Finnish Architecture in China partial and preliminary results for doctoral seminar discussion on 07.01.2020

Yizhou Zhao

Abstract In this report for the doctoral seminar, there are two parts. The first part is the theory, where I have studied several topics: 1) The preliminary introduction summarizes the research question and explain my intentions. 2) The study is about the meaning of Finnishness. 3) The study focuses on the connection between Finnishness and World Culture by examining the debate about ‘national-international’ in Finnish architects. The study argues the ambivalence of modernity by Finnish architecture. 4) The study is about regionalism and its critique. Finnish architecture has been positioned under a regionalist discourse for long. The architectural export gives a new perspective to examine the existing discussion. Therefore, the study examined the pros and cons of regionalism and discussed the impact of globalization on a regionalist discourse. 5) Finnishness and globalization argus the necessity of architectural export and its difficulties in Finland. The second part is an empirical study, which is a brief review of the history of exporting Finnish architecture, namely the history before Finnish architecture arrives in China.

Introduction Globalization significantly changes the architectural profession. Many architectural offices have grown as transnational companies and set branch offices worldwide, which essentially is an economic expansion that accompanies the globalized capital. The international project becomes an event with media effects. The resonance frequently occurs between the polemic public projects and the influential star-architects. To an extent, globalization also exacerbates the inequality of architectural offices. As the director of the British Design Museum Deyan Sudjic commented in 2006: ‘There can never have been a moment when quite so much high-visibility ​ architecture has been designed by so few people.’1 Besides, the current architectural education ​ has been positioned in a global background long ago. The assignments of design studios refer to worldwide sites and urban contexts. The students, as well as the teachers, are from everywhere. Yet, compared with the foresight in education and the number of realized international buildings, there are still somewhat less academic studies addressing the complexity that occurs in the interaction of different cultures by transnational architecture.

Architects are not necessarily categorized by their nationalities. Theoretically, architectural design is dedicated to the well-being of any society. However, the ubiquity of regional identity is also undeniable. In the globalized era, many countries in the world encounter two demands at the same time: 1) exporting cultural products, 2) defending their own cultural traditions. By

1 Sudjic, Deyan. The Edifice Complex: How the Rich and Powerful--and Their Architects--Shape the World. London: ​ ​ Penguin Books, 2006. positioning a type of architecture with a strong national identity in a foreign context, the study provides a new perspective to examine the transnational cultural collision. In other words, the study is not about a simple geographical grouping of buildings according to their localities. The detachment between the architect and the context provides a new dimension of thinking about the cultural complexity in architecture.

In a way, Finland is an ‘atypical’ European country. Finland has a very particular geopolitical status. The architectural modernism and the universal modernity were introduced to Finland rather than being invented in Finland. Still, Finnish design develops a distinguished tradition, which shares the common values, such as the functionality and materiality. For a long time, the architecture in Finland is a part of identity politics and contributes to the national culture. The architectural discourse is tightly associated with the geographical specialty of Finland—a country of lakes and forests. Likewise, in the international architectural discussions, it seems that Finnish architecture invariably belongs to a regionalist theory.

While people are more connected than ever, Finnish architects also grasp the opportunities to ‘export’ their works. As the architects from Finland need to design in a circumstance that is significantly different from the homeland and the expected building happens to require a strong cultural image, the paradoxical questions emerge: First, how may the architects reconcile their cultural values with the identity of the design? Second, how may the architects consider the relationship between their tradition with the foreign place where the buildings located? However, like Reima Pietilä once said: ‘Reasoning does not work in architecture because it is material.’2 The building itself is not necessary to fix the theoretical dilemma but only records the efforts of mediation for the design in a complicated environment of cultures.

The research chooses a specific scenario: the Finnish architectural design in China. China is different from Finland in many respects—a large country in Eastern Asia with an ancient civilization. The invaders from the West and Japan forced China to step its road of modernization since the middle of the 19th century. And yet, after winning the wars searching its national liberation and stepping out of the political fanatic from Mao’s era, China has grown as the second-largest economic body in the world. Its economic success enabled China to become one of the largest markets of architectural design and construction, which is still under an increase. Because of globalization, these two countries were connected instead of being divided by the vast Siberian forests.

The development of design culture in transnational projects does not mean an eclectic mixture of different decorative elements. We need to realize that not all the transnational architectures substantially acquire such a complicated cultural identity. Some of them, due to the simplicity and purity of their circumstances, did not develop conversations with local culture and become architectural souvenirs that travel to other places. Some of them, due to their instrumental and economic nature, do not present their cultural intentions sufficiently. In other words, it is an

2 Pietilä, Reima. Unfinished Modernism: a dialogue with an Interlocutor (Roger Connah). Mikkola, Kirmo(Ed.), Alvar ​ ​ Aalto Vs. The Modern Movement / Alvar Aalto ja modernismin tila, Jyväskylä: Gummerus. (1981). p.87 architectural reproducing oriented by the globalized market rather than the expansion of design thinking. In that sense, it is no longer the phenomenon that this study primarily concerns.

All in all, the point is that whether the architect studies local culture and develop an effective method of communication, and eventually, whether the design can present such thinking and intentions of cultural connections. So, the study positions itself as a culture study rather than a market-based analysis.

As the extension of Finnish design, studying Finnish architecture in an international context also permits me to examine the architectural discourse in Finland based on a new perspective. For long, Finnish architecture is under a regionalist theory, which includes two layers of meanings: 1) the construction of identity, 2) an active response to the ‘place.’ The study attempts to expand the existing architectural discourse and transcend the regionalist thinking. By presenting the cultural mediations and studying the answer to various contexts, the dissertation attempts to reveal the limitations of a picturesque narrative that widely exists in Finnish architectural discourse. Architectural discourse should not become self-censorship. In contrast, it should be developed to encounter the impact of globalization. What this dissertation addressed is the inadequacy of the existing discourse in Finnish architecture. As Roger Connah once commented: ‘To survive and move within global trends and material development with a ​ regional vigour, the architecture of a small society needs not only to withstand foreign invasion, it needs to improve on its own critical tradition. It needs to understand it own cultural landscapes, myths and historical echo. Failing to do this, architectural debate can remain condemned to an irrelevant preoccupation.’3

Chapter 1: Finnishness and globalization 1.1 What is Finnishness? Finnishness can be considered as the particularity that exclusively belongs to Finland in different forms of art, including but not limited to, painting, literature, film, music, and architecture, which implies an ‘imagined community.’4 Finnishness implies the national spirit of Finland, as well as the aesthetic consensus. Finnishness entails a cultural boundary, and the construction of the symbolic boundary defines who does not belong or is excluded from it.5

In history, Finnishness refers to the national identity that gradually established during the period when Finland was a grand duchy under Russian rule, the search for Finnish identity was based on the Volksgeist (spirit of the people).6 When Russia deprived the autonomy of Finland at the turn of the 20th century, Russification eventually fired the awareness of Finnish identity. As a

3 Connah, Roger. Sal[l]vaged Modernism, Re-inventing Finnish Architecture. Helsinki:Rakennustieto Oy. 2000. p.38 4 Anderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. New York: ​ ​ Verso, 1983. 5 Hall, Stuart. Introduction. Hall, Stuart. Gieben, Bram. (Ed.) Formations of Modernity.Cambridge:Polity Press.(1992) ​ ​ ​ ​ p.6 6 Niskanen, Aino. The Vernacular as A Source of Inspiration in Finnish Architecture. Mattila, Markku.(Ed.) CIAV ​ ​ ​ VERNADOC 2010 : Keski-Skandinavian suomalaiset : Östmarkin kirkko, savutuvat. Helsinki: Suomen ​ ICOMOS.(2011) p.16 country on the edge of the Western, the particularity of Finland significantly depends on its geopolitical position. Like Finnish architectural critic Carolus Lindberg said in 1926:

‘Geographically speaking, Finland belongs to the eastern European continent; the Baltic Sea ​ and its bays separate the country from Western Europe. But the sea connects rather than separates. Finland gained contact with Christian civilization through the Baltic Sea, The same source gave birth to our science and art. (...) We can therefore conclude that Finland has always been, and will continue to be, the easternmost domicile of western civilization.’7 ​

On the one hand, Finnishness refers to a series of collective awareness, which entails the political neutrality, cultural modesty, and the spirit of the common man. The self-concept of Finland is a modest image: Finland is a remote country with small towns. The population is small and sparse; people here speak a ‘strange’ language. On the other, the notion of 'Sisu' has for many years been a central part of Finnish cultural identity.8 It is a word that has a mixed meaning of immense strength, endurance, stamina, and perseverance.9 As such, Finnishness refers to a low-key and pragmatic attitude and also becomes a philosophy of life, which leads people to experience the environment and keeps the traditional values alive in modern society. For example, the phobia of dense metropolitans and the habit of periodical living in summer cottages. Like Kirmo Mikkola once said:

‘If the transition to an industrialized and urban lifestyle may cause the conversion of humankind, ​ the change will, in any case, require generations to realize. In this respect, Finnish people are still rural. And they are still alien from a compact form of living. A Finn can flee to the loneliness of his summer cottage whenever he can.’10

Furthermore, Finnishness also represents the thoughts for common people and the common good. The spirit of common people can be found in the Finnish national epic, the Kalevala. The hero and heroine are working people. The treasure, namely the Sampo, was interpreted as a hand mill, which has a shape of tool for daily usage. In a way, the target of social equity from the Modern Movement responds to the tradition of social equity. The appreciation of everyday life significantly influences the aesthetics in Finland. Therefore, Finnishness might loosely represent the meanings of pure, honest, direct, and possibly, ascetic.11

Finnishness tightly rooted in the topography and climate of Finland—a country that has lakes, forests, long dark winter, and short but cool summer. Finnish architecture is based on the intimate connection between Finnish people and nature. A common explanation for its particularity is that Finnish architecture is the visualized form of the feeling of the Finnish landscape. Namely, the forest and lakes influenced the architects’ minds and hence potentially

7 Lindberg, Carolus. Vanhempaa Rakennustaidetta Suomessa (Older Building Art in Finland), Arkkitehti 6. 1926. p.72 ​ ​ 8 Hautajärvi, Harri. Propaganda? Arkkitehti.(1).2004. ​ ​ 9 Connah, Roger. Finland: Modern Architectures in History.London: Reaktion Books.(2005). p.15 ​ ​ 10 Mikkola, Kirmo. 1978. Arkkitehtuuri Kansakunnan Kohtaloissa (Architecture in The Destinies of The Nation). ​ ​ Mukala, Jorma (Ed.). Arkkitehtuurilinjoja: Kirmo Mikkolan Kirjoituksia. Helsinki: Rakennustieto Oy, 2009. pp.54-65 11 Connah, Roger. The Collection. Young Architects from Finland. Helsinki: Rakennustieto.(2002). p.14 ​ ​ establish the morphologic connection with the architectural forms. Such a mimic theory can be traced to Yrjö Hirn (1870-1952), who was arguably the most influential Finnish humanist scholar in his time. In his book The Origins of Art, Hirn argued the general but abstract connection ​ ​ between art and the circumstance that creates art. As Hirn wrote: ‘The concrete objects of ​ nature are full of ‘expressive qualities’ which make them available as a means of conveying our feelings. The whole world of visual reality can thus be used in a kind of indirect mimetism—a dramatic expression, so to speak, in which natural and abstract forms replace the human body.’ ​ 12 For Hirn, there is a resonance in the audience because of the sensibility of the artworks. And the origin of art is the daily life per se rather than any ‘art-impulse.’

