Kouvolan hallintokeskus

English translation (from the Finnish)

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Description

The Kouvola central church, the town hall and the Kymi Province office building, together with the parks surrounding them, form the modern administrative centre of a representative young town. Kouvola town hall is included in the selection of landmark works of Finnish modern architecture of the international DOCOMOMO organisation.

The layout of Kouvola town hall is based on a spatial composition surrounding an inner courtyard. In the middle of the square building is a meandering inner courtyard, from which there is access to the offices located in the building's three wings. The fourth wing contains the assembly halls with their foyers. The first floor is partly raised off the ground and forms an external pedestrian level.

On Salpausselänkatu, opposite the town hall, stands the provincial government building from the 1950s. The seven-storey central section of the provincial government building, rendered brown, is flanked by low wings.

Kouvola church stands in the middle of a park-like plot on the axis of Salpausselänkatu. The church building represents architecture that leaves the structural elements visible, in which the main structure is formed by steel trusses, partly external and partly internal. The church's architectural form is based on the mechanical engineering and building technology available locally. A separate steel-framed bell tower with a cross indicates the church's ecclesiastical function.

The airy, spacious rectangular nave is asymmetrical in its interior design. The interior walls of the 800-seat nave are of white brick laid within a steel frame. The floor is at the level of the surrounding ground. The central aisle runs diagonally across the nave to the altar. Its backdrop is a metal composition by architect Jaakko Laapotti, placed on the wall's structural grid and fitted with symbols of the apostles and a cross. The metal-framed pews, made up of units of different sizes, are easily movable.

In the immediate vicinity of the administrative centre is a series of three tower blocks, which serve as landmarks of the town centre.

History

The first town plan of the Kouvola market town was drawn up by Jussi Paatela and confirmed in 1922. The second, on the basis of which the administrative centre area was largely built, was prepared under the direction of Otto-Iivari Meurman in several stages in 1929-1933.

In 1948 the market town was designated the administrative seat of Kymi Province, formed from areas of the former Viipuri Province. The market town and the Kouvola parish donated for the construction of the provincial office building a site at the corner of Salpausselänkatu and Oppikuja, which had previously been reserved for building a church. The Kymi Province office building was designed by architect Helmi Pakkala-Väinölä of the rakennushallitus and was completed in 1952-1954.

The administrative centre of the province became a town in 1960. Until 1968 the town hall was housed in a former pharmacy's wooden house at Hallituskatu 9. Planning of a new town hall began in 1959, and an architectural competition was announced for its design, to which 58 proposals were submitted. On the basis of the competition, the architects Bertel Saarnio and Juha Leiviskä were commissioned to design the town hall. Kouvola town hall was built in 1964-68 and 1969.

Kouvola church was designed by Arkkitehtitoimisto Jaakko ja Kaarina Laapotti, which won second prize in the architectural competition held in 1971. Because the proposal's cost level had to be reduced and the church's seating capacity increased, design work on the church was started afresh. The church was completed in 1978, after which the Kouvola parish handed over the stone church built by the Russians in 1913-1915 to the Hamina Orthodox parish.