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Lahti's flagship of wooden architecture at the old harbour
- By Leena Maunula
Photos: Tapio Vanhatalo
- “An incredible adventure”, is the comment by Kimmo Lintula and Hannu Tikka, architects of Lahti's Sibelius Hall, when referring to the huge project they have recently undertaken.
The glass facade of the Sibelius Hall protects the wooden structure. |
- Sibelius Hall, officially inaugurated on March 9 on the shores of Lake Vesijärvi in Lahti, is the only concert and congress centre in the world constructed out of wood. It was built on a tight budget and in less than two years. At the same time many long-forgotten skills were revived and renewed through the construction of the wooden building. The common aim was to realise a new flagship out of wood - even though many things were known to be extremely tricky and even prone to disaster. The City itself shared the worries, and only passed the motion to go ahead by a single vote.
Wood, a tight purse,
and a brutal schedule
- The Puun aika (“The Time of Wood”) campaign, initiated by forest and wood sector organisations and set up by the government, supported the Sibelius Hall project.
- The construction of the wooden concert and congress centre seconded the wish of the “city of carpenters” to strengthen their position as a centre for woodworking know-how. Lahti's historic woodworking industry began from the log-floating terminus at the Vesijärvi Harbour, which is currently being renovated as a recreational centre.
- One of the spurs for the project was, of course, the celebrated Lahti Symphony Orchestra under its conductor Osmo Vänskä. Among those campaigning loudly for a building that would be worthy of his orchestra was Tuomas Kinberg, the General Manager.
- “The Concert Hall was built extremely economically, at a cost of only around FIM 10,000 a square metre. “You can barely get a place to live in Helsinki at those prices”, remarked Kimmo Lintula and Hannu Tikka. “Three factors were decisive in the undertaking of the project: wood, tight financial limits, and a quite brutal schedule. You have to see the building against that background”. They are grateful to the construction crews who saw the project through: “Finns are a nation of church builders”.
A two-phase architectural
competition
- Sibelius Hall went through a two-phase architectural competition, slightly exceptional for Finland, with the outcome being settled in April 1998. The eventual winners were Lintula and Tikka, and their office Arkkitehtityöhuone Arto Palo Rossi Tikka Oy, one of the success stories among the new generation of Finnish architects.
- Working as the assistant of all the contenders during the second phase was the renowned acoustic designer and guru Russell Johnson from the New York office of Artec Consultants. Johnson is no mere fancy foreign messiah, either; his track record is unrivalled and includes some of the most spectacularly successful acoustic solutions in recent concert hall history, including Symphony Hall in Birmingham (home of the CBSO, and the place where conductor Osmo Vänskä first decided Lahti needed Artec's services) and the Festival Hall in Lucerne, as well as a whole litany of American venues. The involvement in the project of Johnson and his long-time colleague Robert W. Wolff was definitely a real catch.
The musicians' rehearsal rooms look onto the Forest Hall. |
- Sibelius Hall will now compete as an events organiser with Helsinki's Finlandia Hall and Tampere Hall in Tampere. The largest congress- and concert hall seats just over 1,200 if the choir balcony is taken into use for the public. Functioning as a venue for exhibitions and fairs, or as a banqueting room, the smaller Forest Hall can seat a maximum of 1,000.
- A clear plan separating the space into four units was the decisive factor for the winning architects, and it is now divided into the Carpentry Factory, Forest Hall, Concert Hall, and a Congress Wing.
Innovative
structure
- The Carpentry Factory, Lahti's oldest remaining industrial building (constructed at the beginning of the previous century), had already received its demolition orders. Now protected, it gives shape to the new building, say the architects. The old factory's concrete roof structure represented an innovation in its own time. The refurbished space now includes a restaurant, a rehearsal area for musicians, and a spacious all-purpose hall for exhibits and music events.
- The Forest Hall forms the join between the old factory and the concert and congress hall. Nine massive pylons of laminated timber narrow upwards in the fashion of classical columns and support the ceiling, which towers to the height of a five-storey building. The concert room reaches even higher: with its gallery it equals the height of an 8-storey apartment building.
Adjustable
acoustics
- The key question in a project such as this is whether the music sounds cleanly and clearly in the concert hall. Finns have been disappointed in the past, most noticeably by Finlandia Hall, which has proved the butt of many jokes and has required extensive acoustic refitting.
- The Lahti concert hall, in acoustic jargon, is designed in “shoe box form”, but the area for the audience and performers is a friendly oval shape. Acoustics are adjustable in the echo chambers at the sides of the hall through wall baffles that open and close.
- Another innovation is an acoustic canopy that electrically rises and falls over the stage and that can be used to regulate the overall sound of the room. It is lifted high up for rock concerts and can be brought down close to the musicians for chamber music.
"Wood
high-tech”
- Glass walls protect the wooden building from adverse weather. The wood-framed glass façade and steel cable are among the other innovations of the building design. We could refer to it as new wood high tech, or perhaps “wood-tech”, as the architects themselves say. Whether the new wooden building is ecological or not is a trickier question, they think. Nevertheless, wood is a recurring natural resource with spirit and a symbolic meaning, especially for the Finns.
- Birch, spruce, pine and fir were used in the construction of Sibelius Hall. Rarer wood varieties such as aspen, rowan and alder were used in the decoration and furnishings, and the exterior of the Forest Hall information booth is lined with birch bark. The seating and other furniture in the concert hall have been supplied by the Lahti firm of Isku, and the designers include Tapio Anttila. Anttila's “Duo” chairs, to be used by the performers, last year won a design award in Japan.
Quite the best introduction to the new complex in Lahti is to be had from the Sibelius Hall's own web-site, which also contains details of the architecture and construction technology of what is Finland's largest wooden building for over a hundred years. There are also links there to be had to the Lahti Symphony Orchestra, which is a great deal more than just a small provincial orchestra - unless small provincial orchestras always have Gramophone Awards on their shelves.
Sibelius Hall - main pages
Sibelius Hall - Architecture and Construction Technology
Lahti Symphony Orchestra (Sinfonia Lahti)
Artec Consultants - design drawings from the project (you will need to scroll down a little to find them)
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 9.3.2000 |
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