Within one century since independence, Finnish architecture not only created the physical space but also devoted to the cultural identity of Finland. The public buildings, depict the image of Finland both concretely and spiritually. In Malcolm Quantrill’s opinion, the Finnishness is deep-rooted in the origins of medieval churches as Hattula and Turku cathedral, and its network of elaboration spread through the neoclassical, the national romantic, the romantic classic and Aalto’s post-functionalist periods.13 Considering the vernacular feature in Finland, there is definitely a Finnishness in the traditional log cottage in the middle part of Finland. In the principles of design, Finnishness might refer to the sensitivity of materials, the fineness of tectonic details, the sensibility of light and shadow, and the functionalist nature. Finnishness was also elaborated as an adaptation of the local materials in Finland, such as wood and granite.14 In sum, Finnishness in architecture represents a continuum, which implied that it was a group constructed by similar design values and methods.

By Finnish design products, the pavilions in World Expos, exhibitions, and publications, the image of Finland was able to be broadcasted internationally. As Gunnel Adlercreutz mentioned: ‘In general, Finnish people are also aware of and recognize the importance of the arts as ​ elements adding value to everyday life.’15 And the design culture in Finland was considered to ​ be an integral part of the nation’s economy, industry, and national identity.16 In 2012, Helsinki was selected as the World Design Capital. Finland regards itself as the forerunner in design. In all, Finnishness is not merely a historical or cultural legacy, but more importantly, it is a consciousness that constructed step by step.17 As time goes by, more meanings would be comprised in the definition of Finnishness.

1.2 Finnishness and World Culture: a dialectical view As the modern movement was in parallel with the independence of Finland, the modernist tradition per se was constructed as a part of Finnishness. The Finnish modernism is largely

12 Hirn, Yrjö. The Origins of Art, a psychological & sociological inquiry. London: Macmillan. (1900). p.98 ​ ​ 13 Quantrill, Malcolm. Finnish Architecture and the Modernist Tradition. London:E&FN Spon.(1995). p.xi(perface) ​ ​ 14 Suhonen, Pekka. The art of application(Soveltamisen kyky). Arkkitehti.(2).1993. pp.24-25 ​ ​ 15 Adlercreutz, Gunnel. The Preface. Young Architects from Finland, complied by Roger Connah. Rakennustieto. ​ ​ 2002 16 Korvenmaa, Pekka. Finnish Design: A Concise History. 17 The place-based consciousness is not a legacy of history or geography, but a project that is devoted to the creation and construction of new contexts for thinking about politics and the production of knowledge. Dirlik, Arif. “Place-Based ​ Imagination: Globalism and the Politics of Place.” Review (Fernand Braudel Center), vol. 22. (2). 1999, pp. 151–187. ​ ​ featured by Finland’s peripheral location in Europe and its rather late independence (1917). The newly independent country needed minimal dwelling standards and hygiene and, functionalism, which was an interchangeable term with ‘modernism’ in Finland, could better respond to the immediate requirements.18 Unlike the National Romanticism, which was only understood by a small cultural elite, Modernism in Finland was social emancipation on many levels, and its long-lasting influence was spread to the entire educated class.19 According to Aulis Blomstedt, the ‘bifurcations from the highway of the international architectural tradition’ also lead to Finland. As he put it: ‘If the link with the international tradition is severed, our own architectural ​ development becomes lost in the mire of provincialism.’20 ​

Based on an outsider’s view, Roger Connah once commented: ‘Where other countries struggle ​ for a wider acceptance of the role of architecture and design within their societies, modern architecture has deeply rooted in Finland.’21 And again, as the introduction of modern Finnish ​ architecture, Connah said: ‘Architecture has in many ways not only helped to modernize Finland ​ but has proved more than useful in a country adept at making it own from a tradition not its own. Modernism and modern architecture became both myth and reality.’22 In other words, modernism in Finland has become an ‘invented tradition,’ which refers to a symbolic ideology searching its continuity automatically.23

However, as a life built upon an industrialized society, modernism naturally implies a certain cosmopolitanism—a common value that can be worldwide sharped. There would be a binary here if we admit that modernism is a part of Finnishness, namely, the contradiction between the generalization of modernism and the aspiration of distinction in Finnishness. Alternatively, as French philosopher Paul Ricoeur pointed out, we are under the dual pressure of the necessities for the free access to progress and the exigency of safeguarding heritage.24 In the field of architecture, Finnishness needs to both emphasize its functionalist nature and declare its difference with internationalism. So, the question left for the architectural discourse in Finland is how to mediate the culture-neutral modernism and the cultures from other places with its cultural tradition? There has been the constant ‘oscillation’ of architectural discussion between the ‘national’ and the ‘international’ in Finland.25 For example, this pendulum of architectural opinions can be observed from the two discussions in Arkkitehti: the ‘national-international’ in 1967, and the ‘Finnishness’ in 1993.

18 Connah, Roger. Finland: Modern Architectures in History. London: Reaktion Books.(2005). p.54. p.17 ​ ​ ​ 19 Mikkola, Kirmo. Architecture in the history of the nation(Arkkitehtuuri kansakunnan kohtaloissa). ​ ​ ​ Arkkitehti.(5-6).1978. pp.50-53 20 Blomstedt, Aulis. Public Building and Tradition. Originally published on Arkkitehti.1958. Pp.71-72. The article was ​ ​ compiled in the book: 20th-century Architecture: Finland. (Ed.) Norri, Marja-Riitta. Standertskjöld, Elina. Wang, ​ ​ Wilfried. Helsinki: Museum of Finnish Architecture, Frankfurt am Main: Deutsches Architektur-Museum. (2000). p.142 21 Connah, Roger. The collection. Young Architects from Finland. Helsinki: Rakennustieto Oy. (2002). p.13 ​ ​ 22 Connah, Roger. Finland: Modern Architectures in History. London: Reaktion Books.(2005). p.7 ​ ​ 23 The concept of ‘invented tradition’ is from the British historian, Eric Hobsbawm. See Hobsbawm, Eric, & Ranger, Terence (Ed.). The Invention of tradition: past and present publications. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ​ ​ (1992). pp.1-3 24 Ricoeur, Paul. Universal Civilization and National Cultures. Vincent B. Canizaro.(Ed.) Architectural Regionalism, ​ ​ ​ Collected Writings on Place, Identity, Modernity, and Tradition. New York: Princeton Architectural Press.(2007). p.42 ​ 25 Connah, Roger. Finland: Modern Architectures in History. London:Reaktion Books. (2005). p.52 ​ ​ ​

In 1967, in the volume of Arkkitehti concerning the 75th anniversary of SAFA,26 the journal invited several influential architects, including Alvar Aalto, Sven Markelius, Aulis Blomstedt, Arne Korsmo, Bengt Lundsten, Arno Ruusuvuori, and Reima Pietilä, to speak their opinions about the topic of ‘national-international.’ In the discussion. As Aulis Blomstedt pointed out, the issue possibly reflected both fear for a unified architectural form and a desire for national and personal features.27 Bengt Lundsten gave an explicit warning, as he said: ‘We should, however, beware ​ of relaxing into such a strong conservatism that we become nationally isolated and do not accept stimuli from outside, simply because they are not clothed in our national dress.’28 Aarno ​ Ruusuvuori took the mutual influences between places for granted, as he said: ‘at the present ​ stage of the world’s scientific and technological development, nationalism seems frankly meaningless. Everything we do reflects worldwide principles and everything reflects back into the international area where values are weighed up.’ That is to say; worldwide modern ​ architecture also develops because of the supplement of a spectrum of modern buildings with Finnish features. For Reima Pietilä, the nationalistic thinking in design was not only conservative but mistaken, as he said: ‘It was unbelievable to discuss architecture in a narrow spirit of ​ ‘we-ness’ and architecture per se was an international way of thinking.’29 In other words, a collective awareness can be a kind of criterion rather than the source of the design. The debate of 1967 was based on the awareness that the foreign trends more and more influenced Finnish architecture since its glory in the 1950s. Still, the Finnish architects were confident and regarded this international influence as a part of the necessary communication.

However, in the discussion of Finnishness in 1993, the concerns about losing the uniqueness of Finnish tradition occurred in the architectural journal. Georg Grotenfelt mentioned the ‘two paths’ for Finland: the metropolitan life of the ‘Big World’ from the South and the traditional life close to nature. As he concluded: ‘Only when we(Finnish architects) dare tread this familiar ​ ground and grow to our full height can we self-confidently walk on the other path and, without compromising ourselves, draw on the gifts of the South.’30 Elissa Aalto also commented: ‘as ​ ​ international contacts and interaction increase, we seem to be losing something of our original Finnishness and to be melting into a universal pan-European oneness.’31 It was the period that ​ Finnish architecture in its downturn. And it should be pointed out that Finland was in a deep economic recession at the beginning of the 1990s.32 Possibly because of the plight, the emotion that reflected on the discourse was a kind of stronger self-protection compared with the discussions in the earlier years. Though Marja-Riitta Norri’s argument still insisted that Finnish

26 The association of Finnish architects. 27 Blomstedt, Aulis. National-international (Kansallinen-kansainvälinen). Arkkitehti. 7-8.1967. p.8 ​ ​ 28 Lundsten, Bengt. International-integration. Arkkitehti. 7-8.1967. p.22-23 ​ ​ ​ 29 Pietilä, Reima. Local - non-local. Arkkitehti. 7-8. 1967. p.24 ​ ​ 30 Grotenfelt, Georg. Two Paths (Kaksi Tietä). Arkkitehti. 2.1993. p.17 ​ ​ 31 Aalto, Elissa. On Preserving National Originality. (Kansallisen omaperäisyyden säilyttämisestä) Arkkitehti.2.1993. ​ ​ p.22 32 The recession was in the economic cycle of 1990-93. see Kiander, Jaakko. The Evolution of the Finnish Model in ​ the 1990s: From Depression to HighTech Boom. Becker, Uwe, & Schwartz, Herman (Eds.). (2011). Employment ​ ​ miracles: a critical comparison of the Dutch, Scandinavian, Swiss, Australian and Irish cases versus Germany and the U.S. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.pp.87-110 ​ architecture should hold a pragmatic attitude, which was able to assimilate inspiration and merit globally, as she said:

‘Finnishness can be used as either a carrot or a stick. (… )Our architecture took its leap into world consciousness specifically because our designers had no preconceived ideas. They absorbed influences from all quarters. But even more vital than adopting ideas is putting them into practice. The elements in a tradition may well come from abroad; what is crucial is how they are screened, combined and integrated locally.’33

This debate of Finnishness also denoted a dialectical relationship between the national identity and the role of the architect. For Finnish architects, the Finnish identity is taken for granted. Aalto was worldwide known as a Finnish architect, yet Le Corbusier or Mies van der Rohe was less known for their nationalities.34 Like Giedion commented: ‘Finland is with Aalto wherever he ​ goes.’35 Aalto rarely forgot to mention his home country and his own dependence on or ​ consideration for this country.36 Still, the architectural design demands a combination of rational thinking and unfettered artistic creativity. In a way, the architects were cautious about the trend of populism. For example, in an interview about JKMM’s Finnish pavilion in the Shanghai Expo in 2010, Teemu Kurkela had been asked, ‘Did you strive for Finnishness?’ He elaborated that the simplicity and abstraction in their building represented the traditional aesthetics.37 Finnish architecture is denoted to the affection for the ‘imagined community’ of Finland rather than any political power. That is the reason why Finnish architecture is fundamentally democratic.

