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.

Under Russian rule it had a significant degree of autonomy as the Grand Duchy of Finland. Finland declared independence from Russia in 1917, at the time of the Russian Revolution. These historical factors have had a significant bearing on the history of architecture in Finland, along with the founding of towns and the building of castles and fortresses (in the numerous wars between Sweden and Russia fought in Finland), as well as the availability of building materials and craftsmanship and, later on, government policy on issues such as housing and public buildings. As an essentially forested region, timber has been the natural building material, while the hardness of the local stone (predominantly granite) initially made it difficult to work, and the manufacture of brick was rare before the mid-19th century. The use of concrete took on a particular prominence with the rise of the welfare state in the 1960s, in particular in state-sanctioned housing with the dominance of prefabricated concrete elements.

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.

In addition to his work in Helsinki, Engel was also appointed “state intendant” with responsibility for the design and supervision of construction of the vast majority of state buildings throughout the country, including tens of church designs, as well as the design and laying out of town plans. Among these works were Helsinki Naval Barracks (1816–38), Helsinki Old Church (1826), Lapua Church (1827), Kärsämäki Church (1828), Pori Town Hall (1831), Hamina Church (1843), Wiurila manor house (1845).

Engel had in his possession a copy of Andrea Palladio’s architectural treatise I quattro libri dell’architettura, and Engel scholars have often stressed Engels’ indebtedness to Palladian theory. But Engel also kept up correspondence with colleagues from Germany and followed trends there. Engel’s relationship with key Prussian architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel, three years his senior and both having studied at the Bauakademie in Berlin, has yet to be properly verified. The influences from central Europe would also take on board a more formulaic process, typified by standardisations of design formulas in post-revolutionary France by Jean-Nicolas-Louis Durand, for instance by the use of design grids.

Some of Engel’s later works are also characterised by the turn in central Europe to Gothic Revival architecture, with an emphasis on red brick facades typical for central Europe. The German Church (1864) is typical of that period, though designed by another two itinerant architects, the German Harald Julius von Bosse (who had worked much in St. Petersburg) and the Swedish-born Carl Johan von Heideken. In addition to churches, the neo-Gothic style was also dominant for the buildings of the growing industrial manufacturers, including the Verla mill in Jaala (1892) – nowadays a World Heritage Site – designed by Edward Dippel. The emergence of various revivalist styles throughout Europe – in the search for a new “national style” – was also felt in Finland, but would not flourish until the advent of Jugendstil at the end of the century; an argument is even made for the influence in Finland of the neo-Romanesque or Rundbogenstil from Germany, particularly associated with Heinrich Hübsch. For example, certain Rundbogenstil features have been noted in Kerimäki Church (1847) – the world’s largest wooden church – designed by Adolf Fredrik Granstedt, but with considerable input from the master builders for the project Axel Tolpo and his son Th. J. Tolpo.

The eclectic mixtures of neo-Gothic, neo-Romanesque, neo-Classical and neo-Renaissance architecture continued even during the beginning of the 20th century, with architects using different styles for different projects or even combining elements in the same work. The Turku Main Library, by Karl August Wrede, completed in 1903, was designed in a Dutch late Renaissance style imitating the House of Nobility of 1660 designed by French architect Simon De la Vallée. Swedish architect Georg Theodor von Chiewitz had a fairly successful career in his home country before arriving in Finland in 1851, fleeing a prison sentence in Sweden following bankruptcy, and soon established a career for himself, being named county architect for Turku and Pori in 1852. Among his varied works, he designed new baroque-style town plans for the towns of Pori (1852), Maarianhamina (Åland Islands) (1859) and Nystad (1856), an English-style romantic landscape park for Seinäjoki (1858), neo-gothic churches for Lovisa (1865) and Nystad (1864), Rundbogenstil-neo-Gothic Lovisa town hall and the House of Nobility in Helsinki (1862), neo-Renaissance Nya Teatern, Helsinki (1853, burnt down 1863) as well as redbrick factory buildings in Littoinen, Turku, Forssa and Tampere and various rustic villas for private clients. A similar eclecticism was continued most successfully by one of Chiewitz’s employees, Theodor Höijer (1843-1910), who went on to establish one of the most commercially successful private architecture firms in Helsinki, designing tens of buildings mostly in Helsinki, schools, librarys and several apartment blocks. One of his most famous works, the redbrick Erottaja fire station, Helsinki (1891) is seen as a mixture of neo-Gothic and neo-Renaissance styles modelled on Giotto’s Campanile in Florence and the tower of the medieval Palazzo Vecchio also in Florence.

