Architecture of Finland
The architecture of Finland has a history spanning over 800 years, and while up until the modern era the architecture was strongly influenced by currents from Finland’s two respective neighbouring ruling nations, Sweden and Russia, from the early 19th century onwards influences came directly from further afield; first when itinerant foreign architects took up positions in the country and then when the Finnish architect profession became established. Also, Finnish architecture in turn has contributed significantly to several styles internationally, such as Jugendstil (or Art Nouveau), Nordic Classicism and Functionalism. In particular, the works of the country’s most noted early modernist architect Eliel Saarinen have had significant worldwide influence. But even more renowned than Saarinen has been modernist architect Alvar Aalto, who is regarded as one of the major figures in the world history of modern architecture.
From early architecture to 1809 (including the Swedish colonial period)
The dominance of wood construction
The vernacular architecture of Finland is generally characterised by the predominant use of wooden construction. The oldest known dwelling structure is the so-called kota, a goahti, hut or tent with a covering in fabric, peat, moss, or timber. The building type remained in use throughout Finland until the 19th century, and is still in use among the Sami people in Lapland. The sauna is also a traditional building type in Finland: the oldest known saunas in Finland were made from pits dug into a slope in the ground and primarily used as dwellings in the wintertime. The first Finnish saunas are what nowadays are called “smoke saunas”. These differed from modern saunas in that they had no windows and were heated by heating up a pile of rocks (called kiuas) by burning large amounts of wood for about 6–8 hours, and then letting the smoke out through a hatch before entering to enjoy the sauna heat (called löyly).
The tradition of wood construction – beyond the kota hut – has been common throughout the entire northern boreal coniferous zone since prehistoric times. The central structural factor in its success was the corner joining – or “corner-timbering” – technique, whereby logs are laid horizontally in succession and notched at the ends to form tightly secure joints. The origins of the technique are uncertain; though it was used by the Romans in northern Europe in the first century BC, other possible older sources are said to be areas of present-day Russia, but also it is said to have been common among the Indo-Aryan peoples of Eastern Europe, the Near East, Iran and India. Crucial in the development of the “corner-timbering” technique were the necessary tools, primarily an axe rather than a saw. The resulting building type, a rectangular plan, originally comprising a single interior space and with a low-pitched saddle-back roof, is of the same origin as the megaron, the early Greek dwelling house. Its first use in Finland may have been as a storehouse, and later a sauna and then domestic house. The first examples of the “corner-timbering” technique would have used round logs, but a more developed form soon emerged, shaping logs with an axe to a square shape for a surer fit and better insulation. Hewing with an axe was seen as preferable to sawing because the axe-cut surfaces were better in abating water penetration.
According to historians, though the principles of wooden construction may have arrived in Finland from elsewhere, one particular innovation in wooden construction seems to be unique to Finland, the so-called block-pillar church (tukipilarikirkko). Though ostensibly looking like a normal wooden church, the novelty involved the construction of hollow pillars from logs built into the exterior walls, making the walls themselves structurally unnecessary. The pillars are tied internally across the nave by large joists. Usually there were two, but occasionally three pillars on each longitudinal wall. The largest preserved block-pillar church is at Tornio (1686). Other examples are the churches of Vöyri (1627) and Tervola (1687).
In later developments, most particularly in urban contexts, the log frame was then further covered in a layer of wooden planks. It is hypothesised that it was only from the 16th century onwards that wooden houses were painted in the familiar red-ochre or punamulta, containing up to 95% iron oxide, often mixed with tar. The balloon framing technique for timber construction popularized throughout North America only came to Finland in the 20th century. Finnish master builders had travelled to the USA to see how the industrialisation of the timber-framing technique had developed and wrote about it positively in trade journals on their return. Some experiments were made in using the wooden frame, but initially it was not popular. One reason was the thin construction’s poor climatic performance (improved in the 1930s with the addition of insulation): also significant was the relatively low price of both timber and labour in Finland. However, by the outbreak of the First World War, the industrialsed timber construction system had become more widespread. Also a comparatively recent “import” to Finland is the use of wooden shingles for roofs, dating only from the early 19th century. Previous to that, the traditional system had been a so-called birch-bark roof (in Finnish, malkakatto), comprising a wooden slat base, overlaid with several layers of birch-bark and finished off with a layer of long timber poles by weighed down in places by the occasional boulder. Traditionally, the whole structure was unpainted. The coating of shingles with tar was the modern appropriation of a material first produced in the Nordic countries during the Iron Age, a major export product, especially in sealing wooden boats.
