Finlandia Hall
Encyclopedia
Finlandia Hall is a concert hall with a congress
wing in Helsinki
, Finland
, by Töölönlahti bay. The building was designed by Alvar Aalto
. The work began in 1967 and was completed in 1971.
s for the concert hall are dated 10 May 1967. None of the other buildings in the grand scheme were ever completed.
The main features of the building's exterior are the great horizontal mass of the building proper and the towering auditorium that rises above it. The main external wall material is Carrara marble and with copper
roofs, which have acquired a green patina
, and teak
window frames. The marble continues in the interior, and is supplemented by details in hardwood
s, and ceramic. Apart from the auditorium
, the main feature of the interior is the shallow and broad 'Venetian' staircase leading from the ground-floor foyer to both the main auditorium and chamber music hall.
Contemporary to the designing of the opera house
in Essen
, the design for Finlandia Hall shows some of the same features: asymmetricity, acoustical wall structures and the contrast between the marble balconies and cobalt blue walls in the concert hall interior. The Essen project was however endlessly delayed, to the benefit of Essen Opera, because as that building began construction in 1987, two mistakes made in the construction of Finlandia Hall were avoided. The first was the use of thin slabs of Carrara marble for the exterior, which have not held their form and have had to be replaced. The other was an acoustical feature of the concert hall tower: the slats intended for controlling the acoustic environment of the hall had to be completely closed for the acoustics to work at all.
There is a further design fault in the plan of the auditorium, which Aalto derived from a classical Greek theatre. But while such a form was suited to theatre and classical oratories, it is not suitable for a concert hall. Furthermore, the upper-floor balconies overhang the last few rows of seats in the ground-floor stalls, thus muffling the sound in those seats.
As regards the exterior Carrara marble cladding, over the years the 3 cm thick marble slabs had tended to curve: the slabs were too thin and were affected by the harsh winter weather conditions and pollution. The Alvar Aalto office and the National Board of Antiquities investigated the various options, including replacing the slabs with durable Finnish grey granite
slabs. However, it was finally decided to replace all the exterior slabs with new Carrara marble ones, but in a slightly thicker dimension, and attached to a concrete tile backing. The large reparation project was completed in 1998: however, by 2006 many of these slabs had already begun to curve. The same problem has also affected other buildings in Helsinki by Aalto in which he used Carrara marble slabs (e.g., The Enso-Gutzeit Building)
Finlandia hall was completed in 1971, and the first concert took place on 2 December 1971. The congress wing was being designed even before the completion of the main wing, and was completed in 1975. It was opened just in time for the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (later to be renamed OSCE
), during which the heads of state from thirty-two countries visited Helsinki. The Helsinki Final Act was signed at Finlandia Hall.
Finlandia Hall's role as a concert hall is scheduled to be taken over by a new hall, to be constructed alongside the existing structure, in August 2011. The old hall will be continue to be used for conferences and exhibitions.
Congress
A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different nations, constituent states, independent organizations , or groups....
wing in Helsinki
Helsinki
Helsinki is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, located in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is , making it by far the most populous municipality in Finland. Helsinki is...
, Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
, by Töölönlahti bay. The building was designed by Alvar Aalto
Alvar Aalto
Hugo Alvar Henrik Aalto was a Finnish architect and designer. His work includes architecture, furniture, textiles and glassware...
. The work began in 1967 and was completed in 1971.
Design and building
Alvar Aalto was commissioned by the city of Helsinki to design a concert and congress building, the first constructed part of a great central city plan, which Aalto first presented in 1961, and which included a series of cultural buildings aligned along the Töölönlahti bay which penetrates the city centre. The earliest sketches show features of what were to be the main features of the final design. The principal set of blueprintBlueprint
A blueprint is a type of paper-based reproduction usually of a technical drawing, documenting an architecture or an engineering design. More generally, the term "blueprint" has come to be used to refer to any detailed plan....
s for the concert hall are dated 10 May 1967. None of the other buildings in the grand scheme were ever completed.
The main features of the building's exterior are the great horizontal mass of the building proper and the towering auditorium that rises above it. The main external wall material is Carrara marble and with copper
Copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; an exposed surface has a reddish-orange tarnish...
roofs, which have acquired a green patina
Patina
Patina is a tarnish that forms on the surface of bronze and similar metals ; a sheen on wooden furniture produced by age, wear, and polishing; or any such acquired change of a surface through age and exposure...
