Finlandia Hall
Alvar Aalto's marble-clad concert and congress hall on Töölönlahti, listed by UNESCO in 2026.
Finlandia Hall was designed by Alvar Aalto as the first completed piece of his unrealised monumental plan for the Töölönlahti bay shore. The concert and congress building opened in 1971, with a congress wing added in 1975, and is faced in white Carrara marble and black granite, its asymmetric silhouette rising from the lakeside park. Aalto shaped the interiors down to the door handles, lighting and furniture, and the fan-shaped main auditorium seats around 1,700.
The hall has hosted the 1975 Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe, whose Helsinki Accords were signed here, along with concerts, congresses and state occasions. After a thorough renovation the building reopened to the public in 2025 with expanded public areas, including a café, restaurant, design shop and the permanent exhibition Visions of Alvar Aalto. In July 2026 it was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List as part of a serial nomination of works by Aalto.
Highlights
- Alvar Aalto's Carrara marble and black granite exterior of 1971
- Fan-shaped main auditorium seating about 1,700
- Signing place of the 1975 Helsinki Accords
- Inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2026
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