Last year saw the Alvar Aalto Foundation experience a record-breaking number of visitors at each of its four sites – a total of 42,755 as opposed to the 36,744 people that toured the sites in 2015.

Of those numbers, The Alvar Aalto Museum and the Muuratsalo Experimental House in Jyväskylä received a total of 20,005 visitors combined, half of which had arrived from outside of Finland to explore the Museum, while also continuing the recent trend of an increasing number of visits over the past five years.

Save this picture! Muuratsalo Experimental House / Alvar Aalto. Image © Nico Saieh

Meanwhile, in Helsinki, the Finnish architect’s Aalto House and Studio Aalto had 11,682 and 7,068 tourists respectively, both approximately accommodating an additional 1,500 people to the previous year.

According to the foundation, the steady growth in numbers of visitors is partly due to an extended summer tourist season, coupled with greater media coverage of Aalto-related topics.

Save this picture! Säynätsalo Town Hall. Image © Flickr user singhkumar licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0. Image

The sites have also been given more public exposure and are as of late, hosting small functions and conferences, including a popular exhibition on the works of Somo and Jussi Heikkilä, seen by over 8,000 people.

The growth in 2013–2016 can additionally be explained by the way that we have made our visitor services part of the Foundation’s and Museum’s core functions, rather than outsourcing them, says Tommi Lindh, Director of the Alvar Aalto Foundation. People who visit Alvar Aalto’s sites are often important partners in collaboration and part of a worldwide network of Aalto enthusiasts.

Save this picture! Jyvaskyla University / Alvar Aalto. Image © Nico Saieh

All four sites have been the source of international attention, attracting travelers from across 50 different nations. Throughout the year, guided tours were conducted in 7 languages, while Japanese visitors accounted for more than a quarter of those visiting.

Learn more about the foundation’s public sites here.

News via: Alvar Aalto Foundation.

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AD Classics: Muuratsalo Experimental House / Alvar Aalto