As Zygmunt Bauman said: ‘history of modernity is a history of tension between social existence ​ and its culture. Modern existence forces its culture into opposition to itself. This disharmony is precisely the harmony modernity needs.’38 In all, the architectural modernism can be regarded ​ as one of the measurements for modernity. The ambivalence of modernism accompanies Finnish architecture and also proves, in a way, the impossibility of complete modernity. Finnish architecture can be close to internationalism but also attempts to restrain the foreign trends from the south. The cultural modernity and acultural modernity can be both observed in Finland. On the one hand, there is instrumental rationality that genuinely rooted in Finnish modernism. On the other hand, there are also the cultural traditions that inherit from the premodern era have been kept. So, Finnish modernism, in an architectural sense, is both identifiable and understandable for people from other places in the world.

According to the Japanese sociologist, Kosaku Yoshino, cultural nationalism aims to regenerate ​ ​ the national community by creating, preserving or strengthening a people’s cultural identity

33 Norri, Marja-Riitta. Building the Landscape of the Future (Tulevaisuuden maiseman rakentaminen). Arkkitehti. ​ ​ (2).1993. pp.26-27 34 Čeferin, Petra. Constructing A legend, The International Exhibitions of Finnish Architecture 1957-1967. p.15 35 Giedion, Sigfried. Space, Time and Architecture-The Growth of a New Tradition. Harvard University Press(1959).p.567. 36 Maurer, Bruno and Rüegg. Alvar Aalto and Switzerland 37 Kurkela, Teemu. The Interview for Teemu Kurkela. Arkkitehti. (5).2010.p26 ​ ​ 38 Bauman, Zygmunt. Modernity and Ambivalence. Cambridge: Polity Press.(1991). p.11 ​ ​ when it is felt to be lacking, inadequate or threatened.39 The architectural debate in Finland was open to the international in its glory days and became conservative in the period of its backwardness. For international styles and other cultures, the swing between the openness and defensiveness is a collection of choices that people made according to their times. In contrast, the nationalistic atmosphere and political neutrality are coexistence in the Finnish architectural debate. The renowned architects insist on an open attitude towards other cultures and attempt to utilize them in their own designs.

1.3 Finnishness and Regionalism: identity or stereotype As it successfully mediates the architectural standardization and the craftsmanship tradition, modernism in Scandinavia was also naturalized with a more sensitive appreciation of place, responding to the diluted International Style as a ‘good antidote.’40 Furthermore, based on the similar topography, climate, social values, religious belief, and the frequent communications among the architects and schools, these traits formed an architectural continuum of Nordic countries. The common measurements, e.g. the aesthetic of austerity and the warmth of materials, can be identified from the architectures around the Scandinavian region. As Pallasmaa put it: ‘The aesthetics of noble poverty from the traditional Nordic functionalist have a ​ new moral value in the current consumerist society.’41 In the discourse of modern architecture, ​ Finnish architecture always has been praised with a label of regionalism or vernacular features. 42 Finnish architects, especially the well-known Finnish architect Alvar Aalto, were used as the trademark of regionalism, and his works have been constantly cited as the cases for elaborating on the regionalist discourses. Additionally, Reima Pietilä and his Oulu School were once considered to be the noted regionalist group in Finland due to their attempts of the vernacular features and semiotic expressions.

Likewise, the tendency of globalization has been challenging the regionalist narratives, and it significantly extends the imaginable boundary of human activities. According to Hans Ibelings, the architecture of ‘non-places’ is one of the typical descriptions in the globalized age.43 Yet, we can also observe the worldwide development of anti-centrist awareness, such as political isolationism, trade protectionism, or religious fundamentalism. And the Finnish architectural discourse also uses a perspective of differentiation for strengthening its own identity. For example, the constant debates about the relationship between the Finnishness and world culture reflect a dialectical mindset towards globalization. Still, the cultural homogenization and heterogenization occur in parallel globally. And the ambiguity and hybridity of national culture

39 The definition of cultural nationalism is from the Japanese socilogolist Kosaku Yoshino (吉野耕作). See Kosaku Yoshino’s dissertation, Cultural Nationalism in Contemporary Japan, A sociological enquiry. New York: Routledge, ​ ​ 1992. 40 Curtis, William J. R. Modern Architecture since 1900. Oxford: Phaidon Press. (1982). p.296 ​ ​ 41 Pallasmaa, Juhani. Tradition and Modernity: The Feasibility of Regional Architecture in Post-Modern Society. The ​ ​ Architectural Review. May 1988. Pp.26-34. The article also can be found in the book: Vincent B. Canizaro.(Ed.) Architectural Regionalism, Collected Writings on Place, Identity, Modernity, and Tradition. New York: Princeton ​ Architectural Press.(2007). p.134 42 This is converted from, has no Finnish architect really been praised for an international expression?. Connah, Roger. Sal[l]vaged Modernism, Re-inventing Finnish Architecture. Helsinki:Rakennustieto Oy, 2000. p.22 43 Ibelings, Hans. Supermodernism. NAi Publishers, 1998. ​ ​ have been discursively argued.44 Finnish architecture, which is a kind of design of ‘regional features,’ needs to reconcile itself with a more complicated context, and to develop a critique tradition, which is not only able to evaluate the architecture in Finland but also abroad. The question is: Can regionalist theories fulfill such a wish? Consequently, this study requires to examine the discourses that focus on ‘place’ and its connection with Finnishness.

Above all, we need to clarify that there are two radically different meanings often mixed in the place-based theories. First, the conventional regionalism refers to the distinctive motifs or styles that imply a cultural boundary associated with the imagination of place, which can be used for nationalistic thinking or any theory of exception. Before the Modern Movement, most of the human beings’ building works were regional or vernacular for long. Thus, this kind of regionalism is about identity politics that clarifies ‘us’ and ‘others.’ Second, the ‘new regionalism,’ namely the opinions that refer to the ‘spirit of place’ and devote to establishing the active and cultural responses towards the context. The thoughts can be found in the ‘genius loci’ mentioned by Christian Norberg-Schulz in his phenomenological study, and they also can be noticed in the ‘critical regionalism’ created by Alexander Tzonis and Liane Lefaivre in 1981, which is a theory later strengthened by Kenneth Frampton.45 Genius loci provides a theoretical apparatus for many architects to deliver their concerns about the localization of architecture. Likewise, by quoting the cases from Finland, critical regionalism provides an opinion showing the Finnish architecture in an outsider’s view.

Both of these two discourses associate with, though roughly, regionalism, and both of them have been used for interpreting the Finnish design. The common ground of them is their attention to the power of 'place,' while the difference lies in their applicable boundaries. Critical regionalism is a progressive because it provides an open access for any other culture. There are two positive meanings for each of the two categories: 1) the emancipation of identity, 2) the enrichment of discourse.

1.3.1 The emancipation of identity For the people used to be ruled by others and the cultures from the underdeveloped areas, regionalism provides a discourse that helps to construct a self-awareness. Once upon a time, the systematic deconstruction of identity occurred in the vast colonies controlled by the European colonizers. For example, Evelyn Baring, who was the first controller-general in British Egypt, put it explicitly in his speech: ‘Though we can never create a patriotism akin to that based ​ on affinity of race or community of language, we may perhaps foster some sort of cosmopolitan allegiance grounded on the respect always accorded to superior talents and unselfish conduct.’ ​ 46 In that sense, people in the British colony should be cultivated as citizens of the world rather than any nation. Likewise, colonialism also awakens nationalism, which is a modern sense, and

44 For example, cultural hybridity is a theme that extensively argued by postcolonialism theorists, such as Homi ​ Bhabha. 45 The articles includes Towards a Critical Regionalism and Ten Points on an Architecture of Regionalism: A ​ ​ ​ Provisional Polemic. ​ 46 Said quoted from the speech of Evelyn Baring, who was the British controller-general in Egypt. Said, Edward. Orientalism. New York: Vintage (1979). pp.36-37 ​ the will of constructing an identifiable culture for the place. Architecture, as the crystallization of aesthetic experience, naturally becomes the focus. Like Frantz Fanon once pointed out:

‘A national culture is not a folklore, nor an abstract populism that believes it can discover a ​ people’s true nature. It is not made up of the inert dregs of gratuitous actions, that is to say actions which are less and less attached to the ever-present reality of the people. A national culture is the whole body of efforts made by a people in the sphere of thought to describe, justify and praise the action through which the people has created itself in existence. A national culture in underdeveloped countries should therefore take its place at the very heart of the struggle for freedom which these countries are carrying on.47

According to Kirmo Mikkola’s essay Architecture in The Destiny of The Nation, the national ​ ​ awareness, as well as the particular cultural and natural heritage, are both the reasons why Finland, a country in small size, can achieve the international influence of architecture.48 Since the era of National Romanticism, Finnish architecture belongs to the endeavors of constructing a national culture. Though the substance of architecture (design, building technology, aesthetic criteria, etc.) keeps changing with time, the initial aim remains the same. At the turn of the 20th century, Finnish artists started their pilgrimages to Karelia searching for the images to confirm their eagerness for independence. Yrjö Blomstedt, Victor Sucksdorff, and Lars Sonck traveled to Russian Karelia to investigate the farm buildings. Their studies help to spread the Karelian traditions in Finnish architecture design.49 By creating a symbol that the people could recognize, National Romanticism collectively represented the will against the Russification. Though the Finnish architects themselves did not have to be defensive then, their works had been elaborated on political purposes.

For example, with the political pressure from Russia built up in the late 1890s, the Finnish Pavilion at the Exposition Universelle in 1900, Paris, was felt to be an effective way of ​ ​ expressing the country’s desire for independence, and the burning issue was about finding the new ‘Finnish style’ in architectural expression.50 With the design from Gesellius, Lindgren, and Saarinen, the Pavilion was undoubtedly able to make an architectural, as well as a political statement in an international context. Years later, Aalto gave a high opinion for this breakthrough, as he said: ‘For the first time, Finland appeared on the Continent with tangible, ​ materialized forms as a source of culture that might influence others, rather than simply being on the receiving end.’51 The regionalism here is an alternative terminology for the national culture that represented by architecture. That is to say, it is not only an architectural aspiration but also a political one.

47 Fanon, Frantz. The wretched of the earth. New York: Grove Press.(2004). p.168 ​ ​ 48 Mikkola, Kirmo.1978. Arkkitehtuuri Kansakunnan Kohtaloissa (Architecture in The Destiny of The Nation). Mukala, ​ ​ Jorma (Ed.). Arkkitehtuurilinjoja: Kirmo Mikkolan Kirjoituksia. Helsinki: Rakennustieto Oy, 2009. pp.54-65 49 Lane, Barbara Miller. The home as a work of art: Finland and Sweden. Lane, Barbara Miller(Ed.) Housing and ​ ​ Dwelling, Perspective on Modern Domestic Architecture. New York: Routledge. (2000). pp.213-215 50 Hausen, Mirika. Selected Works. Mikkola, Kirmo. Arnberg, Anna-Lisa. Valto, Tytti. Eliel Saarinen: Projects ​ ​ ​ 1896-1923. Helsinki: Otava (1990). p.84 ​ 51 Schildt, Göran. Alvar Aalto in His Own Words. Helsinki: Otava. (1997). p.244 ​ ​

As a localized Art Nouveau and a regionalist expression, National Romanticism, like the implication of its name, is a genre that exclusively belongs to Finland and accompanies the fight of its independence. Its decorative motifs gave the initial, as well as intuitive feelings of the cultural uniqueness of Finland. Importantly, the National Romanticism created a kind of difference. The difference and the negotiation of differences become crucial to the construction of identity.52 Though there was the denounce from the functionalists later, what the arguments focused on was the inability of National Romanticism for a better expression of the progressive of Finland, namely a modern state, rather than denying the national identity to which it contributed.

