Finland presents Alvar Aalto’s architecture as a UNESCO World Heritage Site

Unesco a new site from Finland is proposed to be added to the world heritage list, the Ministry of Education and Culture informs. It is a complex with thirteen architectural objects architect From Alvar Aalto. In addition to Alvar Aalto, the whole also shows the handprint of other Aaltos.

The objects form a whole under the name Aalto Works, the release states.

The “Aalto Works” complex includes the Aalto studio, Aalto’s home, Finlandia Hall, the National Pension Institution’s headquarters and Kulttuuritalo in Helsinki, Aalto’s campus in Jyväskylä, Muuratsalo test hall and Säynätsalo municipal hall in Jyväskylä, Paimio sanatorium, Seinäjoki Aalto center, Sunila residential area in Kotka, Villa Mairea in Pori and the Church of the Three Crosses in Imatra.

Science- and the Minister of Culture Sari Multala has signed Finland’s target presentation. The World Heritage Committee will make a decision on the possible acceptance of the site in the summer of 2026, the release states.

There are now 1,223 sites on the World Heritage List. There are seven destinations from Finland on the list. It has been almost twenty years since the last Finnish destination was named. The last time Finland received a UNESCO World Heritage Site was in 2006, when the Merenkurku Archipelago was named to the list, the Finnish Museum Agency says on its website.

Finland’s world heritage sites also include Struve’s degree measurement chain, Sammallahdenmäki, Verla’s wood grinder and cardboard factory, Petäjävesi’s old church, Old Rauma and Suomenlinna.

The World Heritage List is part of the UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the World’s Cultural and Natural Heritage.