Classicism and Romanticism in Finnish Architecture

Oz Volume 4 Article 4 1-1-1982 Classicism and Romanticism in Finnish Architecture William C. Miller Follow this and additional works at: https://newprairiepress.org/oz This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License. Recommended Citation Miller, William C. (1982) "Classicism and Romanticism in Finnish Architecture," Oz: Vol. 4. https://doi.org/ 10.4148/2378-5853.1035 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by New Prairie Press. It has been accepted for inclusion in Oz by an authorized administrator of New Prairie Press. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Classicism and Romanticism in Finnish Architecture William C. Miller ,. I am driven by my longing, And my understanding urges That I should commence my singing and begin my recitation. I wz/1 sing the people's legends, And the ballads of the nation. To my mouth the words are flowing, and the words are quickly falling, Quickly as my tongue can shape them, And between my teeth emerging. Dearest friend and much-loved brother, Best beloved of all companions, Come and let us sing log ether, Let us now begin our converse, Since at length we meet together, From two wtdely sundered regions. Rarely can we meet together, Rarely can one· meet the other, In these dismal Northem.regions, In the drea,r.y land of Pohja. Let us clap our hands together, Let us interlock our fingers; Let us sing a cheerful measure, Let ucr use our best endeavors, Whzle our dear ones hearken to us, 2 And our loved ones are instructed, Whzle the young are standing round us, 1. Marti Valikangas, Kllpyllt Housing Of the ·rising generation, Estate, Helsinki, 1920-25. Let them learn the words of magic, 2. Alvar Aalto, Villa 'Mairea', Noor And recall our' songs and legends, markku, 1938·39. Of the belt of Vainamoinen, 3. Reima and Raili Pietilll, 'Oipoli' student Of the forge of Ilmarinen, union center, Institute rif Technology, And of Kaukomieli's sword-point, Otaniemi, 1961-67, plan. And of}oukahainen 's crossbow: Of the utmost bounds Pohja, 3 And of Kaleva/a's wide heartlands. dismal Northern regions,' ' the pic in Finland's past, for it physically Kaleva/a, I, 1-36. underlying twentieth century Fin nish architecture: classicism and turesqueness and tactility of roman straddles eastern and western romanticism. In Finnish architecture ticism and the clarity and astrin Europe. From the depths of the In the opening lines of the Kaleva/a, this specifically means the Neo gency of classicism become in Middle Ages, the pre-Christian the bard speaks of being ''From two Classicism of the early nineteenth terlocked together in Finland's period sung of in the Kaleva/a, widely sundered regions,'' where century fin-de-sie'cle National modern architecture: Marti Finland was under Swedish rule. "Rarely can we meet together, Rare Romanticism. While classicism and V;dikangas'· Kapyla housing, Alvar Resulting from Finland's remote ly can we meet the other." While romanunsm, as the bard wryly Aalto's Villa 'Mairea,' and Reima location and relative inaccessibility, the first canto of the Finnish na notes, continuing our metaphoric and Raili Pietila's "Dipoli" student Christianity came .late to the Finns tional folk epic sets the stage·for the sojourn, ''Rarely one can meet the center being exemplars of this syn (after 1300); and ·not without a ensuing poetic saga, the notion of other," yet the two have formed a thesis (Figures 1-3). struggle between the eastern (Byzan the "two widely sundered regions" tradition which provides ·a cqntinu tine) church from Novgorod in could be viewed as a metaphor for ing source for formal architectural Although provincial and isolated for Russia and the western (Roman) the two prominent modes of ar expression · for twentieth-century the majoriry of its history, the no church from Sweden. The earliest 12 chitectural ordering and expression Finnish architecture. "In these tion of "tWo regions" plays heavily extant architecrural works date from the period following adoption of western Christianity: the Turku Cathedral, the small stone rural churches, and the several castle for tresses (Figures 4, 5). These medieval buildings were unpretentious works whose builders were responding to the exigencies and traditions of their provincial context. While architectural development was gradual from the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries - a period characterized by the execu tion of a number of wooden churches built by master carpenters using the traditional interlocking log construction technique (Figure 6) - the Finnish countryside was being colonized and populated, and the first agricultural and industrial manors were established. While dominated by Sweden, Finland was never more than a rural protective barrier to Russia. Beginning in the eighteenth century, Russia expand ed westward, winning Finnish ter ritory from Sweden in 1721 and 17 4 3, thus steadily increasing its in fluence in the region. When Finland was ceded to Russia as part of the Napoleonic settlement, the czars ac tively brought the new Grand Duchy into the nineteenth century - socially, politically and architec turally. From the provincial and rustic ver nacular building traditions ex emplified by the small stone medieval churches and the later wooden churches, Finland's ar chitecture, as a result of Russian in- 4. Church, Porvoo, 1414-18. 