Because of the wide influence of modernism, the abstract aesthetic experience and spatial atmosphere displaced the image-based motifs and styles. Art becomes the tool that triggers the feeling.53 Still, the origin of the regionalism, namely the lifestyle, landscape, and the particular political statue of Finland, has not changed. For example, though Alvar Aalto is regarded as the internationalism master, the regionalist awareness still possesses his spiritual core. According to Eeva-Liisa Pelkonen, geopolitics—a word combining ‘geography’ and ‘politics,’ properly concludes the two characters of Aalto. First, Aalto’s art is an abstract expression of the geographic features of Finland. Second, Aalto is also political because of his ambition to contribute to the national culture and to shape the Finnish history.54 Furthermore, Mikkola commented on the national identity of Aalto’s work explicitly:

‘At his heart, Aalto’s work is national, even though its starting point was a purely programmatic idea of internationalism. (...) Aalto’s work combines a person and his or her cultural background. Aalto’s artistic creativity would have made him a master anyway, but it was only his regionalist approach that made him one of the key figures in modern architecture.’

Therefore, the regionalist discourse in this sense becomes deterministic notions of culture and identity. As Alexander Tzonis and Liane Lefaivre warn, regionalist thinking can easily turn to chauvinism and oppression.55 Nevertheless, for those seeking national liberation and independence in a complex geopolitical environment, the discourse of regionalism has its significance.

1.3.2 The enrichment of discourse As Alexander Tzonis and Liane Lefaivre pointed out in 1981, critical regionalism addresses the impersonal, rigid, monolithic rules in modern architecture, which was considered to destroy the humanistic qualities gained by the 19th-century architectural campaigns for freedom and

52 Dirlik, 53 Pelkonen, Eeva-Liisa. Alvar Aalto: Architecture, Modernity, and Geopolitics. New Haven: Yale University Press, ​ ​ 2009.p.26 54 Pelkonen, Eeva-Liisa. Alvar Aalto: Architecture, Modernity, and Geopolitics. New Haven: Yale University Press, ​ ​ 2009.p.26 55 Tzonis, Alexander. Lefaivre, Liane. (1981) The grid and the pathway. Tzonis, Alexander. Lefaivre, Liane. Times of ​ ​ ​ ​ Creative Destruction Shaping Buildings and Cities in the late 20th. New York:Routledge, 2017. p.126. ​ individuality.56 Alternatively, as Kenneth Frampton put it, there is ‘the victory of universal civilization over locally inflected culture.’ Since the theory was born, critical regionalism is universal because it is based on a critique of the international style. In Finland, critical regionalism is a part of postmodernist theories.57 One the one hand, critical regionalism rejects the banality and superficiality from postmodernism; on the other, it also embraces the global pluralism that postmodernism implies.58 Critical regionalism entails a positive corresponding towards the context where the architecture was supposed to locate. Critical regionalism searches the interpretation of place and emphasizes on the humanistic aspect of modern design.

Critical regionalism implies an open boundary towards other cultures. Frampton suggested using the French word arrière-garde to understand the ambivalence between universal ​ ​ civilization and the regional particularity. Arrière-garde, with the meaning of ‘stepping back,’ is ​ ​ not a retrospect of the historical past. Instead, it doubts the arbitrary of modernism utopia. For ​ ​ Frampton, arrière-garde not only entails the resistance of identity-giving culture but also reveals ​ ​ the discreet access to the universal technique.59 As Frampton mentioned, the term ‘Critical Regionalism’ is not intended to denote the vernacular as this was once spontaneously produced by the combined interaction of climate, culture, myth and craft, but rather to identify those recent regional ‘schools’ whose primary aim has been to reflect and serve the limited constituencies in which they are grounded.60 In other words, critical regionalism recalls the cultural side of modernity. Importantly, critical regionalism is against any politicization of identities, such as populism or chauvinism. The architect may be local but also may come from somewhere else. Importantly, the design responds to the place.

Likewise, genius loci, namely ‘the spirit of place,’ is mentioned by Norberg-Schulz in his seminal study Genius Loci, Towards A Phenomenology of Architecture. Even though the theory does not ​ ​ claim to be any regionalist discourse. Instead, it entails a sensibility of the psychological dimension of architecture, genius loci is also fixated on ‘place,’ namely the ‘concrete environmental characters’ that people miss.61 Norberg-Schulz suggests three basic ways that people respond to nature: 1) people visualize their ‘understanding’ of nature; 2) people supply the inadequacy of nature, 3) people symbolize their understanding of nature and ‘translate’ into

56 Tzonis, Alexander. Lefaivre, Liane. (1981) The grid and the pathway. Tzonis, Alexander. Lefaivre, Liane. Times of ​ ​ ​ Creative Destruction Shaping Buildings and Cities in the late 20th. New York:Routledge, 2017. p.126. ​ 57 Anni Vartola studied critical regionalism in her doctoral dissertation concerning postmodernism in Finnish architecture. (See: Vartola, Anni. Kuritonta Monimuotoisuutta: Postmodernismi Suomalaisessa ​ Arkkitehtuurikeskustelussa. Helsinki: Aalto-yliopiston taiteiden ja suunnittelun korkeakoulu, arkkitehtuurin laitos, ​ 2014.pp.117-120) Kaisa Broner-Bauer regarded the new historicism, semiotics and the textual interpretation of architecture, postmodernist citation architecture, deconstructionism, phenomenology, and critical regionalism were all trends of postmodern. (See:Broner-Bauer, Kaisa. Postmodernism—and then? Arkkitehti. 2.2015.pp.75-78) ​ ​ 58 Eggener, Keith. Placing Resistance: A Critique of Critical Regionalism. Journal of Architectural Education. March ​ ​ 2006. pp.229 59 Frampton, Kenneth.Towards a Critical Regionalism: Six Points for an Architecture of Resistance. Foster, Hal (Ed.) ​ ​ The Anti-Aesthetic: Essays on Postmodern Culture. Seattle: Bay Press,1983. pp.16-30 60 Frampton, Kenneth. Critical Regionalism: modern architecture and cultural identity. Frampton, Kenneth. Modern ​ ​ Architecture: A Critical History. 4th ed. London: Thames & Hudson, 2007.p.314 61 Norberg-Schulz, Christian. Genius Loci: Towards a Phenomenology of Architecture. New York: Rizzoli, 1979. p.5 ​ ​ another medium.62 According to Norberg-Schulz, these three relationships hence create a ‘microcosmos’ in a person’s mind.63 For architects, it becomes the creative archetype for design ​ ​ and can be further enriched by the constant sensibility of different places. In his interview published on Arkkitehti in 1988, Norberg-Schulz recalled his working experience in Jordan and Sudan, as he said: ‘In the desert, everything is so simply, in a way, reduced to pure essence. ​ Then coming back to the North and going to the forest, the Norwegian forest or the Finnish forest, I suddenly understand what the forest is; I felt it because I had been to desert’. This ​ opinion implies a constant sensation that genius loci advocates towards the context, regardless of where the design is located.

Finnish architects have widely discussed genius loci since its publication. Moreover, genius loci is a theoretical opinion that can support Finnish architects’ work beyond the national boundary. For example, in his project in Kuwait, Reima Pietilä was required to demonstrate a ‘new Islamic architecture’.64 Yet, Pietilä explicitly declared that he aimed at searching the genius loci for the particular project.65 By studying local history, culture, customs, nature, climate, and architecture, Pietilä attempted to give a particular identity for the design according to his interpretation of the context in general. Pietilä even learned Arabic as he felt language could orient himself in the place.66 The arcade shades the entrances and windows for avoiding the direct sunshine. Pietilä in his descriptive text built the visual connection between his design and the local vernacular characteristics. For example, the fountains with colorful tiles can be a reminiscence of the coral flowers along the coast, which were gone because of the landfill for the project. The traditional buildings in the old city of Kuwait use reed as the material to make soffits, which inspired Pietilä to use the aluminum strips for the design of the suspended ceiling. Importantly, we need to bear in mind that these image-based narratives are not literal interpretations but an epitome of the totality of the place. As Pietilä himself concluded:

‘The characteristics listed above, however, are not indispensable features of the 'genius loci', but rather conditional on it. If they can architecturally harmonize and relate to those more universal, natural denominators of Kuwait Bay—its sky, sand, and sea—then they become meaningful. It is this that I understand by genius loci in the modern sense.’67

Pietilä’s view reflects the opinion of Norberg-Schulz that a place should be treated as a total phenomenon. The design of the colorful fountain is more likely an artistic balance for the monotonous feeling of the desert in general. In an architectural sense, Pietilä treated Kuwait as if he treated Finland. The visualization of the desert displaced the abstraction of the forests and lakes. However, people in Finland understand this connection between topography and architecture occurs subconsciously. As the design is in Kuwait, Pietilä literally turned this

62 Norberg-Schulz, Christian. Genius Loci: Towards a Phenomenology of Architecture. New York: Rizzoli, 1979. p.17 ​ ​ 63 Norberg-Schulz, Christian. Genius Loci: Towards a Phenomenology of Architecture. New York: Rizzoli, 1979. p.17 ​ ​ 64 Raili and Reima Pietilä. Sief Palace area buildings, Kuwait. Arkkitehti. (1).1983 ​ ​ 65 Raili and Reima Pietilä. Sief Palace area buildings, Kuwait. Arkkitehti. (1).1983 ​ ​ 66 Kuparinen, Marja. Arkkitehtina vieraassa kulttuurissa-Raili ja Reima Pietilän kaupunki suunnittelukilpailun ehdotus ​ “City of Kuwait - a Future Concept ” Polkuja Pietilän maastoon. Rakennustaiteen seura : Taidehistorian seura 2010. ​ 67 Raili and Reima Pietilä. Sief Palace area buildings, Kuwait. Arkkitehti. (1).1983 ​ ​ connection into specific descriptions, which can intentionally deliver his concern about the particularity of the place.

1.4 The critique of regionalism On the one hand, the regionalist opinions help to form the particular identity of Finnish architecture. On the other hand, their shortcomings and limitations are also apparent. Yet we need to notice that these two kinds of regionalist discourses can hardly be distinguished in the application. In many cases, identity politics mixes the ‘spirit of place’ and hence the meaning of regionalism becomes hybridity. The critical regionalism, which entails the pluralism and contextualism that can be applied globally, is so often bound with the imagination of place. Since the publication of critical regionalism, the concept has been misinterpreted in many circumstances. The crucial part has been neglected frequently while addressing the regional part. That is to say, Finnish design’s respect to context contributes to entire functionalism rather than merely a vernacular feature. The sensibility about space, structure, and material in Finnish architecture contributes to the whole modernism rather than any regionalist thinking.

