Alvar Aalto´s Terraced House

Architecture, design and art meet at Terraced House. One of the apartments of the Terraced House is decorated with old Artek furniture and lamps by Festart Design. All objects are for sale. In addition there are changing exhibitions such as art exhibitions.

The Ahlström Corporation let build the Terraced House for the accomodation apartments of the upper officials and it was the first fulfilled building designed by Aalto in Kauttua. Aalto was one of the first architects representing modern style and the Terraced House represents modern functionalism quite correctly. According to the stylictic tendency the parts of the building should improve practicality and all that is unnecessary is eliminated. The historical background of the Terraced House is based on the Mediterranean architecture which Aalto admired and which gave him inspiration for the shape and fasade of the building.

Aalto emphasized the importance of the main elements: light, air and practicality. The Terraced House has been placed on the slope and the roof of each appartment are terraces for the apartments higher up. Each apartment has its own path to the front door and the natural light gets in from the three points of the compass.

In the last master plan by Aalto there were four terraced houses all in all and they formed one part of the larger plan in Kauttua. Though Aalto designed The Terraced House to a typical house only one was completed because of the wartime and the lack of the building material of good quality.

The building is called the Terraced House and the stepped apartment building. Local people talk more about the stepped apartment building but Aalto, himself, used the name the Terraced House. That is why the official name of the building is the Terraced House.