Waldemar Aspelin

Waldemar Johannes Aspelin (Koski, Perniö, (now Salo), Finland, 26 September 1854 – Helsinki, 10 November 1923) was a Finnish architect.

Waldemar Aspelin was born in the mining community of Koski, about halfway between Helsinki and Turku, then in the Grand Duchy of Finland, part of the Russian Empire. His parents were Wilhelm Aspelin, a factory manager, and Amalia Borgström. Aspelin first attended Borås Technical College in Sweden and then practiced as an architect for five years in the office of architect Theodor Höijer. He studied from 1883 to 1886 in Helsinki at the Helsinki Polytechnical Institute, where instruction in architecture had begun only in 1872. During his studies in Helsinki, he worked as an intern partly for architect Frans Sjöström and partly for architect Gustaf Nyström, two of the most important Finnish architects of the era. In 1887, Aspelin founded his own architectural office in Hamina, but moved it to Helsinki in 1889. From 1894 he shared an office with Carl Ricardo Björnberg.

Aspelin also worked as a drawing teacher at the Taideteollinen Korkeakoulu (University of Arts and Sciences; now Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture) in Helsinki. He designed the 1904 Art Nouveau Paulig girl Paula-tyttö advertising figure in Finnish national dress for Paulig's 10 kilo coffee cans. The story goes that Gustav Paulig, the founder of the coffee roasting company, met a beautiful girl in national costume in Sääksmäki, whose image he wanted on the side of a coffee can, and asked Aspelin to draw her.