One of the intuitive outcomes that resulted from the hybridity between identity politics and place-based thinking is the hasty generalization. The regionalist discussions are often based on a system of ‘star-architects’ who are like national representatives, such as Luis Barragán for Mexico, Oscar Niemeyer for Brazil, and Alvar Aalto for Finland.68 Aalto is so great that he becomes the symbol of Finland. This rough understanding cannot help to elaborate on the complicated connections between the architect and the overall architectural opinion of the country. The variety of architectural thinking in the majority is under the shadow of a single man. The criticism from the young Finnish architects in the 1950s and 60s about the ‘elitist Baroque’ in Aalto’s works was not only an iconoclasm, but an aspiration of more general and abstract modernism, just like Aalto himself criticized the Finnish National Romanticism in his early years.

The national identity is a process that continually being constructed. As an architect becomes renowned, his or her works would be naturally treated as a part of the national statements, especially for the countries which are not in the ‘cultural center’ in the world. However, the question is, why this idolization of architects constantly occur? It seems regionalism always coincides with the countries which need to defend their traditional cultures. A regional stereotype that roots in the methods of knowing the world, on which an oversimplified architectural opinion establishes. That is to say, the regionalist concept per se represents a type of bias, which can attribute to the inequality in geopolitical power around the world. As Walter Mignolo mentioned:

‘Once upon a time scholars assumed that if you ‘come’ from Latin America you have to ‘talk about’ Latin America; that in such a case you have to be a token of your culture. Such expectation will not arise if the author ‘comes’ from Germany, France, England or the US. In

68 Eggener, Keith. Placing Resistance: A Critique of Critical Regionalism. Journal of Architectural Education. March ​ ​ ​ 2006. pp.228-237 such cases it is not assumed that have to be talking about your culture but can function as a theoretically minded person. As we know: the first world has knowledge, the third world has culture; Native Americans have widom, Anglo Americans have science.’69

The discursive convention implies a Eurocentric opinion. According to Mignolo, this bias is because the modernity of peripheral countries is the ‘heterogeneity’ of major countries in the Western World, such as France, England, Germany, and the United States.70 The modernity in Finland also comes from the outside. It is based on the historical fact that Finland is the receiving end of the culture from other places for long. The colonialist European countries spread their political institutions, social values, and language worldwide. Finland, with several other Scandinavian countries, still does not belong to the center due to its geopolitical status. Regionalism itself is a term of extoic modernism in the countries that have a belated modernization. In his foresight, Aalto explicitly commented on the issue of ‘individual theory’ as early as 1922:

‘We derive strength from an understanding of our past, for now we can no longer be seduced by some local European style or individual theory (Morris or Van de Velde). By our own choice, we can now steer for more open waters. Seeing how people were able to be international and unprejudiced in times past, and yet remain true to themselves, we may accept impulses from the old Italy, from Spain and from the new America with open eyes. Our forefathers are still our masters.’71

For architects, the debate around ‘national-international’ eventually points at the principles of creating architecture. In Aalto’s view, the core of architectural spirit can be national. But the openness to other cultures helps to develop the design. So, Finnish architecture can not be obsessed with the theory about any fixed type.

Likewise, people also noticed that a single correct regional style was implied or imposed from inside and more often from outside the region.72 As Aalto himself mentioned: ‘architecture is, of ​ course, tied to a locale in the sense that it is always fixed to the ground, and is not merely national but local in a special sense, though it can get an international response from what is happening in the world through its forms.’73 In fact, a multiculturalist approach can be distinctly ​ found in Aalto’s works, for example, the semiotic hint of ancient Roman in the amphitheater of the Otaniemi and the prototype of Greek agora in the design of the University of Jyväskylä campus. In Aalto’s works, the motifs he borrowed from other cultures have lost their original

69 Mignolo, Walter. Epistemic Disobedience, Independent Thought and Decolonial Freedom. Theory, Culture & ​ ​ Society. Vol. 26(7–8). 2009. pp.159–181 70 Mignolo, Walter. Epistemic Disobedience, Independent Thought and Decolonial Freedom. Theory, Culture & ​ ​ ​ Society. Vol. 26(7–8). 2009. pp.159–181 71 Aalto, Alvar. Motifs from past ages. Arkkitehti. 2. 1922. The English translation can be found in: Schildt, Göran. ​ ​ Alvar Aalto in His Own Words. Helsinki:Otava.(1997). p.35 ​ 72 Eggener, Keith. Placing Resistance: A Critique of Critical Regionalism. Journal of Architectural Education. March ​ ​ 2006. pp.228-237 73 Aalto,Alvar. National and International. Arkkitehti. 1967 ​ ​ meaning and intactness and become his recreations.74 Meanwhile, the cultural root of Finnishness functioned as a ‘deep structure’ as the soul of the design.75

Additionally, the international practice of regionalist architects has questioned the feasibility of the simple place-based thinking. Aalto had a large number of projects in Europe and the United States. Another Scandinavian architect, Jørn Utzon, won his ionic opera in Sydney via international competition. Needless to mention, Heikki Siren’s Baghdad Conference Palace and Reima Pietilä’s building cluster around the Seif Palace in Kuwait actively responded to the local climate and cultural context. Besides, the design team of the architectural office was also internationalized since the era of Aalto. Nowadays, several architectural companies from Nordic countries have grown as the transnational corporations which have branch offices around the world. The Scandinavian architects are definitely not bound to the Scandinavian region. If the conscious and social relations that generate the architecture might come from anywhere in the world, the discussion around the particularity of a place cannot be bound within the place itself.

In addition, as an architectural discourse, regionalism thinking also possibly obscures the problematic aspect and turns itself into a place-based theory. The deficiency and the regional feature can be the two sides of a coin. For example, Sverre Fehn once had been asked his concerns about the architectural discussion in Norway, as he said:

‘The Asplund tradition or the Scandinavian tradition has ended in over-emphasized detailing. I mean that if you look at the building, there is really nothing to criticise, there is a rail that is beautifully done, there is a stair that is very well done, the detail of a window is beautiful and so on. But if you put all these details together the result does not tell a particular story: that’s the end of the Asplund tradition. In Asplund’s architecture detailing was a small part of the whole story, and if you think of great architects, like Louis Kahn for example, their achievements were architecture almost without detailing.’76

For Fehn, the handcraft tradition or the wish of tectonic fineness, which exactly belong to the features of Scandinavian architecture, also possibly blur the real creativity. In sum, simply regarding regionalist idea as exotic modernism is unhelpful for generating a comprehensive view and critical thinking. The byproduct of regionalism here is to weaken the capacity of self-correction rather than being utilized as a political purpose. As the discourse of regionalism, focusing on the arguments of difference, it would inevitably make the region become more local, and the international becomes more general, which would eventually limit the communication

74 Pallasmaa, Juhani. Tradition and Modernity: The Feasibility of Regional Architecture in Post-Modern Society. The ​ ​ Architectural Review. May 1988. Pp.26-34. The article also can be found in the book: Vincent B. Canizaro.(Ed.) Architectural Regionalism, Collected Writings on Place, Identity, Modernity, and Tradition. New York: Princeton ​ Architectural Press.(2007). p.134 75 Deep structure is the linguistic concept from Noam Chomsky. Roger Connah also used ‘deep structure’ to elaborate the influence of Finnish cultural context for Finnish architectural design. 76 Fehn, Sverre. About Rationalism of Spiritual Content, Interview with Sverre Fehn by Marja-Riitta Norri. Arkkitehti. ​ ​ 4.1986. pp.83-84 between different cultures and societies. The close-ended regionalist narratives would lead to an unstoppable self-strengthening.

1.4.2 Reconsidering regionalism In all, because of the various worldwide connections, these social connections cannot be bounded with a defined geographical area, e.g., a nation. The social interrelations that extended beyond the region also can be a part of the regional consciousness. As Massey said: ‘such a ​ view of place challenges any possibility of claims to internal histories or to timeless identities. The identities of places are always unfixed, contested, and multiple’.77 It is no longer sufficient to ​ measure these architectural discourses of the international projects merely with a perspective of the regional features.

A regionalist opinion for Finnish architecture is praise but also prejudice, and it may partially emphasize the romantic aspects and marginalize its internationalism tradition. The regionalist discourses limit the applicable boundary for Finnish modernism. These theories cannot comprehend the ambivalence of modern Finnish architecture, which can hardly be utilized by Finland for developing its own critique. For Finnish architects, there is a sequence of political ‘right’ and ‘left’ that coexisted in their philosophies. The ‘right’ is because of the patriotism and the belief in contributing to the national culture. And the ‘left’ is because of the pluralism in the practical design and the respect of other cultures. In a way, the Finnish architecture that is designed for an international soil is a disobedience for the epistemic convention.

The regionalist discourse partially interprets the region as a subordinate of global. In other words, the contextualization from the Finnish design tradition, namely the spirit that cultivating architecture in local soil, can only be examined in an international context. Studying Finnish architecture in a global context helps to extend the existing discourse.

Once the building was transferred to the actual users’ hands, the architectural condition, in the long run, would be unpredictable. For example, though Pietilä had explicitly declaimed that his works in Kuwait did not aim at exporting any ‘Finnish image.’78 During the past 30 years, Pietilä’s design had been gradually modified to a more ‘Islamic’ style. Many features in their original design have been erased.79 Indeed, the Pietiläs architectural metaphors were inspired by local folk art, historic buildings, and the old town context. In contrast, the status of the governmental buildings searched for a more ‘typical’ rhetoric of Islamic motifs. The respect of the original design, the political implication, the increase of the orthodox religious atmosphere in the region, and the system of building maintenance, all these aspects made the architecture in a foreign context extremely demanding. The architectural catastrophe proves the complexity of

77 Massey, Doreen. Space, Place, and Gender. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press,1994. p.5 ​ ​ 78 Pietilä, Reima. Functionalism in the Future. Arkkitehti. (4).1981. ​ ​ 79 The current situation of the Sief Palace Area Buildings was investigated by Thorsten Botz-Bornstein. See his article, Reima Pietilä’s Kuwait Buildings Revisited: About the Limits of Transcultural Architecture, from his book, ​ ​ Transcultural Architecture: Limits and Opportunities of Critical Regionalism. (Routledge, 2016, New York) ​ regional awareness and the difficulty of transnational architecture as a medium of cross-cultural communication.

1.5 Finnish architecture and globalization The globalization for Finnish architecture is an opportunity but also threaten. On the one hand, the Finnish public opinion has an expectancy that Finnish architectural companies could 'export' more design to the global and eventually become a sustainable pattern. The opinion of exporting architecture is based on a consensus of the high quality of Finnish architecture both in its design or construction. Moreover, it is also because modern Finnish architecture has a glorified history with a spectrum of influential architects. Thus, the expectancy aims at increasing the exchange value of design and making an industrial strategy of expansion. The public opinion in Finland looks for the clarity of Finnishness from Finnish architecture, especially for the projects abroad, which aims at the export of social value.

Furthermore, an architect's expertise, especially for complicated buildings such as airports, theaters, high-rise towers, can only be passed by the practical projects to the younger generation. The cultivation of an architect who is capable in various practical projects still follows a traditional apprenticeship. This know-how and the ability of management and coordination ensure the exclusive advantages of competition in the market. The set of knowledge and experience is accumulated during the construction wave of the era of the economic boom. However, for many societies, the period of fast development is not durable. Architectural offices need to utilize the countercyclical tendency in the world economy to export architecture for maintaining competitiveness in the market. To some extent, the transnational project is crucial for a country that has a small society but a strong reputation for its domestic architectural design.