The traditional timber house in Finland was generally of two types: i. Eastern Finland, influenced by Russian traditions. For example, in the Pertinotsa house (now in the Seurasaari Open Air Museum in Helsinki) the family’s dwelling rooms are on the upper floors while the animal barns and storerooms are on the ground floor, with hay lofts above them; ii. Western Finland, influenced by Swedish traditions. For example, in the Antti farmstead, originally from the village of Säkylä (nowadays also in Seurasaari), the farmstead consisted of a group of individual log buildings placed around a central farmyard. Traditionally, the first building to be constructed in such a farmstead was the sauna, followed by the first or main room (“tupa”) of the main house, where the family would cook, eat and sleep. In summertime they would cook outdoors, and some family members would even choose to sleep in the barns.
The development of stone construction
The use of stone construction in Finland was initially limited to the few medieval castles and churches in the country. The construction of castles was part of a project by the Swedish crown to construct both defensive and administrative centres throughout Finland. Six castles of national importance were built during the medieval period, from the second half of the 13th century onwards: Kastelholm on the Åland Islands, Turku, and Raseborg on the south-west coast, Vyborg on an islet off the south-east coast and Häme and Olavinlinna further inland. The northern-most castle, and situated even further inland, Kajaani, dates from the beginning of the 17th century. Kuusisto, on an island of the same name, and Korsholma on the coast also dates from this later period. The earlier parts of the castle constructions are characterised by heavy granite boulder constructions, but with ever more refined details in later periods. Strategically, the two most important castle were that of Turku and Vyborg. The three high-medieval Finnish “castle fiefs” were ruled until the 1360s from the castles of Turku, Hämeenlinna and Vyborg. By the beginning of the 14th century, Turku Castle was one of the largest in northern Europe, with over 40 rooms and by the mid-16th century received further changes to withstand cannon fire. Construction of Vyborg castle started in 1293 by order of Torkel Knutsson, Lord High Constable of Sweden. The documentation for the construction of Olavinlinna is unusually clear: it was founded precisely in 1475 by a Danish-born knight, Erik Axelsson Tott who worked in the service of the Swedish crown and was also governor of Vyborg castle; the castle’s strategic significance, along with Vyborg castle, was to protect the eastern border from the Novgorod Republic to the east. According to Axelsson’s own account, the castle was built by “16 good foreign master masons” – some of them from Tallinn. The castle is built on an island in the Kyrönsalmi strait that connects the lakes Haukivesi and Pihlajavesi; the design was based on the idea of 3 large towers in a line facing north-west and an encircling wall. The castle’s present good state of repair is due to a thorough restoration carried out in the 1960s and 70s. Häme Castle, the oldest parts built in stone, said to originate in the 1260s, was originally built in wood, then rebuilt in stone, but then transformed radically in the 14th century in red brick, unique for Finland, with extra lines of defence also in brick added beyond the central bastion. In the 19th century it was converted into a prison in accordance with a design by architect Carl Ludvig Engel.
Grand Duchy period, 1809-1917
Early Grand Duchy period: Neoclassicism and Gothic revival
The cornerstone of Finland as a state was laid in 1809 at the Diet of Porvoo, where Czar Alexander I proclaimed himself constitutional ruler of the new Grand Duchy of Finland and promised to maintain the faith and laws of the land. The creation of a capital was a clear indication of the Czar’s will to make the new Grand Duchy a functioning entity. On April 8, 1812 Alexander I declared Helsinki the capital of the Grand Duchy of Finland. At that time Helsinki was only a small wooden town of about 4000 inhabitants, albeit with huge island fortress of Sveaborg and its military garrison nearby. The czar appointed the military engineer Johan Albrecht Ehrenström, a former courtier of Sweden’s King Gustavus III, as head of the reconstruction committee, with the task of drawing up a plan for a new stone-built capital. The heart of the scheme was the Senate Square, surrounded by Neoclassical buildings for the state, church and university. In the words of art historian Riitta Nikula, Ehrenström created “the symbolic heart of the Grand Duchy of Finland, where all the main institutions had an exact place dictated by their function in the hierarchy.”
