Villa Mairea

Over the course of the decades, the Aaltos' designed several private houses for their friends. Each of the houses strongly conveys the personal relationship between the residents or family and their home. 

The most significant of these homes is Villa Mairea (1938–1939). It was built for Harry and Maire Gullichsen in the Noormarkku ironworks area. Harry was the director of the A. Ahlström company, and his wife Maire, a collector and a patron of the arts, was one of the founding members of Artek along with Aino Marsio-Aalto, Alvar Aalto and Nils-Gustaf Hahl.

The facades of the villa are partly faced with wood – teak and Finnish pine – and partly with thin stone slabs and rough-cast rendering. The main entrance is accented by a colonnade of unstripped saplings supporting a free-form roof. 

Inside, a few steps lead up from the entrance hall to the living room, whence a staircase bordered by irregularly composed wooden poles leads up to the upper floor. The ground floor is reserved for entertaining. The spaces naturally invite the visitor to stay, and despite their somewhat public character, have nevertheless an intimate feel. Part of the external wall is movable on a sliding system so that “the house can be completely opened to the garden”.

The dining room window looks out over the inner courtyard, and the door in the rear wall opens onto the covered way leading to the sauna. The kitchen is beside the dining room with rooms for the domestics behind it. Stairs lead up from the kitchen to the joint children's playroom and breakfast room, and the guest wing. Also the bedrooms and Maire Gullichsen's painting studio are on the upper floor.

Today, Villa Mairea is home to the Villa Mairea Foundation, which presents the building to the public, manages its collections, and preserves the legacy of Maire and Harry Gullichsen. Villa Mairea is open to visitors all year round.

More information can be found on the Alvar Aalto Foundation and the Villa Mairea websites.