HELSINKI - SAARINEN AND AALTO

VR advertising campaign

Central Station 

The Finland national rail service company 'VR' has launched a big ad campaign centered on updates to their trains and web services. Serving as the mascot and spokes person is a computer generated parody of the stone statues in front of Helsinki's Central Station. Eliel Saarinen designed Central Station in 1909. These statues were a symbol for the enduring strength of an industrialized nation. Now they are buffed out actors wearing caps and aprons touting carbon friendly tourism and hassle free ticket purchases. Wouldn't Eliel be proud?

HELSINKI CENTRAL STATION

Saarinen’s plan for the station contributed a new public square to the downtown area, the Rautatientori. The growing relevance of the train coupled with the socialist agenda of the early 20^th century, shifted the geographic (and political) city center toward the railway station. Even today, the train station serves as the heart of the city with the shopping and government buildings along the esplanadi as the left arm and the cultural institutions and offices along Mannerheiminti Blvd as the right arm.

FINLANDIA HALL AND STORA ENSO

Finlandia Hall (on Mannerheiminti in the west) and the head offices for ENSO (on Market Square in the east) - Aalto had significant commissions on both sectors of the city.

It’s rumored that Aalto explored the concept of placing a building on this site as a 1923 competition entry for the parliament building, 35 years before he designed ENSO's offices. His entry was a runner up. You will see more about the selected parliament building in my next post. If the entry was in fact Aalto's then he understood quite well that the prominent site is wrought with complex parameters. It stands at the terminus of the esplanade across a wide port area, Market Square. It stands at the foot of the Orthodox catholic cathedral and is a stone’s throw from Engel's Senate square. The design is definitively modern with historical references to the adjacent renaissance style buildings. Five stories clad in white carrera marble sits on a base level clad in granite. The building's top floor steps back from the main facade completing the oeuvre to Italian palazzo style (piano rustica, piano nobile, corona aedifici). 

He worked with a rigidly spaced glazing module. It’s height provides clear views of the cathedral from the Esplanade and the port plaza. Despite this being a private contract, the building design respectfully addressed the surrounding civic style and sight lines. The result is an office building designed with the prominence, materiality and appearance of a civic institution. The clients at Enso remain in the building to this day. They may have understood how this public perception could be a helpful bit of marketing. In the words of their own 1992 brochure about the building, "[the building] is a symbol of the Finnish wood processing industry, which ... reflects the lasting values of neo-classicism hand in hand with a modern belief and optimism in the future."

Turku Cathedral- tower 

OTANIEMI TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY 

Because so much of Helsinki was designed after the start of the 19th century, you have to explore other cities to trace the roots of Finnish architecture. Copper roofs and red brick are now an intrinsic part of Helsinki. The earliest cathedrals in Turku and Porvoo are built in red brick and crowned in copper. As the Tsars intended, those 150 years of Russian rule and design under the influence of the Italian Renaissance left Helsinki looking more continental European than Scandinavian. 

Though you can’t credit Aalto alone for this, his re-introduction of red brick and copper back into the vernacular of 20^th century architecture had a significant role in a revival of its use by architects who replicated his style and philosophy. The proportion, style and materiality of the Otaniemi Technical University buildings are evident in buildings throughout Helsinki and surrounding areas from designs of his followers. 

The two soaring lecture halls are the core of the central student building and the campus. After 65 years the buildings have a warm and enduring appearance. Spaces are bright with natural daylight and the setting is uniquely Scandinavian. Skylights and custom designed fixtures harness and bounce light. The studios for the school of architecture below is an example. 

Wood or a custom bronze casting is used on handrails, doors and wall cladding, and they are organic forms that are smooth to the touch. Floors are dark and durable and look as good today as as a new floor.

AALTO'S STUDIO

There’s something to be said for providing a healthy environment for exploring concepts and executing the details. The studio where Aalto designed these projects shared a connection with nature and day light that you find in his buildings. 

A temporary exhibit of the relationship with metal worker Viljo Hirvonen shows a  process of exploration and creativity where two men shared understanding to design a beautiful thing. You can also see the fruits of this type of relationship with wood workers in the fluid designs of the laminated wood furniture.

ACADEMIC BOOK STORE

One Aalto project that nearly every American will recognize because it has been blatantly plagiarized by Barnes and Noble is the University Bookstore. A brilliant central atrium is daylit by sculptural clear glass skylights. Giant wood framed operable windows ring the perimeter of the store (though these are largely closed off by shelves today). 

“Café Aalto” and the entry lobby both prominently feature custom light fixtures, brass railings and door pulls.