The Nordic House
Alvar Aalto · Reykjavík, Iceland · 1968
Alvar Aalto’s Nordic House in Reykjavík was completed in 1968 as a cultural institution for Nordic cooperation. The relatively low complex is organized around a central library and event spaces, with a distinctive blue-tiled roof form rising above white walls. Aalto designed the building, furniture and many interior details as a coherent environment, using natural materials and carefully controlled daylight to create intimacy within an exposed Icelandic landscape. It is Aalto’s only building in Iceland and an important example of his late cultural architecture outside Finland.