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.

In a 2000 review article of twentieth century Finnish architecture, Frédéric Edelmann, arts critic of the French newspaper Le Monde, suggested that Finland has more great architects of the status of Alvar Aalto in proportion to the population than any other country in the world. Finland’s most significant architectural achievements are related to modern architecture, mostly because the current building stock has less than 20% that dates back to before 1955, which relates significantly to the reconstruction following World War II and the process of urbanisation which only gathered pace after the war.

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.

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.

Blomstedt himself died prematurely in 1935, aged 35. The significant vehicle for the development of modernism in Finland was his contemporary, Alvar Aalto, who was a friend of Asplund as well as key Swedish architect Sven Markelius. The latter had invited Aalto to join Congrès International d’Architecture Moderne (CIAM), ostensibly run by Le Corbusier. Aalto’s reputation as a significant contributor to modernism was endorsed by his involvement in CIAM and by the inclusion of his works in significant architectural journals worldwide as well as significant histories of architecture, notably in the second edition (1949) of Space, Time and Architecture by the secretary-general of CIAM, Sigfried Giedion. Aalto’s significant buildings from the early period of Modernism, which basically corresponded to the theoretical principles and architectural aesthetic of Le Corbusier and other modernist architects such as Walter Gropius, include the Turku Sanomat newspaper offices, Turku, Paimio tuberculosis sanatorium (1932) (part of a nationwide campaign for tuberculosis sanatorium construction) and Viipuri Library (1927–35). Central to Functionalism was paying close attention to how the building is used. In the case of the Aalto’s Paimio tuberculosis sanatorium, the starting point for the design, he himself claimed, was to make the building itself a contributor to the healing process. Aalto liked to call the building a “medical instrument”. For instance, particular attention was paid to the design of the patient bedrooms: these generally held two patients, each with his or her own cupboard and washbasin. Aalto designed special non-splash basins, so that the patient would not disturb the other while washing. The patients spent many hours lying down, and thus Aalto placed the lamps in the room out of the patients line of vision and painted the ceiling a relaxing dark green so as to avoid glare. Each patient had their own specially designed cupboard, fixed to the wall and off the floor so as to aid in cleaning beneath it.

Another key Finnish modernist architect from that period, who had also gone through Nordic Classicism, and who was briefly in partnership with Aalto – working together on the design of the Turku Fair of 1929 – was Erik Bryggman, chief among his own works being Resurrection Chapel (1941) in Turku. However, for Giedion the importance of Aalto led in his move away from high modernism, towards an organic architecture – and as Giedion saw it, the impulse for this lay in the natural formations of Finland. Though these “organic elements” were said to be visible already in these first projects, they became more apparent in Aalto’s masterpiece house design, Villa Mairea (1937–39), in Noormarkku – designed for industrialist Harry Gullichsen and his industrialist-heiress wife Maire Gullichsen – the design for which it is felt took inspiration from Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater (1936–39), in Pennsylvania, USA. Though even when designing a luxury villa, Aalto argued that he felt Villa Mairea would provide research for building standardisation for social housing.

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.

