Finland is updating its tentative list in line with the World Heritage Agreement.

In summer 2018, an open, online questionnaire survey was conducted for new nominations to be world heritage sites, which were considered in 2019 by a workgroup set up by the Finnish Heritage Agency. At the same time, they assessed the potential of these sites for meeting the criteria for Outstanding Universal Values, OUV – a prerequisite for inclusion in the World Heritage List. The workgroup estimated that two of the nominations had a chance of success in an international appraisal. These were the Alvar Aalto Foundation’s nominations “Alvar Aalto’s humane, modern architecture” and “Districts resulting from systematic housing work during and after the Second World War (1940–1954)”.

At the request of the Ministry of Education and Culture, the Finnish Heritage Agency has produced a proposal for the tentative list, “The Architectural Works of Alvar Aalto – a Human Dimension to the Modern Movement”, which has been created in close collaboration with experts from the Alvar Aalto Foundation and ICOMOS Finland. The international seminar “HUMANISTIC MODERNISM” – Works by Alvar Aalto in the World Heritage Context held in Lahti in autumn 2019 laid down good guidelines for the work on the tentative list proposal. One guideline was that the series of Aalto sites could possibly be augmented later on with sites outside of Finland, if they seamlessly complement the whole,” says Alvar Aalto Foundation Managing Director Tommi Lindh.

In the first phase, the proposal will consist of 13 modern Finnish buildings or districts designed by Alvar Aalto’s architect’s office, which form a coherent whole that, according to the experts’ assessment, has a chance of inclusion in the World Heritage List. The set of sites may change during the production of the actual World Heritage List proposal. The nominated sites are: Studio Aalto; The Aalto House; Finlandia Hall; Social Insurance Institution Main Office; House of Culture; University of Jyväskylä, Aalto Campus; Muuratsalo Experimental House; Paimio Sanatorium; Seinäjoki Civic Centre; Sunila Pulp Mill Residential Area; Säynätsalo Town Hall; Villa Mairea; and the Church of the Three Crosses, Vuoksenniska...

Alvar Aalto Architecture Proposed for Unesco World Heritage List

AV Monografías 66: Alvar Aalto