Stories

Case Study

Case Study — 1.4.2025

The Tools of the Master of Light

In Juha Leiviskä’s architecture, the light goes through changes and reflects the passage of time. This impression is created by more systematic design principles than is often thought.

Case Study — 1.2.2025

A Carpet’s Many Patterns

Between a detached house and an apartment building there is room for more diverse building typologies that both save space for nature and offer a detached house-like living experience.

Case Study — 1.3.2024

The People’s Theatre

In the 1930s, P.E. Blomstedt designed a theatre in Hakaniemi, Helsinki. Reading between the lines of an illustration drawing reveals the world view behind the design and the designer.

Case Study — 1.3.2024

In the 1970s, architect Pentti Piha was involved in developing and bringing to Finland the so-called black box stage, which performing artists are nowadays critical of. Through this critique, we can reevaluate the legacy of modernist architecture even more broadly.

Case Study — 1.1.2024

Revisit: Kuokkala Centre

The Kuokkala centre shows that urban planning, at its best, is an endurance discipline.

Case Study — 1.5.2023

Six Lessons from Jyrkkälä

The Turku district of Jyrkkälä shows that a problem neighbourhood of the 1960s and 1970s can be renovated in a sustainable way rather than being demolished.

Case Study — 1.5.2023

Contextual Juha Leiviskä

Juha Leiviskä had an unsung ability to fit buildings to their surroundings.

Case Study — 1.5.2023

Revisit: Vuoranta Training Centre

Many types of intergenerational encounters define the faith of the former training centre in Vuoranta.

Case Study — 1.4.2023

Erat, Still a Role Model

Bruno Erat’s ideas on sustainable construction from half a century ago are still, according to Pekka Hänninen, the best Finnish examples of ecological architecture.

Case Study — 1.4.2023

Dipoli, the Oxymoron

What makes the design of the Dipoli so unique? Moisés Royo provides an in-depth analysis of Reima Pietilä’s most enigmatic project.

Case Study — 1.4.2022

Revisit: Lehtovuori House

Architect Olli Lehtovuori’s own house has for already half a century served as a laboratory for residential architecture. Its flexible floorplan based on a traditional two-room farmhouse would be applicable even today.

Case Study — 1.3.2021

Sacred Heart of the Brandenburg Airport

The room of silence at Berlin’s new airport is a combination of illusion and strong materiality.

Case Study — 1.2.2021

Revisit: Rajamäki School and Rajakaari Multipurpose Hall

Rajamäki School and Rajakaari Multipurpose Hall were built in the 1960s as a shared effort by the locals. Now the Municipality of Nurmijärvi is planning to demolish the buildings.

Case Study — 1.1.2021

Revisit: The Ruoholahti Canal

Ruoholahti district, built during the 1990s, continues the grid structure of the Helsinki city centre westwards. The canal traversing the district utilises with classic themes of urban planning in a slightly modernized form.

Case Study — 1.5.2020

The Monumental Alliance of Finnish Government and Civilization

The Kansalaistori square, with the Parliament House on one side, paired with the Central Library on the other, has become a monumental square for the era of Finnish independence. Ilkka Törmä draws a continuum between it and Senate Square, a monument of tsarist Finland.

Stories

The Tools of the Master of Light

A Carpet’s Many Patterns

The People’s Theatre

A Key to Modern Architecture

Revisit: Kuokkala Centre

Six Lessons from Jyrkkälä

Contextual Juha Leiviskä

Revisit: Vuoranta Training Centre

Erat, Still a Role Model

Dipoli, the Oxymoron

Revisit: Lehtovuori House

Sacred Heart of the Brandenburg Airport

Revisit: Rajamäki School and Rajakaari Multipurpose Hall

Revisit: The Ruoholahti Canal

The Monumental Alliance of Finnish Government and Civilization