Pietilä’s Crystal for the Finnish President

Abstract

This article investigates in detail the Finnish rationalist reception of so-called humane modern architecture and especially the Pietilas proposed and then built design for the residence of the Finnish President (Mica Moraine, later Mantyniemi in Helsinki 1983-1992). It argues that the opponents of the proposal were dismissing the architectural aim to integrate cultural and geographical context to the spatial experience, rather than imitate natural (biomorphic) or primitive (vernacular) forms. The accusations at the time were based on the premise that the forms of the proposal – Mica Moraine- were representing the past. The spatiality of Pietila’s genius loci – approach is revisited by contrasting Pietila’s oeuvre to that of Mikko Heikkinen and Markku Komonen (Lume in Helsinki 2000) and the reception of the latter. Formal rational perception of romantic or organic architecture in Finland dismisses the experiential approach of Pietila’s architecture, which uses different spatial media to reach a point where architecture can no longer be judged via visual media, but only by experiencing a temporal spatial event of the play of interiority and exteriority.