--- title: Which of Helsinki's Five New World Heritage Buildings You Can Get Inside description: Aalto Works is now a UNESCO World Heritage site. Which of the five Helsinki buildings you can get inside, what tickets cost, and what to book ahead. author: Dr Marina Nani (Editor-in-Chief) updated: 2026-07-26T19:25:15.110Z canonical: https://richtravelmagazine.com/article/aalto-works-unesco-helsinki-five-sites image: https://cdn.nanimediahouse.com/studio-aalto-unesco-helsinki-47796.webp categories: Destinations content_type: News region: Finland publication: Rich Travel Magazine schema_type: Article --- Thirteen buildings designed by Aino, Elissa and Alvar Aalto have been inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List as Aalto Works, and five of them stand in [Helsinki](https://richtravelmagazine.com/article/the-hague-quality-of-life-2026): the Aalto House, Studio Aalto, the National Pensions Institute, the House of Culture and Finlandia Hall. That is the highest concentration of Aalto sites anywhere in the designation, and each of the five is reachable on the city's public transport. They are not equally open. Two are museums that can only be seen on a booked guided tour, two are working venues with public hours, and one is a headquarters building. The designation was awarded at the UNESCO World Heritage Committee meeting in Busan, following a nomination submitted in 2025 by Finland's Ministry of Education and Culture and prepared by the Finnish Heritage Agency with the Alvar Aalto Foundation and ICOMOS Finland. UNESCO selected the buildings not simply as examples of outstanding architecture but as places that show how design can support wellbeing, equality and community life. They are the first body of modern architecture from Finland to reach the list, which already includes Old Rauma and Suomenlinna. ## The Aalto House and Studio Aalto: Prices and Booking The Aalto House, the family home, can only be visited on a guided tour, and tours run Tuesday to Sunday with [a maximum of 15 visitors](https://www.alvaraalto.fi/en/location/the-aalto-house/) in each. Admission is 32 euros, or 16 euros for students and senior citizens, and free for children under 18 with a parent and for ICOM, ICOMOS, PRESS and DOCOMOMO card holders. The visit lasts an hour: the guided part is 30 to 40 minutes, after which you can look around at your own pace. Book ahead. Online pre-sale closes an hour before each tour, and any tickets left are sold on the door. There are stairs and no wheelchair access, and no waiting room inside, so the guide opens the door a few minutes before the start. The garden is open while you wait. > "Tours of both museums are capped at fifteen people, and the online pre-sale closes an hour before each one starts." Studio Aalto, the architect's working studio, is about 500 metres away and runs on the same pattern: guided tour only, Tuesday to Sunday, 15 visitors, an hour in total. Admission is [22 euros, or 11 euros](https://www.alvaraalto.fi/en/location/studio-aalto/) for students, senior citizens and unemployed visitors. Tours are given daily in English, at weekends in Finnish and on selected dates in Japanese. There is a museum shop and free Wi-Fi. Check both timetables before you plan a day around the pair, because the tour times shift with the season. ## Finlandia Hall and the House of Culture Finlandia Hall, on the water at Töölönlahti, needs no booking to walk into. Its permanent exhibition, Visions of Alvar Aalto, is open Monday to Friday from 10am to 7pm, Saturday 11am to 7pm and Sunday 11am to 4pm. The building also holds two restaurants, a design shop, exhibition spaces and accommodation apartments, and runs guided tours of its own. It is a working event venue, so what is open on a given day depends on what is booked in it. The House of Culture, or Kulttuuritalo, stands at Sturenkatu 4 in Alppila and was the first public building in Helsinki that Alvar Aalto designed. It belongs to his red brick period, which ran from the 1940s to the early 1960s. Recently renovated, it works as a concert and events venue with a bistro and bar, and the Alvar Aalto Foundation runs house tours of it. For most visitors the simplest way in is a ticket to something on the programme. The fifth Helsinki site, the National Pensions Institute, is a working headquarters rather than a museum, and visiting arrangements for it are worth checking with the Foundation before you go. ## The Other Eight Sites Outside Helsinki the inscription covers Paimio Sanatorium, the Sunila Pulp Mill residential area in Kotka, the Muuratsalo Experimental House, Säynätsalo Town Hall and the Aalto Campus at the University of Jyväskylä, Seinäjoki Civic Centre, the Church of Three Crosses in Imatra, and Villa Mairea in Pori. Together the thirteen span the 1920s to the 1970s and the construction of the Finnish welfare state. Daniel Sazonov, the Mayor of Helsinki, called the inscription "a wonderful and significant international recognition". For anyone staying longer, the Architecture and Design Museum is running an exhibition, Aalto Design: Shapes of Wellbeing, until January 2027. Visiting details for the Helsinki sites are at [alvaraalto.fi](https://www.alvaraalto.fi/en/alvar-aalto-foundation/alvar-aalto-and-unesco-world-heritage/). ## FAQ **Q: Can you go inside the Aalto House?** Yes, but only on a guided tour, which runs Tuesday to Sunday with a maximum of 15 people. Booking in advance is strongly recommended, because the popular slots sell out and online sales close an hour before each tour. **Q: How much does it cost to visit Studio Aalto?** Admission is 22 euros, or 11 euros for students, senior citizens and unemployed visitors. Tours are given daily in English, at weekends in Finnish, and on selected dates in Japanese. **Q: What is Aalto Works?** It is the name for the thirteen buildings in Finland designed by Aino, Elissa and Alvar Aalto that UNESCO has inscribed on the World Heritage List. Five stand in Helsinki and the other eight are spread across the country, from Paimio Sanatorium to Villa Mairea in Pori.