However, the question of “stylistic revival” in Finland has another important cultural-political aspect, the presence of the Russian Empire through the building of Russian Orthodox churches in the second half of the 19th century – though what is regarded as the initiation of the deliberate politico-cultural policy of the Russification of Finland didn’t take place until the reign of Czar Nicholas II, from 1899 onward. Initially, just as in the Russian capital, St. Petersburg, the Russian Orthodox churches were initially designed in the prevailing neoclassical style; however, the latter half of the 19th century also saw the emergence of a Russian Revival architecture and Byzantine Revival architecture – part of the interest in Russia as in Finland and elsewhere in Europe of exploring nationalism – with distinct “onion domes”, tented roofs and rich decoration. Several such churches were built in Finland, the vast majority in the eastern half of the country, with notable examples in Tampere, Kuopio, Viinijärvi and Kouvola. An early example, the Sveaborg church (1854) in the fortress off the coast of Helsinki, was designed by Moscow-based architect Konstantin Thon, the same architect who designed, among other key buildings, the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, the Grand Kremlin Palace and the Kremlin Armoury in Moscow. The presence of the Orthodox church in the heart of Helsinki was made clear by the placement of the Uspenski Cathedral (1868) on a prominent hill overlooking the city; its architect, Aleksey Gornostayev was one of the pioneers of the Russian Revival architecture, credited with the rebirth of traditional tented roof architecture of northern Russia, which is also a prominent feature in the Uspenski Cathedral.

This period also marked the establishment of the first architecture courses in Finland, and in 1879 these began at the Polytechnical Institute in Helsinki, though at first with German or German-educated teachers. Other Finns went abroad for various periods of time to study. In fact, Jacob Rijf (1753-1808) is noted as the first Finn to have studied architecture at the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts in Stockholm in 1783-84, though he is a rare early exception. He became a notable designer of churches throughout Finland, including Hyrynsalmi church (1786) and Oravais church (1797). One hundred years later it was also still quite rare; e.g. notable revivalist-style architect Karl August Wrede studied architecture in Dresden, and Theodor Höijer at the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts in Stockholm. Also, Gustaf Nyström studied both architecture and town planning in Vienna in 1878-79. His buildings are typical of the eclecticism of the time, designing in both Gothic Revival style and a so-called neo-Renaissance style of classicism, with heavy ornamentation as well as heavy use of colour in interiors but also occasionally in facades, as for instance with his House of the Estates, Helsinki (1891). The semi-circular Rotonda (1902–07), Gustaf Nyström’s design for the extension to C.L. Engel’s neoclassical Helsinki University Library (1845), demonstrates both an outwardly stylistic continuity with the original – albeit the pilasters have not classical capitals but reliefs, made by the sculptor Walter Runeberg, personifying the sciences – whilst also employing modern techniques in the Art Nouveau interior: the semicircular 6-storey extension comprises a large light-well surrounded by radially placed bookshelves. Due to the then stringent fire-safety requirements, the extension has a framework of steel and reinforced concrete, with reinforced concrete stairs, an iron construction supporting the large glazed roof and metal windows. After graduating at the Polytechnical Institute, Usko Nyström (no relation) had continued his studies at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1890-91; on returning to Finland he initially designed (from 1895 to 1908 in the partnership Usko Nyström-Petrelius-Penttilä) neo-Renaissance architecture – in particular gaining from the growth area of building speculation in middle-class apartment buildings in Helsinki – whilst also developing a more Jugendstil style inspired by National Romanticism, and politically by the pro-independence Fennoman movement. Usko Nyström’s chief work, the Grand Hôtel Cascade, Imatra (1903) (nowadays called Imatran Valtionhotelli), is a key Jugendstil style building; the “wilderness hotel”, built next to the impressive Imatra Rapids (the biggest in Finland), was intended mostly for wealthy tourists from the Russian Imperial capital of Saint Petersburg, while its architectural style was inspired by Finnish National Romanticism, whilst taking its inspiration partly from the medieval and neo-Renaissance French châteaux Usko Nyström had seen during his time in France.

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.

