1995

Markku Komonen 

Construction, Technology and Art

Why did I choose a subject and a viewpoint like this at a time when the operational requirements for architects have deteriorated to the point of collapse, and the whole field of design and construction seems to be metamorphosing into a form where the synergy of forces that architecture demands can no longer materialize? Perhaps it is at just such a turning point that we should examine the fundamental issue facing the profession.

         The essence of our profession I written in its Greek name Arkkitekton. Woven together in it is a double imperative of quality and construction, art and technology. At a lecture he gave at the centenary celebrations of Helsinki University of Technology in 1949, the famous Frenchman August Perret described the architect as a poet who thinks and speaks in terms of construction. According to his strict canon, the architect who hides a load-bearing column makes a mistake, but the architect who constructs a false column commits a crime. He also emphasized that requirements that are affected by nature are permanent, but requirements that are affected by humans are temporary.

         A method of building, a flash of technical inspiration, has often meant a direct point of departure for architects. We all know the architectural chain of events set off by the invention of vaulting, for example. Massive logs and the skillfully made joints that held them together formed the structural basis for a rich architectural tradition much closer to home.

         Quite apart from structural solutions, other technical innovations have often formed a direct point of departure for architects, too. The Eskimo igloo is a small dwelling heated and lit by small whale-oil lamps, which together with its complex entrance arrangements forms an efficient device for combating the cold. The traditional buildings of the hot desert areas of the Sahara and the Middle East consist of ventilation systems designed to catch the breeze, in which the entire spatial arrangement combined with special structural solutions promote the flow of a cooling stream of air. In ancient Indian architecture, there are efficient cooling systems based on the evaporation of water connected with the function of pools of water used in religious rituals. Not all traditional building has been exemplary from the technical point of view, but the history of architecture offers use plenty of evidence of the skill of combining materials, construction and spatial arrangements into a whole package which responds inventively to the demands of climate, landscape and way of life.

Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics by Mikko Heikkinan and Markku Komonen

Bengt LUndsten and Esko Kahri’s Kortepohja Housing Area, Jyväskylä, 1969

a situation? Is it like that of a surgeon in the operating room or that of a politician in a parliamentary national health debate? In the end, the alternatives are not mutually exclusive, as long as one can distinguish between short and long range action. And because of our human limitations, different people do get selected for different tasks.

Aarno Ruusuvuori’s Printing House Weilin+Göös, Tapiola, 1966

         the Marxist-Leninist young people of today will have on the building of tomorrow. So far there is no specifically socialist theory of architecture, and in style, too, the architecture of socialist countries has been related to general Western developments, once it rid itself of the monumentalism of the Stalinist period. Thus the future prospects of the class fighters have basically been of a general political nature.

The stalemate of architecture 

The present situation is no exactly simple from the point of view of the development of architecture. The quality of new building, which was the central issue of functionalism, is easily ignored in the debate, if the builder becomes a lawyer or a politician. However, the large developments today affect the largest proportion of our society, relatively speaking, as well as those who have no opportunity to choose their environment themselves. What is the architect’s responsibility in such

Reima and Raili Pietilä’s Dipoli Students’ Union Building, Otaniemi, 1966

capital, and demand a clear stand on the class struggle. The contrast to the ideologically inarticulate 1950s is sharp, but there is not much in common between the heirs of functionalism and the class-fighters of today. The young have advanced into political purpose out of the enchantment of the neo-leftist student revolution which in Finland, too, threatened the window-panes of the School of Architecture.

         The more pragmatic line is a parallel phenomenon to Sweden’s Alternative Stad or Norway’s Kanal. This Scandinavian form of “advocacy planning” defends the existent environment and the rights of residents faced by the constant threat of growing economic monopolies and international trading integration. The residents’ movement started by architects have in fact gained considerable influence on planning, and they have prevented many a fatal mistake. Side by side with the residents’ movements has gone the philosophy of conservationist renovation based on reasons of cultural history and economy. The clash of the later with the renewal ideas of the functionalists has been a historical inevitability.

         Rigid class thinking, on the other hand, opposes compromise reforms, wishing to strip bare the class nature of our society and awaken people’s political awareness as an element of revolution. The School of Architecture in Helsinki has been a fortress of the class consciousness, and it will be interesting to see what influence