small chapel at Otaniemi. Here thin poles are again unpeeled but set horizontally into a rigid steel frame, setting up a dialogue between a pre- cision of formal intent and a vibrating variability of the parts. The timber screens define a churchyard within the surrounding forest; interestingly, however, the churchyard itself is heavily planted with trees. The effect is not so much of a clearing in the forest, but of a particularly signifi - cant patch of the forest carefully demarcated. As is the case in the Villa Mairea, the use of a slightly rustic element encourages an ambiguity of reading which enables the screens to function as spatial divisions, while at the same time suggesting a continuity of forest space. Inside the chapel, the roof is formed by small dimension timbers made into a truss, a continuation of the additive, repetitive aesthetic of the screens. This abstraction of the sapling into a small dimension wood element is a critical development in the reinterpretation of Finnish building culture. It is clear that for Aalto there is a degree of interchangeability between an unpeeled sapling and a turned pole, and from there to milled slats, as used vertically on Saynatsalo town hall for sun shading. In the Finn- ish wood museum, Lusto, designed by Kaira-Lahdelma-Mahlamäki, this trajectory is carried even further, with the entire building being clad in larch slats, which are varied in spacing to achieve a subtle variety of effect. The tendency in traditional Finnish construction toward light timber elements, typically constructed from forest thinnings, here
achieves its apotheosis as the slatted screen. While this is not the first use of timber slats on a building, neither did the Finns invent the con- cept of the wood screen, I would argue that the contemporary fashion for slatted claddings and sunscreens grew out of a Nordic design tradi- tion (particularly strong in Finland) with roots in traditional construc- tion. In ‘Toward a critical regionalism’ Kenneth Frampton wrote of an archi- tecture of resistance, where ‘the tactile and the tectonic … withstand the relentless onslaught of global modernization’ 1 . In Finland, timber construction has largely provided that counterpoint.While there is undoubtedly a nostalgic aspect to the use of timber in Finnish architec- ture, it should not be overemphasized. Finland remains to this day a forested country, in which one in five citizens owns a woodlot.The use of wood is an authentic response to life in a forested country, in which it is affordable, available and culturally resonant. The example of forest thinnings, and their abstraction into one of the dominant motifs of contemporary architecture, demonstrates how a northern culture can not only maintain its identity, but make meaningful contributions to an increasingly global architectural dialogue.
1 Kenneth Frampton. ‘Toward a Critical Regionalism’ Labour,Work and Archi- tecture. London: Phaidon Press Limited, 2002. 77 - 89 (originally published in The Anti-Aesthetic: Essays on Post-Modern Culture , 1983).
Villa Mairea entrance screen
Villa Mairea stair
Made with FlippingBook interactive PDF creator