Compared with other Nordic countries, especially Denmark, the volume of architecture exports in Finland is modest in recent decades. Like Kristo Vesikansa explained, the Finnish architectural offices are restricted by their small size and lack of marketing expertise.80 The American architectural theorist Henry-Russell Hitchcock once classified the architectural offices into two categories in 1947: the architecture of bureaucracy and the architecture of genius.81 According to his opinion, most of the Finnish architectural offices belong to the type of genius, which means they are the studios in smaller sizes but emphasize the originality of design and building quality. This majority that oriented by the intellectual architects echo Aalto’s opinion, namely the intuitive architectural creativity should be in the leading position.82

80 Vesikansa, Kristo. Finland exports architecture. The building of Finland. Hautajärvi Harri (Ed.). (2017). Helsinki: ​ ​ Rakennustieto Oy. p.347 81 Hitchcock, Henry-Russell. The Architecture of Bureaucracy and the Architecture of Genius. Architectural Review. ​ ​ 1.1947. 4. 82 This opinion of Alvar Aalto can be found in his article, The Trout and The Stream published on the Italian journal Domus in 1947 and Arkkitehti in 1948. In this article, Aalto talked about how he responded to the various demands and problems in architectural design. As he said: ‘This is what I do—sometimes quite instinctively—in such cases. I ​ forget the whole maze of problems for a while, as soon as the feel of the assignment and the innumerable demands it involves have sunk into my subconscious. I then move on to a method of working that is very much like abstract art. I simply draw by instinct.’ See: Schildt, Göran. Alvar Aalto in His Own Words. Helsinki: Otava. (1997). pp.107-109 ​ ​ ​

Occasionally winning international competitions is still the main channel that many Finnish architects get projects abroad. Additionally, the lack of global participation for Finnish architectural offices can be attributed to several other reasons: first, there is the ideological thinking of left-wing in Finland, which holds a suspicious view towards the commercial complex and high-rise. While international competition per se is an event that invites foreign architects to produce ‘positional good.’ The issues of high-density urban areas that occur in many megacities in the world, e.g., congestion and urban complex, are far away from Finnish cities. As Elissa Aalto commented in the 1990s, Finnish architectural was still young in the field of urban development.83

A regionalist discourse has its limitations. The architecture in Finland has been used for constructing a national image that represents a modern Nordic society of democracy and well-being, as well as the Finnish landscape. The image has strengthened the particularity of Finland and the image itself is very positive, clean, and peaceful. But it would be inadequate to elaborate on the meaning of Finnishness in a global context. In other words, a picturesque architectural discourse is ‘speechless’ for international projects, especially for the buildings in the places significantly different from Finland or Europe. Even though the origin of the design indeed connects with the archetype of the landscape in Finland, the question remains: how to build the connection with local context?

Within the regionalist picturesque, the dogma of contextualization per se can be an obstacle for the Finnish domestic audience to understanding the Finnish architecture abroad. Exporting architecture entails architects need to step into foreign contexts. As the Finnish architects would carefully study the local characters and embed the design into the local culture, e.g., landscape, climate, or cultural metaphor, the architectural appearance can be in many ways different from the architecture in Finland. Due to the significant discrepancy between the international practice and the domestic buildings in scale, semiotic motif, and topography, it is difficult to observe the interconnections between the two categories. How may the Finnish architectural realm understand a Finnish design produced by the desert or the dense of Asian metropolitans? Is this understanding still can be built upon a picturesque of lakes and forests?

The question for the architectural discourse in Finland is how to reconcile the contradiction between the construction of the national image and the expectancy of international practice in the era of globalization. In other words, it is also a contradiction between the convergence and the expansion of the cultural orientation for Finland. And yet, merely considering the reasons in Finland is not sufficient. The practicing of transnational architecture inevitably needs to face the local resistance, i.e., the counter-power of globalization, which significantly increases the difficulty of realizing architecture abroad. A transnational architecture often becomes a mixture of the design philosophy where the architect is from and the resistant power where the project is

83 Aalto, Elissa. On Preserving National Originality. (Kansallisen omaperäisyyden säilyttämisestä) Arkkitehti.2.1993. ​ ​ ​ p.22 located. In the latter part of the study, I will examine the Finnish architecture abroad and the practice in China, which provides a different circumstance for examining the Finnish architecture and its discourse. As such, this transnational architecture also reveals the possibility of expanding the existing opinions.

The international practice of Finnish architects provides opportunities for rethinking Finnishness beyond nationalistic anxiety. In the existing knowledge bank about Finnish architecture, such as materialism, humanity, sensibility, and functionality have been extensively discussed. However, the study about the contextualization and the communication with other cultures is inadequate. The capacity of Finnish architecture changing itself for adapting various contexts can be examined in the international cases. In addition, Finnishness is not a stationary concept. With the developments of international architectural discourse, the progress of architectural technologies, and the increase of urban life in Finnish cities and the worldwide practice of Finnish architects, the meaning of Finnishness can be constantly enriched.

Chapter 3: From importer to exporter—a brief review of the Finnish architecture abroad ​ ​ In history, Finland once acted as a follower of foreign trends in architectural design. In the early 19th century, German architect Carl Ludvig Engel made the city planning for Helsinki and many other important buildings for the Grand Duchy of Finland. Finland was strongly influenced by Sweden in the scholarly realm. Almost all architects practicing in Finland trained in Stockholm until 1873.84 At the end of the 19th century, Scandinavians were rather open to influence from outside, primarily from Britain, Germany, Austria, and the United States, and Finland’s architects were possibly even more receptive to foreign influences than Scandinavians in general.85 During the period of Art Nouveau, the Finnish National Romanticism was considered to be a fusion of foreign art nouveau and older Finnish romantic ideas.86 Meanwhile, the Finnish architects had apprenticeship following the foreign architects. Sigurd Frosterus used to be an assistant of Henry van de Velde in Weima and Gustaf Strengell worked in the office of Charles Harrison Townsend in London.87 However, within one century, Finland was able to develop from an agrarian society to a modern industrialized state. Finland hence changed from a receiver of aesthetic styles or trends from its neighbors, i.e. Sweden and Russia, or those larger European countries to an exporter of architectural design with a distinctive identity.

According to Kirmo Mikkola, there were three times in history that Finnish architecture risen to an impressive international standard: 1) the National Romanticism in the turn of the 20th

84 Ashby, Charlotte. Words and deeds: national style versus modernity in Finnish architecture 1890-1916 : the writings and work of Vilho Penttilä and the architecture of financial institutions. Doctoral dissertation at the University of St Andrews. 2007. p.31 http://hdl.handle.net/10023/318 ​ 85 Hausen, Mirika. The architecture of Eliel Saarinen. Mikkola, Kirmo. Arnberg, Anna-Lisa. Valto, Tytti. Eliel Saarinen: ​ ​ ​ ​ Projects 1896-1923. Helsinki: Otava (1990). p.10 ​ 86 Wäre, Ritva. Changing Interpretations of Art Nouveau Architecture in Finland in the First Years of the 20th Century. ​ ​ ​ Art Nouveau & Ecology: International symposium: Perception of Art Nouveau. Bruxelles. 05.10.2010 87 Wäre, Ritva. From Historicist Architecture to Early Modernism. Norri, Marja-Riitta, Standertskjöld Elina, & Wang, ​ ​ Wilfried (Ed.).(2000). 20th-Century Architecture: Finland. Museum of Finnish Architecture, Helsinki. p.19. century; 2) the functionalism around the 1920s; 3) the reformed functionalism in the 1950s.88 These highlighted moments of Finnish architecture did not only refer to the domestic projects but also the buildings outside of Finland. The study aims to trace the journey of the Finnish architects’ international practices before they arrived in China. Before entering the Chinese market, the architectural export in Finland can be roughly divided into four stages: 1) the National Romantic era, 2) the Finnish Internationalism architecture abroad, 3) the searching of localization in the oil-producing countries, 4) a diversified phase since the 1990s. The study does not aim at listing all the buildings that exported. The internationalization of architecture design implies the presentation of culture value rather than the export of the service industry. Therefore, by a chronological catalog of selected projects, the study attempted to examine not only the achievements but also the difficulties among the projects, with which the Finnish architects might also encounter in China.

3.1.1The breakthrough of the National Romanticism in the early 20th century Though still part of Czarist Russia, Finland had its own pavilion of the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1889; the architect was Theodor Höijer.89 The earliest architectural export of Finland can be traced to the beginning of the 20th century, while Finland was still searching for visualizing its own cultural identity. With a series of successes in international competitions, Eliel Saarinen established his name in the first decade in the 20th century. Since the success of the Finnish Pavilion in Paris in 1900, the first project from a foreign client for Gesellius, Lindgren, and Saarinen was regarded as the Haus Remer in Alt-Ruppin, a small town near Berlin. The villa was designed by Gesellius and Saarinen, commissioned by the German poet Paul Remer in 1905.90 Unfortunately, the Haus Remer no longer exists because of the damage during the Second World War.91

At that time, Finnish architects had an intimate connection with Estonia. In the second decade of the 20th century, when Eliel Saarinen was in his most productive period, he designed at least two buildings in Estonia, the building for Estonian Credit Bank(1912) in Tallinn and St Paul’s Church(1917) in Tartu. In 1912, Saarinen won the urban planning competition for Tallinn. Among his other international competition entries in that same year, for Budapest and Canberra, Sarrinen established himself as a planner with international note.92 In a way, Sarrinen kept following the international trends. Instead of the romantic ornaments in his earlier works, his proposal for the competition of Chicago Tribune (1922) was a more neutral style. Even though his design did not realize, it produced significantly influence on the design of skyscrapers in the United States.

88 Mikkola, Kirmo. Architecture in the history of the nation(Arkkitehtuuri kansakunnan kohtaloissa). ​ ​ Arkkitehti.(5-6).1978. p.50 89 Hausen, Mirika. Selected Works. Hausen, Mirika. Mikkola, Kirmo. Arnberg, Anna-Lisa. Valto, Tytti. Eliel Saarinen: ​ ​ ​ ​ Projects 1896-1923. Helsinki: Otava, 1990.p.84 ​ 90 Hausen, Mirika. Selected Works. Hausen, Mirika. Mikkola, Kirmo. Arnberg, Anna-Lisa. Valto, Tytti. Eliel Saarinen: ​ ​ ​ Projects 1896-1923. Helsinki: Otava, 1990.p.138 Vesikansa, Kristo. Finland exports architecture. Hautajärvi Harri ​ (Ed.). (2017). The building of Finland. Helsinki: Rakennustieto Oy. p.337 91 Hausen, Mirika. Selected Works. Hausen, Mirika. Mikkola, Kirmo. Arnberg, Anna-Lisa. Valto, Tytti. Eliel Saarinen: ​ ​ ​ ​ Projects 1896-1923. Helsinki: Otava, 1990.p.138 ​ 92 Treib, Marc. Eliel Saarinen as urbanist: the tower and the square. Arkkitehti. 3.1985. p.92 ​ ​

Saarinen’s works, including his eventual emigration to America, reflected a sequence of stylistic genres in his time. Eliel Saarinen and his contemporaries developed the style of Art Nouveau according to the context in Finland and created an identity for Finnish architecture. In a way, the national identity was conveyed by the ornaments rather than holistic architecture. As Sigurd Frosterus commented in 1904: ‘We do not live on hunting and fishing anymore, as in the old ​ days, and decorative plants and bears—to say nothing of other animals— are hardly representative symbols of the age of steam and electricity.’93 The National Romanticism was ​ criticized due to its missing of the progressive signs. The symbolic meaning of the Finnish art nouveau responds to a strong will of building a national style.