The 1950s also marked the beginning not only of greater population migration to the cities but also state financed projects for social housing. A key early example is the so-called “Käärmetalo” (literally “Snake house”, though usually referred to in English as the “Serpentine house”), (1949–51) by Yrjö Lindegren; built using traditional building techniques, plastered brick, the building nevertheless has a modern snake-like form that follows the topography of the area whilst also creating small pocket-like yards for the residents. But beyond the matter of form, was the production of mass housing based on systems of standardisation and prefabricated element construction. A leader in the design of social housing was Hilding Ekelund – who had previously been responsible for the design of the athletes’ village for the Olympic Games. A challenge to the traditional urbanisation process came, however, with the design of “forest towns”, high-rise developments set in forested areas on the outskirts of the major cities, such as the Pihlajamäki suburb of Helsinki (1959–65), based on a town plan by Olli Kivinen, and building designs by Lauri Silvennoinen, the area comprising white Functionalist-style 9-storey tower blocks and up to 250-metre-long 4-5-storey “lamella” blocks dispersed within a forest setting. Pihlajamäki was also one of the first precast concrete construction projects in Finland. The major example of the goal to set living within nature was Tapiola garden city, located in Espoo, promoted by its founder Heikki von Hertzen to encourage social mobility. The town planning for the garden city was made by Otto-Iivari Meurman, and with the key buildings of the town centre by Aarne Ervi, and other buildings by, among others, Aulis Blomstedt and Viljo Revell. In the 1950s and 1960s, as the Finnish economy began to prosper with greater industrialisation, the state began to consolidate a welfare state, building more hospitals, schools, universities and sports facilities (athletics being a sport Finland had proved successful in internationally). Also larger businesses would have architectural policies, notably the dairy company Valio, in constructing rational high-tech factories and later, their headquarters (Helsinki, 1975–78) by their own architect Matti K. Mäkinen, together with architect Kaarina Löfström. There was, however, a flip side to the urbanization and the expressed concern for the value of nature; traditional towns, even the old medieval ones, such as Porvoo and Rauma, were under threat of being demolished, to be replaced by straightened streets and large urban developments of prefabricated multi-storey blocks. This did indeed happen to an extent in the cities of Turku – where the wholsale redevlopment was described as the “Turku Disease” –, Helsinki and Tampere; however the latter two did not have medieval architecture at all and even Turku had lost the majority of its medieval building entities at the great fire in 1827. Anyway, the “old town” areas of Porvoo and Rauma were saved, the wooden old town of Rauma, Old Rauma, eventually becoming a UNESCO World Heritage site.

There was also at this time more disposable income; one outlet for this was the growth in the number of leisure homes – previously the preserve of the very wealthy – preferably placed alone on one of the numerous isolated lakesides or the coastal waterfront. An essential part of the leisure home (occupied for summer holidays and intermittently during the spring and autumn, but close up for the winter) has been the sauna, usually as a separate building. Indeed, the sauna had traditionally been a rural phenomenon, and its popularity in modern homes was a consequence of its growth as a leisure-time activity rather than as a washing facility. The Finnish Association of Architects (SAFA) and commercial companies organised design competitions for standardised models of leisure homes and saunas, preferably built in wood. Architects could also use the summer house type and sauna as an opportunity to experiment, an opportunity that many architects still use today. In terms of size and opulence, Aalto’s own summer house, the so-called Experimental House, in Muuratsalo (1952–53) fell between the traditions of middle-class splendor and modest rusticity, while its accompanying lakeside sauna, built from round logs, was a modern application of rustic construction. The 1960s witnessed more experimental summer house types, designed with the objective of serial production. The most noted of these was Matti Suuronen’s Futuro House (1968) and Venturo House (1971), of which several were made and sold worldwide. Their success was short lived, however, as production was hit by the 1970s energy crisis.

The late 1950s and 1960s also witnessed a reaction to the then still dominant position of Alvar Aalto in Finnish architecture, though some, most significantly Heikki and Kaija Siren (e.g. Otaniemi Chapel, 1956–57), Keijo Petäjä (e.g. Lauttasaari Church, Helsinki, 1958), Viljo Revell (e.g. Toronto City Hall, Canada, 1958–65), Timo Penttilä (e.g. Helsinki City Theatre, 1967), Marjatta and Martti Jaatinen (e.g. Kannelmäki church, 1962–68), and brothers Timo and Tuomo Suomalainen (e.g. Temppeliaukio Church, Helsinki, 1961–69) developed their own interpretation of a non-rationalist modernist architecture. Taking architecture in an even more idiosyncratic organic line than Aalto was Reima Pietilä, while at the other end of the spectrum was a rationalist line epitomized in the works of Aarne Ervi, Aulis Blomstedt, Aarno Ruusuvuori, Kirmo Mikkola, Kristian Gullichsen, Matti K. Mäkinen, Pekka Salminen, Juhani Pallasmaa and, slightly later, Helin & Siitonen Architects.

