The nomination of the Aaltos’ architecture as a World Heritage Site, currently being prepared by the Finnish Heritage Agency, highlights the importance of the internationally renowned architecture in creating the Finnish welfare state

The proposal, under preparation by the Finnish Heritage Agency since 2022, includes 13 Aalto-designed buildings and groups of buildings that have influenced the construction of the national welfare state and supported the well-being of communities in a way that has universal significance as well as an impact on the development of modern architecture internationally. The sites comprising the Aalto Works serial nominated property are: Sunila housing area in Kotka; Paimio Sanatorium; Experimental House, Säynätsalo Town Hall and Aalto Campus in Jyväskylä; Aalto Centre in Seinäjoki; Social Insurance Institution Main Office, House of Culture, Aalto House, Aalto Atelier, and Finlandia Hall in Helsinki, Church of the Three Crosses in Imatra; and Villa Mairea in Pori.

“The preparatory work itself has contributed to the preservation of modern architecture nationally, and as it continues it will only deepen the understanding of the significance of the Aaltos' modern architecture internationally,” says Tiina Merisalo, Director General of the Finnish Heritage Agency.

The preparation of the Aalto Works nomination at the Finnish Heritage Agency has been a process lasting several years, and began with the update of the national Tentative List in 2018–2019. The draft for the Tentative List was prepared in 2020–2021, and the actual preparation process for the Aalto Works nomination took place in 2022–2024 in collaboration with a wide range of stakeholders, site owners, cities, as well as various authorities. The preparation of the serial property nomination has been nationwide, spanning seven provinces and seven cities. Both the owners and cities have supported the promotion of the project. The expertise of the Alvar Aalto Foundation and ICOMOS World Heritage experts has been essential in the preparation

Will the Aaltos' architecture become Finland's eighth UNESCO World Heritage site?

Finland ratified the UNESCO World Heritage Convention in 1987, and since then a total of seven sites in Finland have been included on the World Heritage List. The Aaltos' architecture was identified as a potential World Heritage Site already early on. The nomination of the Aalto office's works to the list has been a multi-stage process and the roots of the preparation go back almost 40 years. The Sunila factory and housing area were proposed for inclusion on Finland’s Tentative List at a meeting of the Nordic building conservation authorities in Bergen as early as 1986. A couple of years later, Villa Mairea was included in reports alongside Sunila, but neither of them ended up on Finland's Tentative List. Instead, the Tentative List updated in 2004 included Paimio Sanatorium, which was nominated to the World Heritage List, but was withdrawn before the committee's consideration in 2007, following preliminary assessments. Based on ICOMOS International’s evaluation of the completed proposal, the idea of ​​submitting the Aalto Works series as a World Heritage Site began to take shape.

Aalto Works nominated property sites

The 13 sites of the series include key symbolic buildings in Finland's development as a Nordic welfare state and member of the international community, such as the Social Insurance Institution Main Office in Helsinki as the "headquarters" of the welfare society, the Aalto Centre in Seinäjoki and the Säynätsalo Town Hall as centres of everyday democracy serving the needs of the local population, and the Finlandia Hall in Helsinki as a stage at the time of its completion for world politics. The House of Culture is a landmark of the Helsinki working-class district built in the first half of the 20th century, a gathering place for all enthusiasts of intellectual and physical culture. The Paimio Sanatorium served as a model for the consideration of developments in medicine and psychology as well as utilizing architecture as an institution that supports the patient's quality of life and treatment. The Sunila housing area in Kotka is an early forest suburb that showed a new direction in the design of traditional factory workers' housing areas. The Aalto Campus, part of the Jyväskylä University’s Seminaarinmäki campus that received the European Heritage Label in 2022, represents the possibilities for spiritual development of both society and individuals. Many citizens of Imatra can name the Church of the Three Crosses as their baptismal, confirmation or wedding church, where everyday life and sacred life come together, and which realises the ideas of diversity and accessibility of parish work for everyone.

The places where architects work and create are represented in the nominated property by the Aalto House, a combined home and office built by the Aalto architect couple in Munkkiniemi, Helsinki, which embodies the combination of modern family living and creative work, and the Aalto Atelier, located within walking distance of the previous building, whose architecture promotes the atmosphere of the working community and provides an egalitarian framework for work. The Experimental House in Muuratsalo in Jyväskylä, which preserves the Aaltos' brick, tile and masonry experiments, is located amidst wild nature and borrows from the landscape as part of its architecture. In Villa Mairea in Pori, which the Aaltos designed as a home for their friends Maire and Harry Gullichsen, interior design and architecture are inseparable.