Aalto Art Living Room

Award-winning concept for reactivating the Aalto Centre in Rovaniemi

Aalto Art Living Room is a concept proposal developed for the Uusi Aalto Rises! idea competition organized by the City of Rovaniemi. The project received 1st prize in its category.

The concept reimagines the iconic Alvar Aalto-designed civic centre as a more approachable, year-round cultural environment by introducing modular exhibition systems, local art sales, community-oriented programming, and informal café spaces into the public interiors of the buildings.

Instead of treating the Aalto Centre purely as a monumental architectural site, the proposal focused on making it feel inhabited, social, and alive in everyday use — a true “living room for all”.

The project explored how lightweight, movable exhibition walls and flexible spatial elements could activate transitional spaces without altering the protected architecture. The concept emphasized accessibility, warmth, and low-threshold participation while creating new opportunities for local artists and creative communities.

My role included:

• concept development
• service and spatial experience design
• visual direction
• AI-assisted ideation and rendering
• presentation design
• storytelling and proposal writing

The visualizations and concept iterations were developed using AI-assisted workflows combined with architectural references, layout planning, and iterative design exploration.

Goals

• Activate underused public interiors
• Support local artists through visible art sales
• Create year-round cultural activity
• Lower the threshold of engaging with art and architecture
• Respect and preserve the original Aalto architecture
• Concept Elements
• Modular movable exhibition walls
• Rotating local artist showcases
• Community-oriented café spaces
• Seasonal cultural programming
• Flexible event and workshop areas

Tools & Process

• AI-assisted concept development
• Visual prototyping
• Spatial storytelling
• Architectural referencing
• Iterative rendering workflows

Outcome

1st Prize — Uusi Aalto Rises! Idea Competition