Architecture

Finlandia Hall

This is a piece of architecture that was created by one of Finland's most famous architects, Alvar Aalto. Alvar was born in Kuortane, Finland and studied architecture at the Helsinki University of Technology. He opened his first architectural office in 1923. Aalto became a member of the Congres Internationaux d' Architecture Moderne shortly after this and even though he had many famous pieces of architecture he did not receive world attention until the mid 1930's. Alvar created this building for the city of Helsinki and is used for conferences, concerts, and as a congress centre. This was a very unique design ,which caught my eye right away, and took him nearly 5 years to complete.

The Hall itself show many of the ideas in which Aalto experimented with during his lifelong preoccupation with monumental building construction. It is a very decorative and horizontal building with many cubist's forms. The main material for the exterior of the building was Carrara marble and also has copper roofs.

The inside is also covered with plenty of marble, but is also accented by very detailed hardwoods and ceramic. The inside of the building features many asymmetrical and acoustical wall structures.

It is amazing that Aalto created every lighting fixture, every piece of furniture, panels, and flooring materials specially for this building.