Guided tour (en), Studio Aalto

Learn about Studio Aalto on a guided tour!

Suomenkielinen kierros on tuote Opastettu kierros, Alvar Aallon Atelje. 

A one-hour tour explores the history and architecture of Aalto’s office with an expert guide and allows personal time to soak up the special atmosphere, take photographs, make sketches and visit the museum shop. Studio Aalto is located in Munkkiniemi area in Helsinki.

Please notice that Studio Aaltos balcony, inner-courtyard façade and garden fence are to be renovated during summer 2024. Despite the renovations, Studio Aalto is still open to the public as usual. Read more: Studio Aaltos renovations during summer 2024

Maximum number of visitors is limited to 15 per tour. Schedule for the rest of the year will be confirmed later. Enquiries: shop@alvaraalto.fi

• You may purchase your ticket by choosing the number of tickets and then clicking the date and time in the calendar below
• Guided tours are usually in English
• Please notice when completing the payment that your credit card provider doesn’t have any restrictions to certain countries (for example Finland). Restrictions may cause the payment to fail.
• After you have proceeded to checkout and paid your order, we will check your order and you ‘ll receive the e-ticket straight into your inbox
• The ticket is only valid for the designated time. Please don’t be late for your tour!
• Please select your visit hour carefully, tickets cannot be refunded! We can, however, change your booking to another tour in certain cases if there’s availability
• Feel free to visit us when you feel well. If you feel ill, please contact and we can change your ticket for another date.
• Please make sure you pay your booking immediately – due to high demand, the reservation will be automatically cancelled within 15 minutes if no payment is made
• If you have purchased a discounted ticket, you must show the relevant documentation (e.g. a student card) on site
• Group bookings only by email: contact hello@alvaraalto.fi

Alvar Aalto designed the building at Tiilimäki 20 in Munkkiniemi as his own office in 1955. Because of a number of large commissions, the office needed more space to work in. The building is only a short walk from Aalto’s own house, where the office had previously been located. Studio Aalto is one of the best of Alvar Aalto’s 1950s buildings.

“You can’t create architecture in an office environment,” is how Aalto described working in an architect’s office. Aalto designed a free-form studio section for the building, and a drawing room using natural light. The building curves around a stepped, amphitheatre-style courtyard sheltered from the wind. On the upper floor there is a drawing office on a narrow plan, beautifully encircled by natural light from a band of high-level windows. In 1962-1963 the building was extended by building a dining room for the staff, the ‘Taverna’, in the courtyard behind the high brick wall, with an office above it.

Many of Aalto’s best-known works were designed here at the Studio. Alvar Aalto ran the office until his death in 1976. After that, the office continued under the leadership of Elissa Aalto until 1994. The building came into the custodianship of the Alvar Aalto Foundation in 1984 and today it houses the Alvar Aalto Foundation staff.