In fact, even before the ceding of Finland to Russia in 1809, the advent of Neoclassicism in the mid-18th century arrived with French artist-architect Louis Jean Desprez, who was employed by the Swedish state, and who designed Hämeenlinna church in 1799. Charles (Carlo) Bassi was another foreigner, an Italian-born architect also employed by the Swedish state, who worked especially in the design of churches. Bassi immigrated to Finland and became the first formally skilled architect to settle permanently in Finland. In 1810 Bassi was appointed the first head of the National Board of Building (Rakennushallitus – a government post that remained until 1995), based in Turku, a position he held until 1824. Bassi remained in Finland after power over the country was ceded to Russia. In 1824 his official position as head of the National Board of Building was taken by another immigrant architect, German-born Carl Ludvig Engel.
With the move of the Finnish capital from Turku to Helsinki, Engel had been appointed by Czar Alexander I to design the major new public buildings to be fitted into Ehrenström’s town plan: these included the major buildings around the Senate Square; the Senate church, Helsinki University buildings – including Engel’s finest interior, Helsinki University Library (1836–45) – and Government buildings. All these buildings were designed following the dominant architectural style of the Russian capital, St. Petersburg, namely Neoclassicism – making Helsinki what was termed a St. Petersburg in miniature, and indeed Ehrenström’s plan had even originally included a canal, mimicking a cityscape feature of the former.
Late Grand Duchy period: Jugend
At the end of the 19th century Finland continued to enjoy greater independence under Russia as a grand duchy; however, this would change with the coming to power of Czar Nicholas II in 1894, who introduced a greater process of “Russification”. The reaction to this among the bourgeois classes was evident, too, in the arts, for instance in the music of Jean Sibelius and the artist Akseli Gallén-Kallela – but also in architecture. The Finnish Architects Club was founded in 1892 within the Swedish-speaking Engineering Society (Tekniska Föreningen). Originally a loose forum for collaboration and discussion, its voluntary basis meant that it operated informally in cafés and restaurants. In this way it resembled many of the writers’ or artists’ clubs of the time and generally fostered a collegial spirit of some solidarity. It quickly helped to establish the architect as an artist responsible for aesthetic decisions. In 1903, as a supplement to the engineering publication, the Club published the first issue of Arkitekten (‘The Architect’ in Swedish, the predominant language still in use at the time among professional classes and certainly architects).
In 1889 the artist Albert Edelfelt depicted the national awakening in a poster showing Mme Paris receiving Finland, a damsel, who alights with a model of St Nicholas’ Church (later Helsinki Cathedral) on her hat; the parcels in the boat are all marked EU (i.e. Exposition Universelle). A distinct symbolic importance was given in 1900 to Finland receiving its own pavilion at the Paris World Expo, designed by young architects Herman Gesellius, Armas Lindgren and Eliel Saarinen in the so-called Jugendstil style (or Art Nouveau) then popular in Central Europe. The Finnish pavilion was well received by the European press and critics, albeit usually tying the building closely with Finland’s cultural-political circumstances. For example, the German art historian and critic Julius Meier-Graefe wrote of the pavilion: “From the peripheries… we would like to mention the extremely effective Finnish pavilion, with its extremely simple and modern design … the character of the country and the people and the strong conditioning of its artists for the decorative are reflected in the building in the most pleasant way.”.
The Jugendstil style in Finland is characterised by flowing lines and the incorporation of nationalistic-mythyological symbols – especially those taken from the national epic, Kalevala – mostly taken from nature and even medieval architecture, but also contemporary sources elsewhere in Europe and even the USA (e.g. H.H. Richardson and the Shingle Style). The more prominent buildings of this National Romantic style were built in stone, but the discovery in Finland of deposits of soapstone, an easily carved metamorphic rock, overcame the difficulty of using only hard granite; an example of this is the facade of the Pohjola Insurance Building, Helsinki (1901) by Gesellius, Lindgren, and Saarinen. The Jugendstil style became associated in Finland with the fight for national independence. The importance of nationalism also was made evident in the actual surveying of Finnish vernacular buildings: all architecture students at that time – at Finland’s then only school of architecture, in Helsinki – became acquainted with the Finnish building heritage by measuring and drawing it. From the 1910s onwards, in addition to large medieval castles and churches also 17th and 18th century wooden churches and neoclassical wooden towns were surveyed – a practice which continues in the Finnish schools of architecture even today. The Jugendstil style was used by Gesellius, Lindgren, and Saarinen in key state buildings such as the National Museum and Helsinki Railway Station. Other architects employing the same style were Lars Sonck and Wivi Lönn, one of the first female architects in Finland.
