Sunday, October 30, 2016

6 years 60 sites 66 000 visitors

Hi there,

another year has passed and again a lot has happened on this blog. Today 6 years ago I started this project by formulating an ambitious goal of visiting all 80 Alvar Aalto sites around the world. Honestly by that time this goal seemed unreachable. However, today 6 years later I have visited 60 sites and the readership, which counted only a few hundred after the first year, has by now grown up to over 66 000! This blog attracts more than 2 000 readers every month. It is you guys who keep me motivated and going and I would sincerely thank you for that!

During the past 12 months I have visited two Alvar Aalto sites in Finland. One of Aalto's most famous work, Villa Mairea in Noormarkku and a much less known and almost forgotten site, the Yhteis-Sisu Corporation Housing in Hämeelinna. Plans to finally visit the Aalto Library in Vyborg couldn't unfortunately be realized this summer. Also the visit of Villa Kokkonen wasn't possible due to the very difficult opening hours of the site.

Also the seventh year will see new sites and there are already concrete plans existing to visit the Schönbühl Apartment House and Commercial Centre in Lucerne / Switzerland in December. I hope I will also be able to attend a guided tour of the Finlandia Hall in the upcoming year, in order to get to see more of the interior. Further I am planning to visit in Finland the Kainula Adult Education Institute in Kajaani and Villa Kokkonen in Järvenpää.

During the past months I have also been considering the idea to generate some earnings through this blog with adds. Nevertheless, I have dropped the idea as I would like to provide the content of this blog also in the future without any disturbing advertisements to you.

In this regard I hope you keep enjoying reading my blog. Stay tuned!