, and teak
Teak
Teak is the common name for the tropical hardwood tree species Tectona grandis and its wood products. Tectona grandis is native to south and southeast Asia, mainly India, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Burma, but is naturalized and cultivated in many countries, including those in Africa and the...
window frames. The marble continues in the interior, and is supplemented by details in hardwood
Hardwood
Hardwood is wood from angiosperm trees . It may also be used for those trees themselves: these are usually broad-leaved; in temperate and boreal latitudes they are mostly deciduous, but in tropics and subtropics mostly evergreen.Hardwood contrasts with softwood...
s, and ceramic. Apart from the auditorium
Auditorium
An auditorium is a room built to enable an audience to hear and watch performances at venues such as theatres. For movie theaters, the number of auditoriums is expressed as the number of screens.- Etymology :...
, the main feature of the interior is the shallow and broad 'Venetian' staircase leading from the ground-floor foyer to both the main auditorium and chamber music hall.
Contemporary to the designing of the opera house
Aalto Theatre
The Aalto Theatre is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Essen, Germany. It was opened on 25 September 1988 with Richard Wagner's opera Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg...
in Essen
Essen
- Origin of the name :In German-speaking countries, the name of the city Essen often causes confusion as to its origins, because it is commonly known as the German infinitive of the verb for the act of eating, and/or the German noun for food. Although scholars still dispute the interpretation of...
, the design for Finlandia Hall shows some of the same features: asymmetricity, acoustical wall structures and the contrast between the marble balconies and cobalt blue walls in the concert hall interior. The Essen project was however endlessly delayed, to the benefit of Essen Opera, because as that building began construction in 1987, two mistakes made in the construction of Finlandia Hall were avoided. The first was the use of thin slabs of Carrara marble for the exterior, which have not held their form and have had to be replaced. The other was an acoustical feature of the concert hall tower: the slats intended for controlling the acoustic environment of the hall had to be completely closed for the acoustics to work at all.
There is a further design fault in the plan of the auditorium, which Aalto derived from a classical Greek theatre. But while such a form was suited to theatre and classical oratories, it is not suitable for a concert hall. Furthermore, the upper-floor balconies overhang the last few rows of seats in the ground-floor stalls, thus muffling the sound in those seats.
As regards the exterior Carrara marble cladding, over the years the 3 cm thick marble slabs had tended to curve: the slabs were too thin and were affected by the harsh winter weather conditions and pollution. The Alvar Aalto office and the National Board of Antiquities investigated the various options, including replacing the slabs with durable Finnish grey granite
Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
slabs. However, it was finally decided to replace all the exterior slabs with new Carrara marble ones, but in a slightly thicker dimension, and attached to a concrete tile backing. The large reparation project was completed in 1998: however, by 2006 many of these slabs had already begun to curve. The same problem has also affected other buildings in Helsinki by Aalto in which he used Carrara marble slabs (e.g., The Enso-Gutzeit Building)
Finlandia hall was completed in 1971, and the first concert took place on 2 December 1971. The congress wing was being designed even before the completion of the main wing, and was completed in 1975. It was opened just in time for the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (later to be renamed OSCE
Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe
The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe is the world's largest security-oriented intergovernmental organization. Its mandate includes issues such as arms control, human rights, freedom of the press and fair elections...
), during which the heads of state from thirty-two countries visited Helsinki. The Helsinki Final Act was signed at Finlandia Hall.
Finlandia Hall's role as a concert hall is scheduled to be taken over by a new hall, to be constructed alongside the existing structure, in August 2011. The old hall will be continue to be used for conferences and exhibitions.
Facilities
The main concert hall, called Finlandia Hall, seats 1,700 and features Aalto's distinctive marble balconies and cobalt-blue walls with bent-wood decoration. The smaller auditorium, Helsinki Hall seats 340. The Congress Halls seat 450-900, depending on the configuration, and are equipped for simultaneous interpretation, television and press.External links
- Webpage of Finlandia Hall
- Architecture of Finlandia Hall – for a more detailed essay on the architecture of Finlandia Hall.