However, the semiotic decorations were no longer identifiable for the designs abroad. At that time, Art Nouveau, as an art style, influenced numerous European countries and promoted the movement of independence by constructing national styles. For the projects in Estonia, what Finland exported was not only a service of architectural design but the self-awareness of creating the national identity. Still, establishing a national style abroad would naturally be a question of acceptance in the country where the building was supposed to be built. By manipulating the decorative motifs, the architectural style could be changed from a ‘Finnish Art Nouveau’ to a neutral neoclassical style for the practice abroad. For example, among the buildings designed by Armas Lindgren and Wivi Lönnthe in Estonia, the Sakala Student Nation House in Tartu had the look of a Central-European urban bourgeoisie villa.94 The Estonia Theatre(completed in 1913) was eventually derived as a more prestigious looking compared with the competition entry.95 Back then, the Finnish buildings abroad could hardly distinguish themselves from others. With the introduction of modernism architecture, Finland was at the brink of establishing a real independent architectural identity.

3.1.2 The era of internationalism (1940s-1960s) The internationalism or the International Style entails the architect utilizes the same method approaching the design for various contexts. There were two kinds of internationalism: ‘hard’ and ‘soft’. The first internationalism appears to be instrumental rationality while the personal preference is rather vague. The second internationalism is supplied with a regional feature and individual style on its rational nature. With the establishment of modernism in Finland, both these two kinds of internationalism featured the era of Finnish architecture exporting from the 1940s to the 1960s. The representative figures of internationalism are Alvar Aalto and Viljo Revell.

93 Frosterus, Sigurd. Architecture: a Challenge. Sigurd Frosterus’ original article, Architecture: a challence to our ​ ​ ​ opponents by Gustaf Strengell and Sigurd Frosterus (Arkitektur en stridskrift våra motståndare tillägnad af Gustaf Strengell och Sigurd Frosterus) was published on the newspapers Hufvudstadsbladet and Helsingfors-Posten in ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ 1904. The article was compiled in the book: 20th-century Architecture: Finland. (Ed.) Norri, Marja-Riitta. ​ ​ Standertskjöld, Elina. Wang, Wilfried. Helsinki: Museum of Finnish Architecture, Frankfurt am Main: Deutsches Architektur-Museum. (2000). p.125 94 Nurmi, Tarja. Sakala Student Nation House. https://navi.finnisharchitecture.fi/sakala-student-nation-house/ ​ 95 Nikula, Riitta. Armas Lindgren 1874-1929 Arkkitehti Architect. Helsinki: Museum of Finnish Architecture.(1988) p.75 ​ ​ About 1930, Alvar Aalto’s name began to be known outside Finland.96 As Aalto eventually became a worldwide modernism giant, Finland’s reputation as a country noted for architecture is principally founded on his accomplishments.97 The influence of Le Corbusier can be found in his early works such as Turun Sanomat, Paimio Sanatorium, and Vyborg Library. Based on the internationalist nature, Aalto developed a repertoire of personal motifs and he constantly used this repertoire in all places. Aalto’s impact brought him numerous projects abroad in the next few decades. Most of Aalto’s international projects were concentrated in Europe, including Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, and Iceland. Besides, America is the place where Aalto had numerous trips and spent a long time teaching as a visiting professorship at MIT. In the United States, Aalto had two important buildings and several interior projects.

Aalto designed the Villa Tammekann in 1932, for the family of August Tammekann, the then professor of geography at the University of Tartu, Estonia.98 However, the building did not accurately construct as Aalto’s design, and it was never completed. The Finnish Pavilion at the 1937 World’s Fair in Paris was arguably the first fully completed overseas building of Aalto.99 Two years later, Aalto again succeeded in designing the Finnish Pavilion at the World’s Fair in New York. In the autumn of 1946, he was commissioned by William Wurster, the dean of the architectural department at MIT, to design the senior student housing, which was later named Baker House. While Walter Gropius was rebuilding a tradition of Bauhaus at Harvard, Aalto was one of the key figures that helped to construct a perspective of humanistic architecture at MIT.100 As a part of maintaining this academic approach, Eero Saarinen, the son of Eliel Saarinen, was also invited to design the chapel at MIT years later.

Aalto’s international practice can be roughly divided into two phases by the Second World War. Many of Aalto’s works outside of Finland happened in his later years. In 1958, Aalto won the competition of the North Jutland Art Museum in Aalborg (now Kunsten Museum of Modern Art Aalborg). With the rapid economic growth and reconstruction in Germany after the Second World War, Aalto received several projects: Wolfsburg Church and Parish Centre(1962), Detmerode Church and Parish Centre(1968), and the housing high-rise in Bremen(1962). Another Aalto’s housing block in Switzerland, Schönbühl Apartment House and Commercial Centre, completed in 1967. In 1962, the Nordic Council decided to site a building in Iceland for accommodating numerous cultural activities and serving as a symbol of the partnership of the Nordic countries. The project, Nordic House, was directly commissioned to Aalto and completed in 1968 in Reykjavik, Iceland.101 The building was a collection of Aalto’s motifs, the tilted roof with organic forms also could be found in the Seinäjoki Library and Finlandia Hall. In 1964, Aalto

96 Giedion, Sigfried. Space, Time and Architecture-The Growth of a New Tradition. Harvard University ​ ​ Press(1959).p.566. 97 Mukala, Jorma. Architecture from the Edge of Europe or Finnish Situation. World Architecture. 03.2012 ​ ​ ​ 98 Tapani Mustonen and Juha Livanainen. Villa Tammekann. Arkkitehti.(6).2000. ​ ​ 99 Malcolm Quantrill. Alvar Aalto: a Critical Study. Helsinki:Otava, 1983. p.83 100 Fenske, Gail. Aalto, Wurster, and the “New Humanism”. Aalto and America. Stanford Anderson, Gail Fenske, and ​ ​ ​ David Fixler. (Ed.) New Haven: Yale University Press.(2012). p.113 101 Magnus Seelow, Atli. Nordic Nexus. A little-known gem in Iceland by Alvar Aalto. Uncube Magazine. 26.12.2015. http://www.uncubemagazine.com/blog/16446355 replied to Father Barnabas Reasoner, agreed to design the Mount Angel Abbey Library in his request, in Marion County, where close to Portland, Oregon, the United States. After receiving the full set information of the site, the design work started in 1965 and fully completed in 1970. By the fan-shape, Aalto’s design was once again regarded as a precise interaction with the surroundings.102 In the United States, Aalto’s design was considered to be another approach towards modernism by his organic form, warm materials and humanistic concern, which challenged the accepted image of an isolated and austere modern avant-garde.103

Though Aalto had a giant international reputation, his projects abroad could also be stagnated journeys. In 1965, while an exhibition of Alvar Aalto held at the Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, the archbishop of Bologna, Cardinal Lercaro, invited Aalto to design a Church and parish center for the village of Riola near Bologna. The working drawings were completed between 1966 and 1967. However, after a long halt until 1975, the construction company was finally chosen. Without the pews that Aalto designed and the bell tower, the church was consecrated in June 1978.104 The Essen Opera House was a project last for almost 30 years. In 1959, the competition was held, and Aalto’s design was the winning entry. Still, the opera in Germany eventually was accomplished in 1988.

In his old age, Aalto said, ‘We imported our art - a reredos from Lubeck or a tombstone from ​ Stockholm could be something exceptionally significant in our meager circumstances. That was the period of foreign loans in Finnish culture. We have gone beyond that stage now. I certainly think of myself as an exporter.’105

After the Second World War, there was a reemergence of sheer rationality in Finnish architecture. The most remarkable project outside of Finland was the Toronto City Hall designed by Viljo Revell. An architecture carried out by Finnish architect eventually became the national symbol of Canada, a realized case in the architectural battlefield on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.106 In 1958, Revell won the competition and moved to Canada with his family; though he still kept working on the projects in Finland. The building was completed six years later. But Revell passed away before the building was completed. The city hall comprises two slim towers that curved on their footprints, surrounding the low, circular auditorium in the middle. Revell worked for a short while in Alvar Aalto's office at the outset of his career and founded his own office in 1936.107 He also got the opportunity of designing the sauna building for the Johnson Wax in Wisconsin in the United States in 1959. The structurally creative high-rise design, namely the Peugeot Tower that Revell made for Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1962, was not selected as the final winner.108

102 Spens, Michael. Mount Angel Abbey Library and the Path from Viipuri. Stanford Anderson, Gail Fenske, and David ​ ​ Fixler(Ed.). Aalto and America. New Haven: Yale University Press.(2012). p.294 ​ ​ 103 Fenske, Gail. Aalto, Wurster, and the “New Humanism”. Stanford Anderson, Gail Fenske, and David Fixler. (Ed.). ​ ​ Aalto and America. New Haven: Yale University Press.(2012). p.113 ​ 104 Aalto, Elissa. Arkkitehti. (1).1979. p.28 105 Göran Schildt’s TV interview with Aalto in 1972. Alvar Aalto in His Own Words. (1997). p.275 ​ ​ 106 The Summary of Viljo Revell. Arkkitehti. 5-6,1966. p.1 107 Mikkonen, Tuija. Master of urban order. Arkkitehti.2.2005 ​ ​ 108 Nousjoki, Antti. Revell without Revell. Arkkitehti. 6,2010. pp.11-16

Revell's architecture echoes the prevailing rationalism during the postwar era in Finland. And his works were considered to be rational, functional, and urbanistic, in other words, a typical International Style. Revell also adapted a collaborative method of working for designing the complicated public projects. In that sense, internationalism that is able to minimize personal styles is also feasible platform for teamwork. As the issue of Arkkitehti in 1966 that devoted to Revell mentioned in the summary: ‘ Revell, by his nature, was urban; his best solutions are ​ large, and in their architecture dominate the town. They do not conceal themselves in forest, or melt into a landscape, or steal along a beach; they are buildings which appear to turn their backs on nature. They are strangers to nature.’109 With an interest of urbanistic intention and ​ large scale, his works emphasized the economic efficiency, urban density, and architectural monumentality.

3.1.3 A wave of construction in the oil producing countries (1960s-1980s) Along with the economic prosperity of the oil-producing countries in the Middle East and North Africa, a significant need for architectural design occurred in these regions. The architectural offices from Europe, America, and Japan participated in the wave of construction. The Finnish architectural institutes and construction companies were not an exception. They acquired a series of projects, including public buildings and urban planning. For example, the Finnish joint venture company in the architectural and planning field, Devecon, made the design for a new town of Ras Lanuf in Libya and the campus of Sétif University in Algeria. A large number of Finnish construction workers travel to work in these countries, and the campus for accommodating with complete living facilities was also built there. During this same period, the Finnish intellectual architects, including Reima and Raili Pietilä, Heikki and Kaija Siren, and Timo Penttilä, obtain a series of large projects from the Middle East, mainly through participating in competitions.