5. Olvanlinna Castle, Savonlinna, from 1475. 6. Jaakko Klemetinpoika Leppllnen, Church, Petllj!lvesi, 1763-64. 7. Carl Ludwig Engel, Senate Square, Helsinki, 1818-40. 13 tervention, was abruptly propelled ment of Helsinki as a Neo-Classical into the cosmopolitan world of late city. Engel, born in Berlin, studied eighteenth-century Neo-Classicism under Friedrich Gilly at the Prussian (Figure 7). By the end of the nine Academy of Art (Bauakademie) , teenth century, this international where he was a fellow student with orientation had succumbed to an in Karl Friedrich Schinkel. Engel came terest in national and regional to Helsinki after serving as town ar models as sources for formal ar chitect for Tallinn (Estonia) , and chitectural expression. This National sp ending 1813 and parts of Romantic movement in Finland 1815-1816 in St. Petersburg. The looked back to the building tradi 8. Geselliu , Li ndgr n and aorin n, tudl , W rk r' lub, Jyv kylll, influence of St. Petersburg, with the tions of stone and wooden churches and vill a, Hvittrll k, 1902. progressive Neo-Classicism of and peasant vernacular dwellings for Th mas de Thomon, Nikiforovich inspiration (Figure 8) . In the course Vor nikhin and Adrian Dimi of a century, both classical and tri vi h Zakharov among others, is romantic sensibilities became Sir John Summerson provides a two Classicism vi nt in hi ar hitecture as is the established as the dominant themes part definition of classical architec Mod_em scholars of archittJCIIIrll ariJ of influ ·n f hi erman education.4 in Finnish architecture, and occurred ture in his book, The Classical the opinion that Engel p erformtJd a ng I wa br ught to Helsinki in monumental task in creating a Finnish 1 15 and in 1 24 wa named Comp concurrently with events of Language ofArchitecture: ''The first architecture, and that stylistically he historical, political and social meaning is the most obvious. A was not provincial but a bnlliant artist troller f Publi Buildings, a posi significance. classical building is one whose on a European scale. 3 tion he held until hi death in 1840. decorative elements derive directly During this twenty-four year period , More importantly, an awareness of or indirectly from the architectural In 1809 an event of historical, Engel's work provided the dramatic these nineteenth-century develop vocabulary of the ancient world - political and social importance oc three-dimensional physical realiza ments is essential to the under the 'classical' world as it is often curred affecting Finland that was to tion of Ehrenstrom's grand plan for standing of the vicissitudes of called ... '' In addition to this also have architectural significance; Helsinki. Exhibiting an unparalleled twentieth-century Finnish architec "uniform" worn by "classical as a consequence of the Napoleonic consistency in architectonic form ture. Subsequent to the First World buildings '' ... the aim of classical·ar settlement King Gustav IV ceded and refinement (Figure 7), the Fin War, a new, "rational" classicism chitecture has always been to achieve Finland to Russia. Finland was made nish architectural historian Nils Erik emerged as the predominant mode a demonstrable harmony of parts.'' 1 a semi-autonomous Grand Duchy Wickberg has commented: of architectural expression in Thus, classical architecture usually with czar Alexander I taking an ac When Engel died in 1840, "Empire" Finland and throughout Scandinavia exhibits an understandable, logical tive role in Finnish affairs. It was at Helsinki was almost complete - a city in reaction to the perceived exag and articulate geometric order, this time that the city ofTurku, long in which all the but/dings had been butit in the same neo-classical style, gerations of National Romanticism coupled with the use of classical the capital of Finland under Swedish with the same low sloping rooft and (Figures 1,9). From the Italian in elements and ornamentation (Figure rule, lost its position as the center of painted the same light shades. Sur spired architettura minore of the 7). Romantic architecture in con Finnish cultural and political life to rounded by water and massive grey 1920's, Finnish' architecture moved trast, as defined by Christian Helsinki. In 1812 Helsinki, a small outcrops of rock, the city lay new and gleaming, its heart the magnificent to embrace the International Style Norberg-Schulz in Genius Loci, is unimportant town up to that date, columned buildings of the Senate (Figure 9).

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