Villa Kokkonen
During our summer holiday we took a train trip to Järvenpää to visit Villa Kokkonen. It is a home and workspace designed by architect Alvar Aalto (1898–1976) for his friend, composer Joonas Kokkonen (1921–1996). The villa was completed in 1969 and is one of the few private houses Aalto ever designed.
Our journey began at Järvenpää train station, from where we walked the most direct route of about three kilometers. With a stroller the walk took around forty minutes. On the way back we chose a different path, stopped at playgrounds and even came across a flock of sheep.
Villa Kokkonen is open only through guided tours, which made the visit feel different from an ordinary museum experience. With us was our two-year-old, whose excited voice carried through the group right at the beginning: “Mom! I heard a sound! What sound? It’s a bird, a bird sound!”
To make sure the other visitors could fully focus on the tour, I eventually sat on the hallway floor (from there I could still hear the guide from the living room and the studio), my child on my lap watching a silent car video. Not exactly the architectural visit I had imagined beforehand, but it worked out! Luckily grandma was along as an extra pair of hands, which also gave me the chance to take photos of the beautiful house.
Aalto wanted to create a contrast between the exterior and interior of the building. The street-facing façade is black and minimalistic, while inside light and wood take center stage. During construction the white canopy was added above the front door so that the façade would not appear too plain.
In the courtyard there is also a small garage that has been converted into the museum’s office. There you will find the ticket desk and a small museum shop, through which visitors enter the yard of the artist’s home.
There is a fascinating and comprehensive building history report (in Finnish) about Villa Kokkonen available online. In it, Alvar Aalto Foundation’s building researcher Joni Rousku describes the villa as a crossroads in the careers of two internationally successful artists. It is precisely this unique artistic friendship that makes Villa Kokkonen such a special cultural heritage site.
Aalto did not charge Kokkonen anything for his design work. As thanks, Kokkonen dedicated to him the cello concerto he was working on at the time.
The guide told us that the three lamps above the dining table were once stolen through the skylight (just like in the movies!). They were eventually identified and recovered, since they had been designed specifically for Villa Kokkonen and therefore were not the kind that had been in general production.
It is no surprise that in a musician’s home acoustics were essential, and Kokkonen wanted the surfaces of his work studio to be made of wood so the space would not become too echoey. The building is said to have been designed around the grand piano. Most of the furniture consists of unique pieces created by Artek and Aalto specifically for this house.
In the studio there was also a photo of Aalto’s very first sketch, the original version of which he had sketched onto a restaurant tablecloth after a visit to the site of the future house.
It is said that when building the fireplace in the studio, the mason interpreted the plans differently than Aalto had intended. The wavy shape was supposed to appear only at the corner, as in the living room fireplace, but the mason had continued it across the entire surface. Aalto nevertheless approved it and remarked that, after such an effort, he would rather redraw the fireplace than have it redone.
An absolutely stunning home! As a designer, I was especially captivated by the brightness of the studio, the atmosphere of the home, and the many works of art.