Lappeenranta University of Technology (1969) by Jaakko Kontio and Kalle Räike, Valkeakoski Cultural and administrative center (1966) by Kaarlo Leppänen, and Jägarbacken housing in Tammisaari (1967) by Eric Adlercreutz and Nils-Hinrik Aschan.

Leppänen and Eric Adlercreutz
7 May–23 Nov 2014
Studio Aalto, Tiilimäki 20, Helsinki

A new exhibition at Studio Aalto in Munkkiniemi, Helsinki takes viewers on a journey into the works of architects for whom Aalto’s office was a springboard to fame. The exhibition focuses on the architects Jaakko Kontio, Kaarlo Leppänen and Eric Adlercreutz and it is based on Miguel Borges de Araújo’s forthcoming PhD thesis.

“The items in the exhibition are from the latter half of the 1960s. This was an important time for Finnish architecture. The theory of Functionalism was in crisis and Alvar Aalto was still very active, but the young architects who learnt their profession in Aalto’s office each found success in their own different directions,” says Chief Curator at the Alvar Aalto Museum Mia Hipeli.

The exhibition shows the architects immersed in projects that they undertook in the 1960s, and uses their works to explore how the zeitgeist and the years spent under Aalto’s tutelage affected their working processes. Of Kontio’s projects, on display here is Lappeenranta University of Technology, of Leppänen’s works Valkeakoski Cultural and Administrative Center, and from Adlercreutz the Jägarbacken housing area in Tammisaari.

Miguel Borges de Araújo was born in Porto, Portugal, in 1982 and studied architecture at the University of Minho in Guimarães. Having been greatly impressed by Alvar Aalto’s buildings, and now settled in Finland, Borges de Araújo is currently writing his PhD thesis “The work of Alvar Aalto’s collaborators” at the School of Architecture, Tampere University.

The exhibition excited vivid conversation at the opening.

> via finnisharchitecture.fi