Even at the height of the Jugendstil style, there were opponents who criticised the stagnant tastes and mythological approaches whereby Jugendstil was becoming institutionalised. The most well-known opponents were architect-critics Sigurd Frosterus and Gustaf Strengel. Frosterus had worked briefly in the office of Belgian-born architect Henry van de Velde in Weimar in 1903, and at the same time Strengel worked in London at the office of architect Charles Harrison Townsend. Their critique was partly inspired by the results for the 1904 competition to design the Helsinki railway station, won by Eliel Saarinen. In the jury report, the architecture of Frosterus’s entry was described as “imported”. That same year Frosterus entered the competition for the Vyborg railway station, which Saarinen again won. Frosterus was a strict rationalist who wanted to develop architecture towards scientific ideals, instead of the historical approach of Jugendstil. In Frosterus’s own words: “We want an iron and brain style for the railway stations and exhibition buildings; we want an iron and brain style for stores, theatres and concert halls.” According to him, an architect had to analyse his tasks of construction in order to be able to logically justify his solutions, and he must take advantage of the possibilities of the latest technology. The particular challenge of his time was reinforced concrete. Frosterus considered that the buildings of a modern metropolis should be “constructivist” in expressing their purpose and technology honestly. He designed a number of private residences, but made his major breakthrough in 1916, gaining second prize in the competition for the Stockmann department store in the heart of Helsinki. He was eventually commissioned to realise the building, which was completed after Finland gained independence, in 1930. It would be misleading to see the Jugendstil style as wholly opposed to classicism; Frosterus’s own works combined elements of both. Another key example is the Kalevakangas Cemetery Chapel in Tampere, designed by Wäinö Gustaf Palmqvist and Einar Sjöström; they had won an architectural competition for the project in 1911, and it was completed in 1913. While containing many of the decorative elements familiar from Jugendstil, the overall form borrows from a key classical model, the Pantheon in Rome.

Another point of debate at that time was that of the merits of urbanism. Again, of importance here were opposing views from abroad, namely the picturesque theories of town planning proposed by Viennese city planner Camillo Sitte, as put forward in his influential book City Planning According to Artistic Principles (1889) and the opposing classical-rational urbanism point of view also proposed in Vienna by Otto Wagner, heavily influenced by the Parisian model – under the directorship of Baron Haussmann from 1858 to 1870 – of driving wide boulevards through the old labyrinthine city with the intent of modernising traffic and waste management, as well as enabling the greater social control of the population. This debate came to a head in Finland in the first ever town planning design competition in 1898-1900 for the Töölö district of Helsinki. Three entries were lifted out for recognition; first prize to Gustaf Nyström (together with engineer Herman Norrmén), second prize to Lars Sonck, and third prize to a joint entry by Sonck, Bertil Jung and Valter Thomé. Nyström’s scheme represented classicism with wide main streets and imposing public buildings arranged in symmetrical axial compositions, and the other two in the Sittesque style, with the street network adapted to the rocky terrain and with picturesque compositions. A fantastic sketch accompanying Sonck’s competition entry gives an indication of the imagery he was aiming for, inspired by his travels in Germany. Historian Pekka Korvenmaa makes the point that leading theme was the creation of the atmosphere of medieval urban environments – and Sonck later designed a similar proposal in 1904 to rearrange the immediate surroundings of St.Michael’s Church in Helsinki, with numerous “fantastic” spired buildings. In the Töölö competition, undecided what course of action to take, however, the City Council asked the prize-winners to submit new proposals. When this led to further stalemate Nyström and Sonck were commissioned to work together on the final plan combining Nyström’s spacious street network and elements of Sonck’s Sittesque details. The final plan (1916) under the direction of Jung, made the scheme more uniform, while the architecture is seen as typical of the Nordic Classicism style. A typical street in the plan is that of Museokatu, with tall lines of buildings in a classical style along a curving street line. A still wider (24 metres) new tree-lined boulevard was that of Helsinginkatu, driven through the working-class district of Kallio, first outlined in 1887 by Sonck, but with further input from Nyström, and completed in around 1923.

But even more ambitious than the town plan for Töölö were Eliel Saarinen’s two plans also for Helsinki, the Munkkiniemi-Haaga plan of 1910-15 and the Pro-Helsingfors plan of 1918. The former was for a city development of 170 000, which equalled the entire population of central Helsinki at that time. The scheme was equally inspired by the Parisian axiality of Haussman, the intimate residential squares of Raymond Unwin in the English garden cities and the large-scale apartment blocks of Otto Wagner in Vienna. Only small fragments of the scheme were ever completed. The later scheme, which originated from private land speculation rather than public planning, involved the expansion of central Helsinki – which even included filling in the Töölö Bay in the centre of the city – as well as the planning of smaller satellite communities – what Saarinen termed ‘organic decentralization’, again inspired by the British garden city principle – around the edge of the city. No aspects of the latter scheme were ever realised.

A major architectural-historical event was the emigration of Eliel Saarinen to the USA in 1923, after he received second prize in the Chicago Tribune Tower competition of 1922. On moving to the USA, Saarinen designed the campus for the Cranbrook Academy of Art (1928) in his same architectural style, while architects in Finland moved on much more quickly into modernism.

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