Post-independence, 1917-
Nordic classicism and international Functionalism
With Finland’s independence achieved in 1917, there was a turn away from the Jugendstil style, which became associated with bourgeois culture. In turn there was a brief return to classicism, so-called Nordic Classicism, influenced to an extent by architect study trips to Italy, but also by key examples from Sweden, in particular the architecture of Gunnar Asplund. Notable Finnish architects from this period include J. S. Sirén and Gunnar Taucher, as well as the early work of Alvar Aalto, Erik Bryggman, Martti Välikangas, Hilding Ekelund and Pauli E. Blomstedt. The most notable large scale building from this period was the Finnish Parliament building (1931) by Sirén. Other key buildings built in this style were the Finnish Language Adult Education Centre in Helsinki (1927) by Taucher (with key assistance from P.E. Blomstedt), Vyborg Art Museum and Drawing School (1930) by Uno Ullberg, “Taidehalli” Art Gallery, Helsinki (1928) and Töölö Church, Helsinki (1930) by Hilding Ekelund, and several buildings by Alvar Aalto, in particular the Workers’ Club, Jyväskylä (1925), the South-West Finland Agricultural building, Turku (1928), Muuramäki Church (1929) and the early version of the Vyborg Library (1927–35) before Aalto greatly modified his design in line with the emerging Functionalist style.
But beyond these public buildings designed in the Nordic Classicism style, this same style was also used in timber constructed workers’ housing, most famously in the Puu-Käpylä (“Wooden Käpylä”) district of Helsinki (1920–25) by Martti Välikangas. The around 165 houses of Puu-Käpylä, modelled on farmhouses, were built from traditional square log construction clad in vertical boarding, but the construction technique was rationalised with an on-site “factory” with a partly building element technique. The principle of standardization for housing generally would take off during this time. In 1922 the National Board of Social Welfare (Sosiaalihalitus) commissioned architect Elias Paalanen to design different options of farmhouses, which were then published as a brochure, Pienasuntojen tyyppipiirustuksia (Standard drawings for small houses) republished several times. In 1934 Paalanen was commissioned to design an equivalent urban type-house, and he came up with twelve different options. Alvar Aalto, too, became involved, from 1936, in standard small houses, designing for the Ahlström timber and wood product company, with three types of the so-called AA system: 40 m² (Type A), 50 m² (Type B) and 60 m² (Type C). Though based on traditional farmhouses, there are also clear stylistic elements from Nordic Classicism but also modernism. However, it was with the repercussions of the Second World War that the standard system for house design took on even greater potency, with the advent of the so-called Rintamamiestalo house (literally: War-front soldier’s house). These were built throughout the country; a particularly well-preserved example is the district of Karjasilta in Oulu. But this same house type also took on a different role in the aftermath of World War Two as part of the Finnish war reparations to the Soviet Union; among the “goods” delivered from Finland to the Soviet Union were over 500 wooden houses based on the standard Rintamamiestalo house, deliveries taking place between 1944 and 1948. A number of these houses ended up being exported from the Soviet Union to various places in Poland, where small “Finnish villages” were established; for example, the district of Szombierki in Bytom, as well as in Katowice and Sosnowiec.
