Aalto Villa Mairea, Noormarkku

Ended up meeting the swiss architect couple again the next day at Villa Mairea. Not the easiest place to get to.  I stayed overnight at a strange hostel in Pori where the owners were only available on demand. I had to call and let them know I had arrived.

The next morning I left the key in the room and took my luggage to the train station where I stored it in a storage locker.  Then went to the bus station to catch the bus to Villa Mairea.  It cost about €4 each way and the bus driver didn't speak english, but quickly understood once I had shown him the Villa Mairea directions I was given by the Aalto Foundation. He let me off at a bus stop on Highway 23 and motioned to 

me to walk that way, which was up a gravel dirt path.  I followed it for about 5-10min. passing a children's nursery and then veered left up a sloped path. After passing a traditional country house that was originally the family home of Maire Gullichsen, the villa slowly reveals itself. Maintenance contractors were on site the day of my visit.  They were re-varnishing the timber window frames with a sky lift machine.

Seven people showed up for the tour.   Two swiss architects and 4 Japanese students and tourists. I met one Japanese visitor who wasn't an architect, designer nor had a profession closely related to architecture.  She just admired Aalto's work and was on a 10 day holiday, making Aalto pilgrimages.  She told me she went to see Aalto's Tuberculosis Sanitorium in Paimio the day before and got lost.  Was dropped off in the middle of nowhere and ended up finding a bowling alley where she was able to call a taxi who took her to the Sanitorium. Someday I would like to understand the unique relationship between the Japanese and the Finns.  There seems to be a mutual respect that exists for both countries design sensibilities.

This house is owned by the Gullichsen family foundation as opposed to the Aalto foundation. For this reason it is one of the most well maintained of Aalto's houses.  The Aalto Studio and House are owned by the Aalto Foundation and are less well maintained.  The family still gather here during the summer months we were told.  I think I would feel strange knowing that my house was being trampled on by thousands of tourists each year, although I suppose the tourists probably pay for the maintenance costs.

We were only allowed access to the ground floor of the house.  First floor was off limits as was the sauna. We were also not allowed to take photographs inside and had to take off our shoes and wear slippers before entering the main interior spaces.  Apparently Aalto was heavily influenced by Fallingwater when he began designing this house for his close friends Harry and Maire Gullichsen who made their wealth from the Finnish forestry industry.

It is a lovely house.  I realized that you can't understand Aalto's buildings until you've had a chance to visit them and experience a little of what it must have been like to live or work in them.  Photographs in books and written text just doesn't give them justice.  The proportions of the house and the size of the semi enclosed courtyard with pool feels perfect. It's not too big and not too small.  Aalto designed the courtyard as another room of the house, he made the main glazed wall movable so that the wall to the living space was actually the external wall of the adjacent sauna building. The tour guide noted that this glazed wall has probably been fully opened maybe twice in the whole lifetime of the house.  The glazed panels were designed to slide across and concealed behind the fireplace.