Blomstedt was the key figure here, as one of the founding figures of the Museum of Finnish Architecture, professor of architecture theory at Helsinki University of Technology, editor of the main Finnish architecture journal Arkkitehti (Finnish Architecture Review), and as a key member of the Helsinki branch of CIAM he helped create in 1958 Le Carré Bleu, a journal of architecture theory published originally solely in French (so that it would come to the attention of the key players in CIAM). The focus of the journal was on a strict formalism and morphology. Among its articles, the journal featured Blomstedt’s own studies in geometric proportion and dimensioning systems, inspired just as much by harmonic systems devised by Swiss mathematician Hans Kayser as Le Corbusier’s studies of proportional systems. One of Blomstedt’s key works, the extension to the Finnish Language Adult Education Centre, Helsinki (1959) (the main building, from 1927, had been designed by Gunnar Taucher together with Blomstedt’s older brother Pauli E. Blomstedt) was an application of this research, with the entire building based on subdivisions of a basic 360mm module (5×72, 3×120 and 2x180mm). Indeed, the crux of Blomstedt’s approach was the development of a dimensioning and proportional system for architectural design that, he argued, was in harmony with the laws of nature and beauty (human scale and musical harmony) while also providing a standard system for the mass industrialisation of building, which was regarded as central to the efficacy of modernism. One of Blomstedt’s proportional experiments, from 1973, even became the logo for the Museum of Finnish Architecture.

Reima Pietilä had also been active in the activities of the Museum of Finnish Architecture as well as publishing theoretical articles in Le Carré Bleu and Arkkitehti. Pietilä even attended a meeting of the Team X group of architects, held in 1972 at Cornell University in the USA, who were very much concerned with questions of structuralism in architecture, that is emphasising the elements of culture, somewhat in reaction to the universalising tendencies of modernism, especially as originally promoted by Team X’s instigators, the older generation of CIAM. Pietilä took a diametric viewpoint to that of the rationalist school, and though the works (designed in partnership with his wife Raili Pietilä) had much of the organic idiosyncrasies of Aalto, they were far more abstract and nebulous. In arguing that nature is the apotheosis of plasticity, he demanded a morphological analysis of architectural products, considering Euclidean geometry as an inadequate instrument of analysis. His first major work, the Finnish Pavilion at the 1958 Brussels Expo did in fact take a modular approach akin to the theories of Blomstedt; however, the wooden rectangular box-like units as a whole gave a foretaste of Pietilä’s later surfaces based entirely on free form; the most notable of these organic works being Kaleva Church, Tampere (1959–66), Dipoli student assembly building, Espoo (1961–66), Metso Library, Tampere (1978–86) and culminating in his final work, the Official Residence of the President of Finland, Mäntyniemi, Helsinki (1983–93). All these buildings had been the result of open architectural competitions.

Both Aalto’s and Sipinen’s work on the planning of the University of Jyväskylä campus, and so too Aalto’s planning of the Helsinki University of Technology campus in Otaniemi, should also be seen within the context of the Finnish state’s desire after the war to expand further education throughout the country, with the foundation of several new universities with purpose-built campuses. Another former Aalto employee, Jaakko Kontio (together with Kalle Räike), designed the campus of the Lappeenranta University of Technology (1969), partly following the red-brick aesthetic of Aalto as well as the then topical Structuralist-inspired layouts. These Structuralist-inspired layout of Sipinen’s or Kontio’s works had a more gritty counterpart – in the sense of spurning expensive materials associated with tradition and grandeur – in the University of Oulu campus (1967-) designed by Kari Virta; working on the idea of an infinitely extendable “mat building”, with the individual parts made from brightly painted prefabricated elements made from cheap materials.

