Puolustusvoimien 1930-luvun arkkitehtuuri Helsingissä (Försvarsmaktens 1930-talsarkitektur i Helsingfors)

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 1930s construction of the Finnish Defence Forces drew on the latest architectural developments of the period and on international influences, adapted to the new building needs of the army and to Finnish conditions. Among the military buildings of the period, the following are included in the selection of Finnish modernist landmarks accepted by the international DOCOMOMO organisation: the Tilkka military hospital in Helsinki, the motor company barracks in Taivallahti, the Cadet School at Santahamina, the soldiers' home in Kori, and the Immola barracks area in Imatra. The progressive architecture of the Finnish Defence Forces also expresses a desire to use architecture to depict a dynamic defence institution and a modern country.

The main building of the Tilkka military hospital, a nine-storey light-coloured rendered structure, is characterised by semicircular balconies with railings that open to the south and curve around the main staircase. The functional organisation of the building, the rationality of the use of space, the carefully considered circulation routes and the technical solutions designed in line with functionalist principles are also reflected in its external architecture.

The patient rooms of the ward departments, with their large windows, are concentrated on the seven uppermost floors of the tall main building, facing the open landscape, where access to air and light is at its best. The service facilities are on the other side of the central corridor. Lifts and shafts form a vertical transport network serving, among other things, the kitchen and laundry located beneath the ward departments. The four-storey wing building is designed for treatment purposes (including the outpatient clinic, laboratories and the operating department). The spatial organisation of the operating department is unique in Finland: around an octagonal central hall there are four operating theatres, with preparation rooms and instrument sterilisation rooms between them.

The five-storey curved extension of the building was built in 1965 as an extension of the 1930s wing, and it follows the spatial organisation principles of the 1930s, namely service rooms on one side of the central corridor and patient rooms and balconies on the southern side of the corridor. Also from the 1960s are the office wing on the second side of the main building and the low wing running parallel to Mannerheimintie, which has housed, among other things, the military pharmacy. The originally spacious surroundings of the hospital building have since been zoned and built up for residential and office use.

The Taivallahti motor company is known for its light-coloured barracks building with ribbon windows. In the Mechelininkatu wing are the crew and service rooms, and in the Pohjoinen Hesperiankatu wing the staff and teaching rooms. The teaching and dining rooms are on the lowest floors. The spacious and bright side corridors of the upper barrack floors were also designed as training and recreation rooms for the crew. The service rooms connected to the spacious vehicle hall curve towards the inner courtyard, and at its end stands an elegant petrol pump canopy. The repair workshop, later a music school and soldiers' home, encloses the courtyard along the northern edge of the plot.

The technologisation and motorisation are visible in the design solutions of the motor company's barracks buildings and are also reflected in their external architecture. The smooth flow of both vehicles and crew traffic has determined the arrangement of the plot, the courtyard and the buildings. Carefully considered access roads, turning radii, the placement of parking and service areas, and their connection to the buildings at the entrances have inspired the use of round and curved forms. In particular, the barracks and the vehicle hall may be described in terms of their functionality as a kind of machine. The hierarchy of use of the spaces is reflected in their size, organisation and placement, but also in details, materials and building components. The main staircase hall has a lion relief, and the dining room has a 1935 world map painting.

The plain buildings of the Cadet School at Santahamina, the large school and dining and assembly hall buildings, and the smaller barracks, course building, residential building and stable surround a courtyard where pine trees grow. Among the interior spaces, special mention should be made of the gymnasium, swimming pool and sauna with washing facilities in the wing section of the three-storey school building. The architecturally impressive swimming hall is characterised by the carefully considered interplay of artificial light with natural light from the large glass surfaces.

History

Construction activity in the Defence Forces increased considerably in the 1930s. The building needs of the period related, among other things, to the new refresher training system, to modern special arms branches (such as the air force and motor troops), to the development of the military hospital system, to depot sites and to the war materiel industry.

Architectural design was the responsibility of the vigilant and active team of designers in the building office of the technical department of the Ministry of Defence. The design work made unprejudiced use of the latest results of international architectural development. Modernism suited both the new types of design task and use as a propaganda tool, while efforts were made to raise the external appearance of the operating environments of the Defence Forces, emphasising in particular their modernity.

Among the most important examples of military architecture of the period are the Tilkka military hospital in Helsinki, the Taivallahti barracks (motor company) and the older building stock of the National Defence University at Santahamina. Among the 1930s military heritage sites outside the capital, mention may be made of the air bases Immola at Imatra (today the area of the Border Guard) and Luonetjärvi (Jyväskylä), the Niinisalo barracks area at Kankaanpää (originally a refresher training centre), and, as individual buildings that complemented older barracks areas, the former soldiers' home building at Koria (Kouvola).

Health care in the Finnish defence establishment was organised centrally in the 1930s. The Viipuri central military hospital was completed in 1931, and Tilkka in Helsinki in 1936. In addition to these, nine smaller garrison hospitals were built.

The Tilkka military hospital was built outside the then kivikaupunki on a spacious, park-like villa plot. The Tilkka military hospital was designed in the building office under architect Olavi Sortta. The modern technical, functional and spatial solutions of the Tilkka hospital were presented extensively to domestic and foreign professionals.

The wing extension, the office wing and the low pharmacy wing dating from 1965 were also designed by Sortta. Apart from the extension, only minor changes were made to Tilkka during its use as a military hospital. Tilkka served as the central military hospital from 1941 to the end of 2005, after which the building, transferred from the state, was converted into a service home for the elderly.

The motor company area was reserved for barracks when the land came into state ownership in the 1920s. In the building office, the barracks and the vehicle hall were designed by architect Martta Martikainen, and the repair workshop by architect Märtha Lilius-Tallroth. Design began in 1934, and the barracks were completed in 1935, the vehicle hall in 1936 and the repair workshop in 1939. In the buildings of the motor company, in line with the design principles of functionalism, the intended use of the spaces determined both their layout and their form: round shapes for the movement of vehicles, and straight routes for the movement of soldiers. In publicity, the modern barracks, completed for the use of the new arm of service, created an image of a progressive defence establishment. The magazine Suomen Kuvalehti headed its 1935 photo report "Autopojat funkiskasarmissa" ("The motor lads in the funkis barracks"). In the 1950s, two apartment blocks for Defence Forces personnel were built in the western part of the motor company barracks area.

The decision was made to build the new cadet school at Santahamina, and the overall architectural concept was designed by Ministry of Defence architect Olavi Sortta, assisted by architects Kyllikki Halme and Irma Paasikallio. Construction began in 1939. From the outset, the cadet school building project was linked to preparations for the 1940 Olympic Games, which were then in prospect. Reference was made to the need for accommodation and training facilities for athletes, and on these grounds a swimming hall was indeed included in the new cadet school complex.