Apart from housing design, the period of Nordic Classicism is regarded as being fairly brief, surpassed by the more “continental” style – especially in banks and other office buildings – typified by Frosterus and Pauli E. Blomstedt (e.g. Liittopankki bank building, Helsinki, 1929). In reality, however, a synthesis of elements from various styles emerged. Nevertheless, but by the late 1920s and early 1930s there was already a significant move towards Functionalism, inspired most significantly by French-Swiss architect Le Corbusier, but also from examples closer to hand, again Sweden, such as the Stockholm Exhibition (1930) by Asplund and Sigurd Lewerentz. However, at the time, there were certainly architects who attempted to articulate their dissatisfaction with static styles, just as Sigurd Frosterus and Gustaf Strengel had criticised the National Romanticism. Pauli E. Blomstedt, who had certainly designed significant buildings in the Nordic Classicism style, then became a vehement critic, writing sarcastically in a 1928 essay “Architectural Anemia” about Nordic Classicism’s sense of “good taste”, at a time when he had already endorsed the white Functionalism:
Regional Functionalism
A major event that enabled Finland to display its modernist architecture credentials was the Helsinki Olympic Games. Key among the buildings was the Olympic Stadium by architects Yrjö Lindegren and Toivo Jäntti, the first version of which was the result of an architectural competition in 1938, intended for the games due to be held in 1940 (cancelled due to the war), but eventually held in an enlarged stadium in 1952. The importance of the Olympic Games for architecture was that it coupled the modern, white Functionalist architecture with modernisation of the nation, giving it public endorsement; indeed the general public could contribute to the funding of the stadium’s construction by purchasing various souvenir trinkets. Other channels by which Functionalist architecture developed was by means of various state architecture offices, such as the military, industry, and to a small extent tourism. A strong “white Functionalism” characterised the mature architecture of Erkki Huttunen, head of the building department of the retail cooperative Suomen Osuuskauppojen Keskuskunta (SOK), as evident in their production works, warehouses, offices and even shops built throughout the country; the first of these was a combined office and warehouse in Rauma (1931), with white-rendered walls, roof terrace with “ship railing” balustrade, large street-level windows and curved access stairs. The Ministry of Defence had its own building-architecture department, and during the 1930s many of the military’s buildings were designed in the “white Functionalism” style. Two examples were the Viipuri military hospital and Tilkka military hospital in Helsinki (1936), both designed by Olavi Sortta. Following independence there was a growing tourism industry with an emphasis on experiencing the wilderness of Lapland: the fashionable white Functionalist architecture of the Hotel Pohjanhovi in Rovaniemi by Pauli E. Blomstedt (1936, destroyed in the Lapland War in 1944) catered to the growing middle-class Finnish tourists as well as foreign tourists to Lapland, though at the same time more modest hostels designed in a vernacular rustic style were also being built.
Following World War Two, Finland ceded 11% of its territory and 30% of its economic assets to the Soviet Union as part of the Moscow Peace Treaty of 1940. Also 12% of Finland’s population, including some 422,000 Karelians, were evacuated. The state response to this has become known as the period of reconstruction. Reconstruction started in the rural areas because still at that time two-thirds of the population lived there. But reconstruction involved not only the repair of war damage (e.g. the destruction of the city of Rovaniemi by the retreating German army) but also the beginnings of greater urbanisation, programmes for standardised housing, building programmes for schools, hospitals, universities and other public service buildings, as well as the construction of new industries and power stations. For instance, architect Aarne Ervi was responsible for the design of five power stations along the Oulujoki river in the decade after the war, and Alvar Aalto designed several industrial complexes following the war, though in fact he had been heavily involved in designing projects of various sizes for Finnish industrial enterprises already since the 1930s. However, for all the expansion of public works, the decade following the war was marred by shortages in building materials, except for wood. The Finnish Lutheran Church also became a key figure in architecture in the interim and post-war period by arranging with the Finnish Association of Architects (SAFA) architectural competitions for the design of new churches and cemeteries/cemetery chapels throughout the country, and significant war-time and post-war examples include: Turku Resurrection Chapel (Erik Bryggman, 1941), Lahti Church (Alvar Aalto, 1950), Vuoksenniska Church (Alvar Aalto, 1952-7), Vatiala Cemetery Chapel, Tampere (Viljo Rewell, 1960), Hyvinkää Church (Aarno Ruusuvuori, 1960), and Holy Cross Chapel, Turku (Pekka Pitkänen, 1967). Bryggman in particular designed several cemetery chapels but also was the most prolific designer of war graves, designed in conjunction with artists.
