in september 1923, aalto set up his own office
in jyväskylä and hired aino marsio (1896-1949),
who he married in autumn 1924, as an assistant.
in 1927, aalto won the competition for the southwestern
finland agricultural cooperative building and the family
moved to turku. paimio tuberculosis sanatorium,
which brought aalto international recognition,
was completed in 1932 and showed that
an architectural masterpiece can be brought
to life over a short assimilation period and far
from the centre.

in 1933, the aaltos moved to helsinki when the decision
was finally made to build viipuri (vyborg) library on the
basis of the competition aalto had won in 1927.
aalto’s own house, which also contained space
for the office, was completed at riihitie in helsinki in 1936.
this was, in a way, a statement of a new style, which
aalto eventually brought to fruition in the villa mairea,
the house designed for his friends maire and harry gullichsen.
design that relied on the natural sourroundings as a starting
point became aalto’s trademark and he adapted it to suit
spatial planning and social building.

aalto’s first commission in helsinki,
the finnish engineers’ association building,
was followed by several competition wins in finland,
the head-offices for the national pensions institute in 1948,
the master plan for helsinki university of technology
at otaniemi in 1949, säynätsalo town hall in 1949
and the university of jyväskylä in 1951.
all of these important projects were completed in the 1950’s
and all of them involve careful consideration of the characteristics
of public building and the nature of urban space.

after the death of aino, alvar married the young
architect elsa-kaisa (elissa) mäkiniemi (1922-1994),
who also became his colleague, and they built the
muuratsalo experimental house as their summer villa.
the 1950s and 60s were a boom time for construction
and aalto was awarded an increasing number of honours
and distinctions including the royal gold medal for architecture
in 1957 by queen elizabeth II.

aalto was still working actively in the early 1970s,
but died in helsinki on may 11, 1976.

back to alvar aalto through the eyes of shigeru ban