If the minimalism of the “rationalist school” could be equally inspired by the works of the modernist masters Le Corbusier and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe as the machine aesthetic of Russian Constructivist architecture or the machine futurism of Buckminster Fuller, there were also allusions and references to cultural precedent, equally Finnish peasant dwellings and Japanese vernacular architecture. This attitude could also indeed be seen as falling under the Structuralist outlook of that time, as evident also in Japanese modernist architects such as Kenzo Tange, and in the parallel architectural phenomenon of Brutalist architecture (a reference to the British architectural style from the same period). The main exponent of this style was Aarno Ruusuvuori, with the heavy use of concrete as an aesthetic; e.g. Huutoniemi Church, Vaasa (1964), Tapiola Church (1965) and the Weilin & Göös Print Works, Espoo (1964–66; converted into the WeeGee Exhibition Centre, 2006). Other well known examples of the Brutalist concrete style were Holy Cross Chapel, Turku, by Pekka Pitkänen (1967), Järvenpää Church by Erkki Elomaa (1968) and the Sibelius Museum, Turku, by Woldemar Baeckman (1968). The prevailing construction method of prefabricated concrete elements during the 1960s and 1970s was given a different interpretation in the STS Bank building (1973–76), Tampere, by Kosti Kuronen, where it took on a form language of “building blocks” and “porthole windows” inspired by Japanese Metabolist architecture, suggesting growth and adaptability.

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.

The aims at a new understanding of regionalism yet in a modern idiom materialised in the greater use of timber – the building material most associated historically with Finnish architecture. However, there lies a dichotomy in its use: between its inherent positive values and its use as symbolising nostalgia, not to mention exploiting its industrial potential by the pervading timber industry. Already in 1956 Alvar Aalto argued that the use of wood was not a nostalgic return to a traditional material; it was a case of its “biological characteristics, its limited heat conductivity, its kinship with man and living nature, the pleasant sensation to the touch that it gives.”. A special unit, the so-called Wood Studio – partly funded by the Finnish wood industry – was founded at Aalto University not only to research wood construction but also to build experimental structures in wood, often using computer-based parametric design principles. An early example of this is the Observation Tower at Helsinki Zoo (2002) by Ville Hara and the Wood Studio. Similarly, Kärsämäki Shingle Church (1999-2004) by Anssi Lassila, was the result of a student competition held by the University of Oulu Department of Architecture, based on the idea of a modern church built using 18th century timber construction techniques, as a reminder of a previous church on the same site. Other notable large-scale wooden constructions since 2000 include the Sibelius Concert Hall, Lahti (1997-2000), by APRT; the east stand roof of the Helsinki Olympic Stadium (2005) by K2S Architects; and Kilden Performing Arts Centre, Kristiansand, Norway (2012), by ALA Architects. The Museum of the History of Polish Jews, Warsaw, Poland (2013), by Lahdelma & Mahlamäki is characterised by the principle of “complex objects in a glass box”, including parametrically-designed organic forms.

If Deconstructivism can be said to have had an influence on Finnish architecture in the 1990s and 2000s, it was mainly through the global influence of Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas; an architecture typified by playful formal disjunctions of forms and the use of the “generic”, an anti-architecture with aesthetic value. Prime examples of this have been the work of Kai Wartiainen (e.g. High Tech Centre, Ruoholahti, Helsinki, 2001) and ARK-House Architects (e.g. Helsinki City College of Technology, Audio Visual School, 2001). Examples of more biomorphic works, if not always using parametric design principles, are seen in the work of Jyrki Tasa of Arkkitehdit NRT (e.g. Moby Dick House, Espoo, 2008; Into House, Espoo, 1998), and Anttinen Oiva Architects (Kaisa House, University of Helsinki Library, 2012). The whimsy and populism of postmodernism and its concern for playing with architecture as a form of language took a few Finnish architects into the realm of conceptual art or theoretical or “paper” architecture: for example, the works of Casagrande & Rintala were more often installations for art or architecture Biennales. Their work “Land(e)scape” (1999) involved raising old and abandoned log barns onto 10-metre high stilts – a comment on the exodus of the rural population from the Finnish rural areas – the “artwork” culminating with setting the barns on fire.

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.

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