Etelä-Pohjanmaan suojeluskuntapiirin talo

English translation (from the Finnish)

The text above is the record as published by the Finnish Heritage Agency (Museovirasto), in Finnish. The English below is a machine translation made by TreeAlive, not by the Finnish Heritage Agency (Museovirasto); it has not been checked by a person. Where the two differ, the original is the record. Report a translation error: privacy@treealive.com

Description

The South Ostrobothnia Suojeluskunta district house is an exceptionally representative and well-preserved example of the architecture of the Suojeluskunta organisation. The building group is one of Alvar Aalto's classicist works from the 1920s. It also belongs to Aalto's early output in Ostrobothnia.

The main building on the street front dates from the mid-1920s. On the ground floor of the log-framed main building, the central space is a round ceremonial hall. The interior, which was used as meeting and headquarters rooms, is also in its original condition, including the fixed interior fittings, and the interior is marked by strong colouring.

At the back of the plot is a rendered, two-storey courtyard building of concrete and log construction, completed later than the main building. Originally it housed, among other things, a garage, a guard room and an arms store. At the east end of the plot stands an impressive wooden outbuilding with a U-shaped plan. The courtyard between the main and outbuildings has, at its west end, a semicircular pergola designed by Aalto. The garden of the courtyard, with its plantings, is also designed by Aalto.

The buildings house the Suojeluskunta and Lotta Svärd Museum, which belongs to the Etelä-Pohjanmaan museo.

History

After independence, in 1918 the Senate (Senaatti) declared the voluntary suojeluskunnat official units. The suojeluskunnat had organised as järjestyskaarti (order guards) in several places in 1917.

After the Civil War, the activities of the suojeluskunnat continued as part of official public order maintenance and national defence, and suojeluskuntatalo buildings were constructed all over Finland. The suojeluskuntatalo usually housed the premises of the district headquarters, ammunition and weapons stores, and an assembly hall and sports facilities.

Architect Alvar Aalto's main building of the South Ostrobothnia suojeluskunta district was completed at the end of 1925. The plot had been bought the previous year. Aalto's aims as a designer standing outside party politics are reflected in the fact that his breakthrough works in 1924 were the South Ostrobothnia suojeluskunta district building in Seinäjoki and the Jyväskylä Työväenyhdistys building.

After the abolition of the suojeluskunta organisation in 1944, at the end of the Continuation War, the Seinäjoki courtyard building was converted into residential apartments. The Suojeluskunta- ja Lotta Svärd -museo opened in autumn 1990.