Impressed with the design of Dipoli, the Pietiläs were invited by the Planning Board of Kuwait City to participate in the Old Town Planning Competition in 1969.110 The competition did not produce any final winner. Instead, since 1973 the Pietiläs were asked to design the buildings around the Seif Palace in Kuwait, including the Governmental Offices of HH the Emir, the Council of Ministers, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.111 The project was accomplished in 1983. A similar principle can be found in the master plan that Pietilä made for Deira Corniche in Dubai in 1974, the distance of the buildings were maintained like the original Arabian coastal cities, where the architectural density and scale could fight against the climate.112

In 1962, Heikki Siren won the competition of the Concert Hall in Linz, Austria. The construction started in 1969, and the concert hall officially opened in March 1974.113 As a rational reaction to

109 The Summary of Viljo Revell. Arkkitehti. 5-6,1966. p.1 110 Kuparinen, Marja. Arkkitehtina vieraassa kulttuurissa-Raili ja Reima Pietilän kaupunki suunnittelukilpailun ehdotus “City of Kuwait - a Future Concept ” Polkuja Pietilän maastoon. Rakennustaiteen seura : Taidehistorian seura 2010. 111 Pietilä, Reima. Pietilä, Raili Sief Palace area buildings, Kuwait. Arkkitehti. (1).1983 ​ ​ 112 Arkkitehti. 1.1983. 113 Arkkitehti. 4.1974. the site, the buildings had a concentrated fan-shaped form with a curved glass facade towards the Danube.114 A large area of wood in the auditoriums gave the space a Scandinavian identity. Impressed by the Linz Concert Hall, in the spring of 1978, the officer from the Ministry of Planning in Iraq invited Kaija and Heikki Siren to participate in the competition for the Baghdad Conference Palace.115 Eventually, the Sirens won the project. Even interrupted by the war between Iraq and Iran, the giant project was still able to be accomplished in a tight schedule of 4 years.116 With the consideration of the local climate, the glass facade was recessed in the concrete ribs and shaded by the horizontal concrete slabs. In the desert climate, this building revealed a solidity and closure in contrast to the conventional transparency in Finnish modernist architecture.

Because of the political turmoil and the crash of the oil price, the Finnish construction companies retreated from the Middle East and North Africa at the end of the 1980s. The wave of architectural export also basically stopped. However, there were occasional projects. In 1992, as the sub-consultant of Devecon’s planning and infrastructure project in Libya, architects Daniel Bruun and Jussi Murole received a commission to design the Al Jufrah Administration Centre and Congress Hall in the city of Hun.117 The project was completed in 2002. Again, this case demonstrated how architects manipulated architectural forms and materials according to a different climate. As the architects said, ‘Architectural style is not essential to us; buildings are ​ always part of the environment. The city and the buildings in the desert of Sahara or a small villa in the Finnish archipelago look different, but they share common design philosophies.’118 ​

As the desert climate and landscape were dramatically different from Scandinavia, these buildings designed by Finnish architects for the Middle East provided another perspective for examining Finnish architectural value. The projects demonstrated that the Finnish architecture was not merely a composition of materials, tectonic fineness, or functional minimalism, but had an activated attitude responding to the place and an aim of searching for its character. Finnish architecture revealed a dialectical relation between the two opposing gestures, which could be both seduced by the light and resist the light. The sensitivity of light and shadow could be sensed in both cases.

114 Kaija & Heikki Siren: Architects. Helsinki: Otava. (1977) 115 The Baghdad Conference Palace has been documented as an article, Conference Palace for Saddam, in the book, Builders around the world: decades of export construction (Rakentajat maailmalla : vientirakentamisen vuosikymmenet). The book were in Finnish and the authors were Mikko Laakso and Seppo Tamminen. Though the book mainly traced the process of the Baghdad Conference Palace in a perspective of Finnish construction company, the article still brief described the background of the project and some architectural facts, such as the client’s doubts about using concrete as the facade material. And there was an unexpected opinion from the client to enlarged the conference room. The architect, Heikki Siren therefore decided to extend the building one module of axis, which led to a large revision in structural design and construction. 116 The main contract was signed with IRCO Group, a consortium of four Finnish construction firms. The project originally aimed to complete in September, 1981. Briefly interrupted by the war between Iraq and Iran in 1980, the contractor completed in March, 1982. See Mikko Laakso, Exporting buildings and going global. In book, The building of Finland. Helsinki: Rakennustieto Oy. p.330 117 Murole, Jussi. & Bruun,Daniel. Hallintokeskus Al Jufrah. Arkkitehti. 6.1998. ​ ​ ​ 118 Connah, Roger (Ed.). Young Architects from Finland. Rakennustieto Oy. Helsinki. 2002. p.56 ​ ​ ​ On the other, the experience of Finnish architects in the Middle East also revealed the difficulties of building in a foreign country. 1) the projects were risky and full of uncontrollable factors. The ambitious town planning projects were indefinitely delayed or only partly realized due to the collapse of oil prices or the outbreak of war. 2) The architectural code was referred to Britain or the United States, which Finnish architects were not familiar with. The Finnish architects needed to consult specialists in the disciplines such as structure and air ventilation. 3) The project management was demanding. In Siren’s Conference Palace in Iraq, the client unexpectedly requested to enlarge the conference rooms. Finally, the design was extended by one axis, which led to a large revision. The attendance of Finnish contractors ensured the quality of construction. But the collaboration and coordination between companies had been strictly tested. As Mikko Laakso said, this project eventually became a baptism by fire for Finnish exporters.119

3.1.4 A diversified development in the new millennium (1990s-present) At the beginning of the 1980s, the Finnish architectural field noticed the international changes, namely the dead-end of the conventional functionalism and the recovery of the principles of the Beaux-Arts in the United States.120 Finnish architecture was influenced by postmodernism from the US. During the 1990s, with the practice of Juha Leiviskä, Jyrki Tasa, and other architects, which can hardly be categorized, the twofold division of the rational and the romantic was considered to be no longer feasible for describing the trends in Finnish architecture.121 The complex polymorphic style has quietly shifted towards simplified forms. The changes naturally were reflected among the Finnish buildings abroad. During this period, several Finnish embassies were built around the world.122 Although an embassy, as the extension of a country's territory, can be considered to be a domestic building with a meaning of representing the national image in the international context. In 2013, Arkkitehti made a chapter, the Paper Tiger, ​ ​ ​ ​ which selectively presents the worldwide competition entries made by Finnish architects, which did not get built.

Europe Although Europe was considered as a highly competitive market123, Europe is still the main battlefield for Finnish architectural offices to gain international opportunities. The projects presented the variety and flexibility of connections between locality and architecture. Most of

119 Laakso, Mikko. Exporting Buildings and Going Global. Hautajärvi Harri (Ed.). (2017). The building of Finland. ​ ​ ​ ​ Helsinki: Rakennustieto Oy. p.330 120 In 1980, the symposium of America-Europe architecture was held in Helsinki. The articles were published on the journal Arkkitehti. See Komonen, Markku. In the same boat(Samassa veneessä). Arkkitehti. (3).1980. pp.22-25 ​ ​ 121 Marja-Riitta Norri used a phrase of 'deepened rationalism' for the Finnish local school of rationalism. In Jorma Mukala's view, the international trends such as minimalism, lightness, deconstructivism, post-modern mannerism, high-tech, and neo-modernism were all potentially influencing Finnish architecture. See Jorma Mukala. The Ideology ​ Game - An Architectural Review. Arkkitehti. (6).1999. ​ 122 These Finnish embassies include: The Finnish Embassy in Washington D.C. designed by Heikkinen-Komonen Architects, completed in 1994; the extension of Finnish embassy in Moscow designed by Tuomo Siitonen in 1995; the Finnish Embassy in Canberra designed by Hirvonen-Huttunen Architects, completed in 2002; the Finnish Embassy in Stockholm designed by Gullichsen Kairamo Architects, completed in 2002. 123 Laakso, Mikko. Exporting Buildings and Going Global. Hautajärvi Harri (Ed.). (2017). The building of Finland. ​ ​ Helsinki: Rakennustieto Oy. p.332 the projects were won by participating in competitions. Since the 1990s, Finnish architectural offices won several significant European projects. In 1990, Pekka Helin and Siitonen Tuomo designed the Sibelius City Block in Borås, Sweden. In 1993, the campus of European Film College in Ebeltoft, Denmark, was designed by Mikko Heikkinen and Markku Komonen. In 2000, they also got the opportunity to design the laboratory building for Max Planck Institute in Dresden, Germany. The Nordic embassies in Berlin, Germany, designed by the Austro-Finnish architectural office, Berger+Parkkinen. The KUMU Art Museum in Tallinn, designed by Pekka Vapaavuori completed in 2006. In 2005, the pioneering office, ALA, won the theater competition, the Kristiansand Performing Arts Centre, in Norway. This unexpected victory also made ALA as an emerging international voice of Finnish architecture.124 Lahdelma and Mahlamäki designed the Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw.

Africa The projects made by Finnish architects in Africa were mainly architectural aid projects. Finnish architects improved the local public facilities and living conditions by combining their professional skills and knowledge with local materials and building techniques. In the 1990s, the architects Mikko Heikkinen and Markku Komonen completed a series of projects abroad, ranging from the institutionalized government building in the United States to the low-tech architectural assistance in Guinea. Eila Kivekäs, who founded a development association called Indigo, commissioned the architects to design five buildings in Guinea, including Villa Eila, and the Kahere Poultry Farm School.125 The architects were dedicated to improving the primitive wooden structure from the local traditional building by simple technological advances.126 The exquisite details of steel that could be noticed in the architects’ projects in Finland had been transferred to a series of basic structural solutions fitting to local materials and construction techniques. The other architectural assistance in Africa includes the Women’s Center in Senegal, designed by Saija Hollmen, Jenni Reuter, and Helena Sandman.

Asia Japan is the first industrialized country in Eastern Asia, and there was a history of cultural communication between Finnish architecture and Japan. Heikki Siren had designed two golf clubs constructed by logs in Japan. The first golf club was built in Onuma, The client was a great ‘Finnophile’ and wanted to have buildings made of real Finnish log.127 Pekka Helin designed the Pan-Gyo Housing in Korea. Besides, there are also non-commercial projects in Southeast Asia. The Sra Pou Vocational School in Cambodia designed by Hilla Rudanko and Anssi Kankkunen. However, China is the place that several Finnish architectural offices were able to realize their designs in Asia. The Chinese market has been opened again since the first

124 Newly Drawn, Emerging Finnish Architects. Edit. Tuomas Toivonen and Nene Tsuboi. Rakennustieto Publishing, Helsinki. p.142 125 Heikkinen, Mikko & Komonen, Markku. A Fruit-tree Courtyard in Guinea. Arkkitehti. (3).2000. ​ ​ 126 Rael, Ronald. Earth Architecture. New York: Princeton Architectural Press.(2009). pp.160-167. ​ ​ 127 Arkkitehti. 1982 attempt in the 1980s.128 The scale and the depth of collaboration of the Finnish designs in China enable it to become a new category in the repertoire.

128 The first project in Chinese market was believed to be the Sara Hotel (now Prime Hotel, 华侨饭店) in Beijing. See Mikko Laakso & Seppo Tamminen, Rakentajat maailmalla : vientirakentamisen vuosikymmenet. Helsinki : Suomen rakennusinsinöörien liitto 2014. PP.241-243