Postmodernism, Critical Regionalism, Deconstruction, Minimalism, Parametricism
Since the late 1970s Finland has been more open to direct international influences. The continuity from the earlier Functionalism, however, has been evident in a prevailing Minimalism, seen, for example, in the works of Heikkinen – Komonen Architects (e.g. Heureka Science Centre, Vantaa, 1985–89) and Olli Pekka Jokela (e.g. Biokeskus 3, Helsinki, 2001) as well as the prolific output of Pekka Helin (e.g. Finnish Parliament Annex, 2004). The irony and playfulness of Postmodern architecture was greeted with disdain in Finland, though it would be incorrect to say it had no influence, especially so if one sees it as part of the dominant “spirit of the times”. For example, the works of Simo Paavilainen (influenced more by his scholarly interest in Nordic Classicism and Postmodernism’s Italian rationalist interpretation), the more whimsical postmodern collages of Nurmela-Raimoranta-Tasa architects (e.g. BePOP shopping centre, Pori, 1989), and the theoretical musings on place and phenomenology by Juhani Pallasmaa. Interestingly, Aalto’s architecture (the early Nordic Classicism and later mature works) was used in defending the positions of both modernist and postmodernist schools of thought. The architects of the so-called “Oulu koulu” (Oulu school), including Heikki Taskinen and Reijo Niskasaari, had been students of Reima Pietilä at the University of Oulu school of architecture, and in attempting to create a regionalist architecture, combined elements of populist postmodernism – for instance, the quotation of classical elements such as pediments – with ideas about vernacular architecture, organic growth and building morphology. A key example of this was Oulunsalo town hall (1982) by Arkkitehtitoimisto NVV (architects Kari Niskasaari, Reijo Niskasaari, Kaarlo Viljanen, Ilpo Väisänen and Jorma Öhman).
However, the greatest influence from postmodernism in Finland came through urban planning. This was part of an originally southern and central European trend from the late 1970s onwards that reassessed the European city which had been decimated by war but also modernist planning principles. Key architect-theorists in this viewpoint were, the rationalist architects from Italy Aldo Rossi and Giorgio Grassi, the Swiss architect Mario Botta, and the German architect Oswald Mathias Ungers, and the more historicist-minded Luxembourg postmodernists Rob Krier and Leon Krier. All of these in different ways were concerned in reviving the idea of typology, that is, precedents in urban form. One of the key “forums” for this “reconstruction of the European city” was the International Building Exhibition Berlin (IBA), built in the then West Berlin from 1979 to 1985, and where the above architects had a profound influence. No Finnish architects were present in IBA, yet in Finnish cities this renewed urban attitude became evident in planning practices to the extent that urban planning under the control of the city planning authorities could set very precise demands on urban development; for example, the layouts of traditional street grids, and even the overall appearance of buildings in terms of height, streetscape, roof line, and building materials. Key examples are the planning of the areas of Itä-Pasila (western edge) and Länsi-Pasila and Katajanokka in Helsinki. In terms of architectural form, this often materialised as postmodernist details added to an overall mass. For example, in the Otavamedia (publishers) offices in Länsi-Pasila, Helsinki (1986) by Ilmo Valjakka, postmodern versions of central and southern European details such as corner towers, blind (i.e. unusable) colonnades and scenographic bridges, are added to the overall mass. Also, in the BePOP shopping centre (1989), Pori, by Nurmela-Raimoranta-Tasa architects, for all its idiosyncratic postmodern interior and curved “medieval” street cutting through the building, the overall urban block still fits within strict height parameters for the area. The Kankaanpää public office centre (1994) by architects Sinikka Kouvo and Erkki Partanen applied a “heterotopic” ordering – clashes of different volumes – previously discernible in the mature work of Aalto but with a postmodernist twist of Mario Botta-esque “round houses” and striking striped bands of brickwork.
