(view google maps)

Aalto designed this house in 1969-70 for his friends the author Göran Schildt and his wife Christine; it was built without delay. The Villa Skeppet (Ship) is at Snäcksundsvägen 8 on a nearly level, park-like site with a view across the eastern bay harbour of the idyllic small town to the old wooden houses on apromontory known as Barckens udde. The lower parts of the villa are built of white rendered brick, whereas the large, fan-like living room which rises above the entrance and garage front is a timber construction, clad with vertical weatherboarding, and reminiscent of the main Finnish pavilion at the 1937 World’s Fair in Paris. The living room, which opens onto a wedge-shaped balcony, has large landscape windows on the sea side and an open fireplace designed by Aalto as an abstract sculpture. The living room is integrated with the central hall by means of a common ceiling borne by monumental beams, open balustrades, and two stair landings. The hall also pro-vides access to the author’s quiet study, the bedroom, and the combined dining room and kitchen. The sauna is in a separate wooden wing linked to the main building by a latticework wall and a baldachin, both in free form. In the centre of the inner yard is an amoeba-shaped lily pond and behind it a shed with a summer dining room. The garden is shielded from view by several screens consisting of diagonally placed vertical boards.Villa Skeppet sauna,built 1970. A separate wooden building a few metres south of the brick main building and connected to it by a free-form trellis. Besides bathing room and washroom, it contains a small room with a fireplace and a guest room with appropriate amenities.

Bibliography:

Fleig, Karl, and Aalto, Elissa. 1990. Alvar Aalto – Das Gesamtwerk / L’œuvre complète / The Complete Work. Birkhäuser.

http://www.midcenturyhome.com/the-alvar-aalto-villa-skeppet-villa-schildt/

Link:

http://file.alvaraalto.fi/search.php?id=524

Reviewed by :

Rémi Farwati, Elena Giannitsopoulos, Nadir Bouchene, Adela Plasilova, March 2017