Turun Sanomien toimitalo, Maalaistentalo ja Standardivuokratalo (Turun Sanomats kontor, Lantmannahuset och Standardhyreshuset)

English translation (from the Finnish)

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Description

The office and printing works of Turun Sanomat, the Lounais-Suomen Maalaistentalo and the Standardivuokratalo belong to the early work of architect Alvar Aalto and to the landmark works of Finnish modernist architecture. The buildings relate to a turning point in the architect's output, when classicism gave way to functionalism, and they belong to the selection of landmarks of Finnish modernism from the late 1920s to the 1970s accepted by the international DOCOMOMO organisation.

The Lounais-Suomen Maalaistentalo is the first building Alvar Aalto designed in Turku. The building shows Aalto's emerging interest in international rationalism in architecture, departing from a competition proposal rich in classicist features. The façade with its friezes is reduced classicism, but the details show signs of functionalism. The five-storey building originally housed the Turun suomalainen teatteri, a hotel, a restaurant, retail premises and flats.

The office building that Alvar Aalto designed for Turun Sanomat is one of the first functionalist buildings in Finland. It comprises six storeys above ground and, on the courtyard side, two storeys below ground. The editorial offices and the printing works of the newspaper building, the most modern of its day, built on a narrow central plot, were located in the same building, as well as the owner's flat on the top floor. The building applies the five points of architecture propagated by the Swiss architect Le Corbusier: the building is raised on pilotis, which has made possible a free plan, the articulation of the façade and continuous horizontal strip windows. The roof terrace provides space for a roof garden. The structures of the building, including the unusual pillar structure, were designed together with structural engineer Emil Henriksson.

The Standard rental house, also known as the Tapani-talo, was built from standardised reinforced concrete panels, for the construction company Tapani that produced them. The architecture of the house shows the influence of the new Central European residential architecture, which Aalto had studied before the design work began. The street façade of this five-storey house is situated in one of the closed blocks surrounding Puolalanmäki. The smooth, rendered light surface is articulated by low three-pane, two-pane and single-pane windows. The commercial storey has an almost continuous window surface, and the attic storey has low windows. The roof profile is stepped; the courtyard section is one storey higher than the street side.

History

An architectural competition was held for the design of the Lounais-Suomen Maalaistentalo, which Alvar Aalto won in 1927 with his classicist proposal. The building was completed in 1928 in a considerably simplified form. With the competition victory, Aalto moved with his family to Turku, to the top floor of the Maalaistentalo, which also housed the working premises of the architectural office. A number of Finland's first functionalist buildings were thus designed by Aalto's office and built in Turku.

Alvar Aalto designed the Turun Sanomat editorial building after a study trip to France and the Netherlands. In addition, in spring 1928 he made a study trip with the client to the Nordic countries to become acquainted with the editorial premises of the largest newspapers. The Turun Sanomat editorial building was built in 1927-1929. Aalto's assistants in the design were Aino Marsio-Aalto and the Norwegians Erling Bjertnäs and Harald Wildhagen.

The Standardivuokratalo came about after the builder, manufacturer Juho Tapani, commissioned architect Alvar Aalto in 1927 to investigate the possibilities of using Tapani concrete slabs in a standard apartment block. The structure developed by Juho Tapani was based on industrially manufactured hollow wall and floor-slab bricks, into which steel reinforcement and concrete casting were placed. Construction of the Tapani house began in 1928 and it was completed in 1929.