Neo- and generic urbanism and green building
Late 20th century and early 21st century Finland has witnessed greater consolidation of the greater capital region, Helsinki-Espoo-Vantaa. Helsinki, unable to expand outwards due to being hemmed in to the coastline by the neighbouring cities (formerly rural counties) of Espoo and Vantaa, has adopted planning policies of increased urban densification, also argued for under a policy of sustainable development and “green building”, but also de-industrialisation, that is, moving industrial concerns away from the shorelines in proximity to the city centre, which are then redeveloped for generally up-market housing. A good example is the shoreline-facing housing development on Katajanokka, Helsinki, by Nurmela-Raimoranta-Tasa architects (2006). Significant earlier planning policies that effected urban growth were the construction of three ring roads as well as the construction of a Helsinki Metro system, begun in 1982, which in turn had been reactions to a 1968 plan by the American-Finnish firm Smith-Polivinen to drive wide freeways through the centre of Helsinki. The Metro already extends into Eastern Helsinki, and is due (2014–15) to extend into Espoo, with new growth nodes being planned around the new stations. This already occurred within the boundaries of Helsinki in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the prime example being the construction of the Itäkeskus (east centre), with the metro station integrated into a shopping centre and adjacent library and swimming hall, the most significant architectural work of the ensemble being the main shopping mall and 82-metre-tall tower (1987) by Erkki Kairamo (Gullichsen Kairamo Vormala Architects), an architect much influenced by 1920s and 30s Russian Constructivist architecture. The former industrial, dockyard and shipbuilding areas of Helsinki are being replaced by new housing areas, designed mostly in a minimalist-functionalist style as well as new support services such as kindergartens and schools (which, for the sake of efficiency, are also intended for use as neighbourhood communal facilities; e.g. Opinmäki School and multipurpose centre [2016] by Esa Ruskeepää), as well allowing for large-scale shopping malls (e.g. the new districts of Ruoholahti, Arabianranta, Vuosaari, Hernesaari, Hanasaari, Jätkäsaari and Kalasatama), projects often driven forward by architecture and urban planning competitions. Another major landmark in urban planning and architecture was the creation, on the basis of a 1995 architectural competition, of the eco-district of Viikki (plan by Petri Laaksonen), adjacent to a new campus for the University of Helsinki. Other major cities, in particular Lahti, Tampere, Oulu and Turku are adopting similar strategies as the Greater Helsinki region, while also developing more efficient rail and road systems within these networks, while also promoting extensive bicycle path networks.
Architecture competitions
Of central importance in the development of architecture in Finland for over 100 years has been the development of architectural competitions, mostly under the control of the Finnish Association of Architects (SAFA). The first architectural competition was held in 1860, even before the founding of SAFA. Twelve competitions had been held by 1880. It was only after 1893 that the competition system became more systematic, with the setting of rules. Many of the leading works of architecture at the turn of that century were the results of competitions: e.g. Tampere Cathedral (Lars Sonck, 1900), National Museum, Helsinki (Herman Gesellius, Armas Lindgren and Eliel Saarinen, 1902). Sonck was only 23 years old when he won the competition. Indeed, several well-known architects kick-started their careers while still young by winning an architecture competition. Competitions have been used not only in the design of public buildings and churches, but also for various scales of urban and regional planning. Beside Sonck and Gesellius-Lindgren-Saarinen, among the notable careers that began or were boosted by competition success are: Vyborg Library by Alvar Aalto, the Finnish pavilion at the 1958 Brussels World’s Fair by Reima Pietilä, Myyrmäki Church (1984) by Juha Leiviskä, the Nokia Corporation Headquarters, Espoo (1983–97) by Helin and Siitonen Architects, the Heureka Science Centre, Vantaa (1989) by Heikkinen – Komonen Architects, the Lusto Finnish Forest Museum, Punkaharju (1994) by Lahdelma & Mahlamäki Architects, the new canopy for the Helsinki Olympic Stadium (2003) by K2S Architects, and the Kilden Performing Arts Centre (2012), Kristiansand, Norway, by ALA Architects. The competition results have been seen to have reflected the international trends of the time, or to have endorsed the critical regionalism, that is, what Aalto had referred to as “being international yet true to themselves”.
Influences abroad
Finnish architects, primarily Alvar Aalto, have had a significant influence outside Finland. In a jointly penned article in 1965, renowned American architecture historians Henry-Russell Hitchcock and G. E. Kidder Smith summed up the influence of Finnish architects on the USA as follows: “Considering that the population of Finland is roughly half that of greater New York, the extent and the degree to which Finnish architecture has impinged upon the outside world – particularly upon the United States – in the last 40 years is quite extraordinary.”
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