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Abstract(s)
The impact of vernacular architecture on Finnish architects in the early 20th century has been associated with the search for a national style and the construction of a national identity. However, the adaptation of the vernacular cannot only be seen from this nationalist point of view. Other reasons must be emphasized as well when explaining the exploration of the rural Finnish periphery since the late 19th century and the related interest in the vernacular building heritage. The need to find a contemporary architectural language that reflects modern life in an industrialized country, the attempt to escape the facade architecture of historicism and to achieve an architecture based on the requirements of life, the longing to return to a unity between nature, architecture and humans all explain the increasing interest in anonymous buildings of the periphery. The vernacular is understood as an alternative reservoir of forms and concepts. The discourse in 20th century Finland is reflected in the values attributed to vernacular buildings by the protagonists of the centre and forms the basis for their translation into modern architecture. In the process of adaptation, architectural qualities of the vernacular and international modern tendencies are combined. At the turn of the century, e.g. the vernacular tupa – the main room of the Finnish farmstead – is translated into the spatial concept living hall that originated from 19th century English country house architecture. In the 1930s-1950s, the tupa is used as a point of reference for an open floor plan according to a space continuum. The adaptation of the vernacular must be seen in the context of a reciprocal exchange of ideas, an international discourse about the vernacular throughout Europe and North America that Finnish architects participated in. Vernacularism must be understood as part of an ambiguous architectural modernity.
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Keywords
20th century Finnish architecture vernacularism ambiguous modernity Herman Gesellius Armas Lindgren Eliel Saarinen Alvar Aalto
Citation
NEZIK, Christin – The Search for a Contemporary Finnish Architecture. Adaptations of the vernacular tupa in the oeuvre of Herman Gesellius, Armas Lindgren, Eliel Saarinen, and Alvar Aalto in REGIONALISM, NATIONALISM & MODERN ARCHITECTURE. Proceedings. Porto: CEAA, 2018, p. 265-280