Finnish Architecture 0809 - Suomen rakennustaiteen museo

lainen Renzo Piano peittää uudet ostokeskuksensa,
taidemuseonsa ja tiedekeskuksensa istutuksilla tai
ranskalainen Jean Nouvel ja sveitsiläiset Herzog & de
Meuron uudet julkisivunsa kasvillisuudella, on vaikeata
puhua luonnonpalvonnasta pelkästään Pohjoismaisena
piirteenä. Toisaalta sellaiset ”jäävuoret” kuin Finlandia-talo
Helsingissä ja Snöhettanin suunnittelema
oopperatalo Oslossa ovat luontevampia pohjoismaisten
pääkaupunkien rannoilla kuin etelämpänä Eurooppaa.
Professori Simo Paavilainen
Simo Paavilaisen luento ”Pohjoismainen klassisismi” kuultiin
24.11.2009 osana museon pohjoismaista luentosarjaa.
Öijared Country Club, Lerum, 1987–88. Gert Wingardh.
Photo: Stefan Hallberg
Nordic features in Nordic architecture
Is there such thing as Nordic architecture, or is architecture
in the Nordic countries automatically and characteristically
Nordic? We often take it for granted that
the answer to both of these questions is yes. Architects
were inspired by Nordicness in the early 20th century.
One of the first signs was the Viking style, or dragon
style, seen mainly in summer homes. In the 1910s, Nordicness
manifested itself as an interest in traditional
brick architecture. You could say Nordic commonality
culminated in the 1920s with the emergence of 1920s
classicism, or Nordic classicism, a concept primarily
inspired by Danish and Swedish architecture and, particularly,
Gunnar Asplund. The generation whose junior
years were marked by 1920s classicism propelled an
enthusiasm for Nordic themes well into the 1950s. But
after that – what is left of Nordicness? The 1950s is
generally considered the Golden Age of Finnish architecture,
during which it started receiving international
acclaim. Did this entail such a feeling of superiority
that Finnish architects no longer found it necessary to
follow what happened in the neighbouring countries?
By the 1950s, they began seeking influences beyond
Scandinavia.
What features can be regarded as Nordic in
architecture? To investigate this issue, we need to go
back to the shared peak of Nordic classicism. What
the 1920s generation had in common was a “longing
for Italy”. Alvar Aalto retained this feature throughout
his career. Although Peter Celsing was much younger
and certainly cannot be considered a member of the
same generation, a similar enthusiasm is clearly visible
in many of his churches and the Riksbank. Sverre
Fehn, on the other hand, longed for northern Africa.
Jørn Utzon’s summer house, which is widely covered in
publications, is on the Mediterranean Sea. Today, there
seems to be little left of this Mediterranean longing;
contemporary young architects are more interested in
India, Japan and Australia.
Yet there was another aspect to Nordic classicism:
a rediscovery of Nordic vernacular milieu and culture.
Architects began to see its aesthetical values: simple,
naturally classical, gently sloping pitch-roofed building
volumes in lively, varied groups; the beauty of earthtone
reds and yellows in the Nordic landscape and
their cultural history. There is perhaps more left of this
feature than of the longing for Italy. It can be found,
for example, in the works of Tegnestuen Vandkunsten.
In Sweden you frequently see beautiful proofs of the
existence of this phenomenon, where it is further supported
by a sort of late echo of Gustavianism. Prime
recent examples include the summer house by Juhan
Celsing for Anne Sofie von Otter, duly painted in Falu
red. Rekindled enthusiasm for traditional techniques,
such as thatched, peat and shingle roofs, also bear
witness to a similar interest. Shingles are a prominent
feature of Asplund’s small Woodland Chapel in the
southern cemetery of Stockholm. Fine recent examples
of shingled buildings include the Kärsämäki Shingle
Church and the Viikki Church in Helsinki. Adjacency
to nature, or downright adoration of nature has been
considered a quintessentially Nordic feature in architecture.
Reima Pietilä excelled in the art of attempting
to completely erode the border between building and
terrain. Adoration of nature is also present in a number
of nature-inspired Finnish churches, such as Temppeliaukio
Church, Otaniemi Chapel and the Resurrection
Chapel in Turku. In the other Nordic countries, a similar
devotion to nature seems somewhat harder to spot.
Denmark, however, boasts a splendid example of the
genre: the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in north
Sjaelland, with works of art presented side by side with
the surrounding landscape. The best contemporary example
from Sweden is Gert Wingårdh’s Öijared Country
Club, where the lawn rises to cover the entire building.
In Norway, the Mortensrud Church by Jan Olav Jensen
adores stone as a material in much the same way as
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