A FEW WORDS FROM THE ARCHITECT

Collage and montage are among the most pivotal methods in contemporary art and cinema. Collage combines often unrelated images and fragments to form a synthesis that conveys a meaning completely independent of the original images. Montage, on the other hand, is a cinematic method of joining together different shots to form a narrative whole.

The architecture of Korundi blends the structures, aesthetics and atmospheres of the old industrial building with the modern elements of the art museum and concert hall. The aim has been to create an architectural discourse where both sides – the brickbuilding dating back to the war years and the contemporary architecture of our time – have their own distinctive voice. This montage draws a parallel between the industrial environment of the past and modern cultural activities. As the post bus depot has no particular architectural value (it is an important part of the cityscape and has historical and sentimental value), sections of the building have been used as parts in the architectural collage by tearing down, modifying and supplementing them with new elements. For example, most of the windows in the art museum section have been walled up to maximise the area available for artworks. However, traces of the old windows have been left in the recesses of the wall, the supports of crane rails still adorn the pillars, large glass surfaces have been installed in the garage doorways facing the yard, and so on. The original depot building is of course a collage in itself, as it was built from bricks collected from the war-mangled ruins of Rovaniemi.

Since the 1970s, the ideal for new exhibition spaces for modern and contemporary art has been a white cube free of material constraints and any feeling of gravity. However, all the best-known historical art museums have their own tangible feel and colour scheme, and viewers rarely contemplate moving the works into a purely white room. I believe that a white exhibition space is best suited for displaying conceptual art pieces, and in my experience, art looks best in spaces where the viewers feel comfortable. Generally speaking, it could be said that for creating exhibitions and viewing artworks, many of the best exhibition halls in the world are former industrial facilities (for example, DIA Beacon in northern New York, Temporary Contemporary in Los Angeles and Tate Modern Art Gallery in London). Old industrial facilities usually carry a sense of space, functional ambiguity, material presence, randomness and age that enriches the experience of viewing art.

The joint lobby of the art museum and concert hall was designed to have glass walls and a glass ceiling to make it feel like an outdoor and indoor space at the same time. The location of the joint facilities at the back of the garage yard has defined the functional anatomy of the entire building. The concert hall with its glass canopy indicates the new entrance into the building when viewed from afar.

The concert hall was conceptualised as a minimalist “music box” – the relative low number of seats (340) enabled the entirely rectangular shape, the acoustic properties of which have been fine-tuned with wall and ceiling materials and textures as well as glass sound reflection sheets. The pivotal goal when designing the interior of the concert hall was to create “visual acoustics”. The warm-toned space divided by panels and battens is reminiscent of the interior of an aged string instrument.
 The colour motif of the acoustic cabinets, which was designed in co-operation with artist and Professor Jorma Hautala creates a kind of “visual music” in the hall. However, it naturally subsides when the orchestra begins to play.

The outer surfaces of the concert hall were originally designed to be made of richly profiled wood, but due to the cost of the wood, which would have required the facades to be fireproofed by means of sprinklers, the material was replaced with a cheaper alternative, Corten steel. However, the weathered steel blends the new concert hall with the crude atmosphere of the former depot.

Juhani Pallasmaa, Architect SAFA, Professor