North Jutland Art Museum
Alvar Aalto

Photo: arcspace

The North Jutland Art Museum is a prime example of modern Scandinavian architecture. Built from 1968 to 1972, it was designed by one of the most influential architects of the 20th century Alvar Aalto with his wife Elissa as a showplace for 20th-century Danish and international art.

To this day, Aalto continues to have a profound influence both within his native country Finland and internationally.

The North Jutland Art Museum, situated on the edge of a large area of parks and woodland, rises like a ziggurat to meet the adjoining hillside. The clean lines of the marble clad building volumes, and the green copper roofs, blend harmoniously with the natural surroundings.


Photo: arcspace

Photo: arcspace

Photo: arcspace

On the ground level the central exhibition gallery, and an adjoining sculpture gallery, are surrounded by a series of long sky lit galleries, seven smaller exhibition rooms, a chamber music room, the entrance hall, and the administration offices. Additional exhibition rooms, a café, cloakroom, lecture rooms, a study group room, a workshop and a library, are located on the lower ground floor.


Photo: arcspace

Photo: arcspace

Photo: arcspace

True architecture exists only where man stands in the center./Alvar Aalto

Photo: arcspace

Because of a highly flexible mobile wall system the exhibition spaces are can accommodate the requirements of each individual exhibition.

Natural and diffused light enters the galleries from a variety of skylights reconfirming Alvar Aalto's brilliant manipulation of the Nordic light.The white carrara marble covering most of the floor areas add to the light and airy feeling in the galleries.


Photo: arcspace

Photo: arcspace

Photo: arcspace

Photo: arcspace

Photo: arcspace

Photo: arcspace

The building also features a children's museum and an outdoor amphitheater.


Photo: arcspace

The attention to details and use of solid natural materials, marble, wood, copper and glass, in addition to superb craftsmanship, makes the building unmistakably Aalto.


Photo: arcspace

Photo: arcspace

Photo: arcspace

Photo: arcspace

Photo: arcspace

Photo: arcspace

Like all great art, Aalto's architecture has the power to evoke feelings, and the right to its own place in the world's cultural heritage.


Drawing courtesy North Jutland Art Museum