Architecture Corner 04/09 [updated]

Otaneimi Kapeli: From helsinki architecture tour 04/09

We haven't had an Architectural Corner for a while (Konna keeps threatening to write about various things, but...) but we are still (re)discovering new & old buildings around Finland and Helsinki in particular. The other week we combined our new found love of free-loading activities with architecture and took advantage of an architectural tour of Helsinki (and Espoo) organised by Suomen Rakennustaiteen Museo and ??? in conjunction with their lecture series. (See here for a map and album)

Starting at the museum we stowed away joined a coach load of foreign students and miscellaneous hangers-on on what was a glorious (if chilly) spring day. First stop was Puu-Käpylä  - an area of model worker's housing built in the early 20's, constructed from timber - hence the puu - (in this case solid squared-off logs and timber weather boarding with 'classical' details) this is an example of the Garden City approach to sub-urban housing, and one which is now much desired. We then strayed into the adjacent so-called 'other olympic village' (housing built for the abortive 1940 summer games), popped into the local church and back on the bus.

Next was Viikki - an area we have visited before (and I said I would write about... never mind), although this time we skipped JKMM's Viikin Kirkko (see Sept'08) and looked instead at the award winning 90's timber housing area (by Arkkitehtuuritoimisto Mäki-Marttunen KY) and the Infokeskus Korona (which as far as I can work out is the university campus library) which we hadn't seen, and is by ARK-house who also designed the nearby Viikin Normaalikoulu school.

From there we headed to the airport for lunch. No not Vantaa , but Malmi.  Now used for private and light aircraft this was the original Helsinki International airport, (previously flying to Helsinki meant coming by flying-boat or float-plane) built in 1936 but replaced in 1952 by Vantaa in time for the Olympics. The buildings are still evocative of their era and have been recognised by the DoCoMoMo workgroup.

We then swung back west. Stopping off at Myyrmäen Kirkko - and an ideal day to see Leiviskä's church, which could be described as a poem in buff brick about light. Then the Peitilä designed expressive-modernist housing at Suvikumpu, which could easily be from the last decade rather than the 60's. From there we headed into Tapiola - another (more recent) example of Garden City planning and development, were we look briefly at the central ice rink 'reflecting pool', swimming pool, walked past the hotel that Konna's office had been working on, then a quick peek into the a delicate 'brutalist' modernist concrete church by Ruusuruori (who also originally designed the WeeGee-talo building for the Weilin & Göös Print Works

Now we headed towards TKK (Helsinki University of Technology) with it's Aalto masterplan and main buildings, including the well known auditorium complexe.  Again this is somewhere I have seen before (actually I think it was the first Aalto building I ever went inside, back in 2004), but is well worth a second look with the benefit of having visited, studied and even blogged some of his other buildings.

Staying on campus, we finished with a very simple, but rather lovely building. Otaneimi Chapel, by Heikki & Kaija Siren, creating an entrance courtyard from unworked timber screens, and using the backdrop of the forest and an external crucifix to bring nature into the building through it's picture windows. The chapel space is reached through a low vestibule, and to one side where no direct view out is possible, so keeping the effect of light, height and view as a surprise on entry into the timber, mono-pitched volume. An old trick - but one that works. I had to double check that this was really built in 1957, as it still seems very 'modern' and fresh today.

Tampere proof

Finlayson sign: from Tampere 02/09

Team hölynpöly drove to Tampere last several weekends ago (well better late than never) to look at Vuores, one of the two Finnish Europan10 competition sites. It snowed on the way there, rained on the way back and was misty inbetween.  Tampere is sometimes compared to Manchester; having a somewhat similar history and built heritage (e.g. brick mills and warehouses) from having a significant cotton textile and clothing industry, much of which now converted for residential and cultural uses (e.g. the Finlayson area). 

We were staying in urheiluhullu Sportgirl's apartment (in a converted shoe factory), although Sportgirl was of course away doing something ridiculously sporty as usual - this time a 24hr nordic skiing competition - in which she won the women's class and came 5th overall, covering a staggering 270km. Yes I know, Finns are mad. Last time we met (a few weeks previously) she was preparing for a skating competition (outside/distance rather than twirling in sparkly spandex) as part of the same overall Kalevan kierros competition, and when we first met her a few summer's ago she taught us how to canoe. (Luckily we had just been on a cycling holiday so didn't feel totally inadequate.)

Vuores (strapline: 'the small town in the midst of nature') itself if still just a greenfield site (although being Finland that should be greenforest), although work has started on tree clearing and road building, mainly by blowing things up to judge from the signs, so there wasn't an awful lot to see apart from trees, rocks and a bit of a slope. Hard to imagine that by 2015 homes for more than 13,000 inhabitants and business premises providing 3,000 - 5,000 jobs will have been built in the area and as the site of the 2012 Asuntomessut (the annual housing fair - see here for some pics from Vasa last year) and so may get 200,000 visitors over a few weeks. I should add here that we most definitely did not get the car stuck on a snowy track and have to dig and push it out with the help of a passing local in his Subaru Forester. No, never happened. We also cruised around the neigbouring area of Hervanta, which mainly gave us tips on what not to do, although we came across a rather curious set of 80's buildings at the centre, which we didn't understand the significance of until later.

The weather put an end to our plan to visit the observation tower, as 12€ is a lot to pay to look at the inside of a cloud - as you can see above. However while wandering around the town centre I did manage to buy 2 pipoa for 1 euro from H&M and spotted a poster for an architecture exhibition while lurking in a cafe.  The exhibition turned out to be on the works of Reima and Raili Pietilä, well known humanist-expressionist-modernist architects (in the 60's anyway, maybe only in Finland now), who have several major buildings in and around Tampere - including those curious 80's buildings in Hervanta. I was rather taken by their early works, such as the Dipoli student union building in Espoo (which I must try to get to see sometime), and Finnish pavilion for'58 World Fair in Brussels, the but less so by the later ones (although certainly interesting and unusual) which we actually saw there though.

We rounded off the trip with a visit to the Plevna restaurant / beer cellar, also in the old Finlayson area. (It's named for the old Finlayson building it is in, which itself was named after the siege of Plevna in the Russo-Turkish war of 1877 where the Finnish Guard were involved in the battle. The building was the first in Finland (and only 4th in Europe) to have electric incandescent lighting using Edison's 110V DC system). They specialize in a selection of their own and some imported beers and ciders, along with a range of hearty Finnish food, in a somewhat Germanic beer-hall style setting. The menu suggested combinations of drinks and food, so I went for a dark Plevna beer and the sausages and potato pannu. This turned out to be literally a frying pan full of creamy sliced potato with four types of sausages, and pickled cucumbers heaped on top, and probably enough for two people- but somehow I managed...

A light snack at Plevna... From Tampere 02/09