- Over the course of a career spanning more than fifty years, Finnish architect and designer Alvar Aalto (1898-1976) designed nearly one hundred single-family houses. Aalto, who is also known for his furniture and glassware, worked in a unique style that blended modernism and traditional vernacular architecture. Authors Jari and Sirkkaliisa Jetsonen (Finnish Summer Houses) present twenty-six of Aalto"s innovative residences - from small summer homes and postwar standardized housing to large housing complexes for industrial commissions - built between the 1920s to the 1960s.