Elissa Mäkiniemi-Aalto

Elsa-Kaisa Mäkiniemi (22.11.1922–12.4.1994) graduated as an architect in Helsinki in 1949 and started working at Alvar Aalto’s architectural office the same year. She began using the name Elissa after marrying Alvar Aalto in 1952. Elissa Aalto worked in Aalto’s office during a time when several competitions and large public commissions were underway. She worked diligently as one of the office’s architects and was soon put in charge of several major building projects, such as Säynätsalo Town Hall and Maison Louis Carré. The newlyweds Alvar and Elissa designed the Muuratsalo Experimental House as their summer residence. As Alvar Aalto aged, Elissa’s role in the office as the transmitter of Aalto’s ideas became more prominent. After Aalto’s death, Elissa managed the office, completing several unfinished projects, such as Seinäjoki Civic Centre, the Aalto Theatre in Essen, and Riola Church. Several complementary construction and renovation projects on completed Aalto buildings were also carried out under Elissa’s leadership.

Elissa Aalto also made independent architectural designs, including Villa Hauta-aho (1982–83) in Seinäjoki and the SOS Children’s Village in Tapiola, Espoo (1960–70). She also designed textile patterns such as H55, exhibited at the Helsingborg Exhibition in 1955, which was part of Artek’s collection.
Implementing Alvar Aalto’s architectural designs and preserving his intellectual heritage was Elissa Aalto’s major life work. She actively worked on the Vyborg Library restoration project and participated in discussions about conserving Aalto’s buildings. It was partly due to her influence that Aalto’s office’s drawings and document collection, along with the copyrights, were transferred to the ownership of the Alvar Aalto Foundation and thus preserved as a coherent whole. Elissa was a long-term resident of the Aalto House on Riihitie road in Helsinki and continued to spend summers in the Muuratsalo Experimental House until the end of her life. In her will, Elissa Aalto left the Experimental House in the care of the Alvar Aalto Museum, owned by the City of Jyväskylä, as a place for museum visitors. It was at Elissa’s initiative that Studio Aalto was sold to the Alvar Aalto Foundation in 1984.

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