as an extendable dinner table made from birch, designed by Aino Marsio-Aalto. There\u2019s even a custom-made bent birch chair that Alvar designed for the 1939 World\u2019s Fair in New York, where, coincidentally, Sunila grabbed the world\u2019s attention as a progressive new model for workers\u2019 housing. \u201cIt is our duty as residents to uphold Aalto\u2019s legacy and the spirit of this beautiful area,\u201d says Kylm\u00e4nen. \u201cWithout Aalto, this would be just another forgotten suburb in a decaying industrial area.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"Cream-coloredApartment entrance<\/p>\n

\"NarrowKylm\u00e4nen\u2019s kitchen has been restored to its original form<\/p>\n

Yet in Finland, where the great majority of Aalto\u2019s work is located, the architect\u2019s name does not always invoke the same veneration as it does abroad. This is partly because his buildings are so commonplace (there are more than 400 of them) and partly because many historic and revered neoclassical and art nouveau buildings were torn down to make way for Aalto\u2019s functionalist works. \u201cFor a long time, the locals did not want to move to Sunila despite it having some of the cheapest properties in the area,\u201d says Kylm\u00e4nen. \u201cTo some degree, this is still true today. Most people who move in because of Aalto come from other towns and cities.\u201d Kylm\u00e4nen is involved in the residents\u2019 association, Pro Sunila, whose members meet to promote and look after the area and to exchange ideas about how to renovate their apartments in a way that respects the development\u2019s legacy. \u201cMuch of the area was built almost 90 years ago,\u201d he says. \u201cIt is not always easy to find the materials and the shades of paint that were used back then.\u201d That sense of community and of taking care of the entire area is important for Kylm\u00e4nen, who was attracted to Sunila not only by the opportunity to reside in an original Aalto apartment but also by what he calls the development\u2019s \u201cspirit\u201d. \u201cAalto designed everything here and you can sense his design philosophy wherever you go, from the way that the buildings are placed to follow the forest\u2019s topography to how the surrounding nature interplays with design choices such as the placement of the windows.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"RoundPine stool designed by Bertel Gardberg, 1960s<\/p>\n

\"BrightNatural light<\/p>\n

\"ClassicalJani Kylm\u00e4nen\u2019s apartment<\/p>\n

\"AKylm\u00e4nen\u2019s vintage bar trolley<\/p>\n

It was the same holistic design approach and legacy that attracted Maija Tanninen- Mattila, the former director of the Helsinki Art Museum, to Sunila in 2021. \u201cWhen Aalto was commissioned to design the area, he was given a lot of creative freedom to realise his vision for a modern factory area,\u201d she tells monocle while sitting on the large veranda of her 1939 terrace apartment. \u201cI am fascinated by his humanism and his idealism.\u201d Tanninen-Mattila\u2019s summer home is a great example of this: its sharp white contours sit gently in the undulating landscape and it has a timeless boxy form that, if not for the cracking paint and patina of wear, looks like it might have been designed only recently. \u201cIt does have that \u2018wow\u2019 effect,\u201d she says. \u201cWhat makes it more special is that the industrial society in the 1930s was very hierarchical, yet Aalto wanted even the workers\u2019 residencies to look great.\u201d If Kylm\u00e4nen\u2019s home is a veritable Aalto museum with almost no modern touches, Tanninen-Mattila\u2019s residence combines elements from that era, such as a 1930s wooden club table with Aalto\u2019s signature L-shaped legs, with modern comforts such as kitchen appliances and a shower. \u201cIt is my second home and I want it to have that lived-in look,\u201d she says. \u201cBut I don\u2019t want it to clash with Aalto\u2019s architectural language.\u201d Tanninen-Mattila, an art historian by training, has stacked her bookshelf with tomes about Aalto and other modernists \u2013 not just architects but artists too. She is fascinated by the era. \u201cBy moving here and looking after the area, anyone can contribute to nurturing Aalto\u2019s cultural legacy,\u201d she says. Such is her passion for Sunila that Tanninen-Mattila has recently bought another apartment in the area, which she is in the process of renovating. \u201cThe responsibility of looking after this place made me even more emotionally attached to it.\u201d It\u2019s an attachment that\u2019s also shared by Laura Aalto (no relation). The longstanding former ceo of Helsinki Marketing, which promoted the Finnish capital to the world, Laura bought an apartment in Sunila with her husband in 2021, almost on a whim.<\/p>\n

\"BrightLaura Aalto\u2019s lounge<\/p>\n

\u201cWe happened to drive by and fell in love with this entire area, its plan and the placement of the buildings,\u201d she says. Used as a holiday home, it is finished with works by contemporary Finnish artists, a modern bookshelf by String and an Akari floor lamp by Isamu Noguchi. They sit alongside vintage Artek furniture from the 1950s, creating a harmonious look that isn\u2019t out of place in the 1937 building, which features thick ceiling beams and round wooden hand railings. \u201cGreat architecture stays relevant by adapting to contemporary needs,\u201d says Laura. \u201cThe way that light hits the building, and how the transitions from one room to the next are marked, is all part of the enduring magic of Aalto\u2019s architecture.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"PortraitLaura Aalto<\/p>\n

\"ClassicArtek furniture<\/p>\n

She is convinced that the best way to protect noteworthy buildings is to use them \u2013 to live in them. And she says that we shouldn\u2019t shy away from adapting them, albeit in ways that do not clash with the original design intent. For Laura and her husband, this meant making the kitchen larger than the original so that they could comfortably cook meals and host guests. \u201cAalto made homes for people \u2013 and people\u2019s needs change,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019m convinced that he would have wanted his buildings to evolve over time.\u201d Laura explains that she has developed a strong connection to Sunila, despite living in Helsinki for most of the year. \u201cIt\u2019s a wonderful community, very versatile. Our neighbours are comic-book artists, nurses and pensioners \u2013 and they have all welcomed us with open arms.\u201d This year the residents of Sunila will also open the doors of their homes to visitors for the annual Alvar Aalto Week, organised by Kotka\u2019s city hall. Artek, the company that Aalto founded and which propelled his furniture design to global fame, is working to restore one of the development\u2019s apartments so it can be used as its showroom during the event. Despite the newfound interest \u2013 and the fact that the Finnish government has included Sunila on its list of Aalto works for which it seeks Unesco World Heritage status \u2013 there is no hiding the fact that many of Sunila\u2019s Aalto buildings are in poor shape and need a lot of work. But the renaissance has begun. Aalto once famously said that his buildings are never complete but always evolve with the times. Here\u2019s hoping that the continued influx of design-minded individuals to Sunila will prove the famed modernist right. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Famed mid-century Finnish architect Alvar Aalto believed that people\u2019s lives could be transformed by pairing functionalism \u2013 design…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":106632,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[87],"tags":[46083,54189,52686,54190,17947,158,54191,54192,113,54193,54194],"class_list":["post-106631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-helsinki","tag-kotka","tag-1930s-architecture","tag-alvar-aalto","tag-architecture-restoration","tag-artek","tag-finland","tag-finnish-architecture","tag-finnish-design","tag-helsinki","tag-sunila","tag-workers-housing"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/116737868552082634","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106631"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106631\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}