“Tekniikantalo”, re-use and extension of the “H-Talo”building by Alvar Aalto. Oulu, Finland

IUAV University of Venice

Master degree in Architecture for the Old and New

“Tekniikantalo”, re-use and extension of the “H-Talo”building by Alvar Aalto Oulu, Finland

Tutor:

prof. Serena Maffioletti

Assistant arch. Enrico Busato supervisors: arch. Manuel Minto arch. Sara Pezzuti

Graduand: Nicolò Berton identification number 284359 Academic Year 2017/2018

Form must have a content, and that content must be linked with nature.

(Alvar Aalto)

index Alvar Aalto

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the city of Oulu

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Typpi Oy industrial area

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genesis of h-talo

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h-talo building history

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the project

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urban map 1:15000

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siteplan 1:2000

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roofplan 1:500

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level 1, 1:200

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level 2, 1:200

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facades, 1:150

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sections, 1:150

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constructive section, 1:50

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model

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bibliography

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5

alvar aalto / (1898-1976)

Alvar Aalto can be recognized as one of the leading exponents in the synthesis between nationalistic romanticism and Nordic neoclassicism of Finnish architecture, a synthesis that understands them and at the same time transcends them. Aalto endeavors to adapt the typically Finnish spirit to the times lived, but its “organic” architecture is far from biomorphism or naturalistic formalism: he seeks a harmonious agreement between man and the environment in which he is inserted, taking root in rather than seeking a form.

The styles, in his architecture, act as a screen to the question of space research, corresponding more than anything else to lifestyle.

The first works are characterized by experimentation on classical orders.

An example is the Työväentalo of Jyväskylä, in which inside Aalto, mindful of the recent trip to Florence, reproduces on a convex plane the whole decorative, geometric and bichromatic apparatus, of the Sacello Rucellai by Leon Battista Alberti, in an attempt to bring back the spatial effect determined by the insertion of a curvilinear volume into another straight line. On the outside, however, the few openings on the simple parallelepiped, supported by Tuscan columns on the ground floor, are inspired by the Palazzo Ducale in Venice.

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Työväentalo, Jyväskylä

Leon Battista Alberti, Sacello Rucellai, Firenze

Työväentalo, Jyväskylä 7

The inherited languages are therefore configured for Aalto not as precepts to be strictly adhered to, but rather a rich heritage to draw from a vital repertoire.

In the Viipuri library (1927-35) Aalto makes an effort to modulate the interior spaces in the most appropriate way, renouncing a linguistic synthesis to concentrate on a careful arrangement of the various functions of the library. The book distribution desk is located in a dominant central position with respect to the reading room and shelves. The space is free from structural constraints and therefore Aalto chooses indirect lighting coming from above through circular cone-shaped circular openings. If through the handrail the architect tries to make the space feel tactile, in the complicated undulating ceiling of the conference room he tries to make the acoustics visible; a similar experience can also be found in the roof of the central aisle in the church of Seinäjoki, part of a larger civic center project, built between 1951 and 1987. These are sensory and bodily stimuli made to act at different scales and each time with different motivations.

The end of Alvar Aalto’s work does not consist in mere curvilinear forms or in organism, but rather in a humanisation of architecture to which a multiplicity of factors contribute.

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Viipuri library

Seinäjoki church 9

An example of this point of view is the Sanatorium of Paimio (1929-33), which, immersed in the forests a few tens of kilometers from Turku, at first sight seems to refer to the building of the Bauhaus of Dessau. However, in the Sanatorium, the buildings undergo rotations that give the complex a sense of imperfection and randomness, but which express the will of Aalto to open the building to the forest, arranging it in a dialogue with nature.

In the interior design, the intent is to make the objects adhere to their use, choosing sinuous shapes for chairs, armchairs, sinks. Furthermore, from the observation of patients’ behaviors in relation to the environments, Aalto derives indications on the use of materials, shapes and colors, thus reinterpreting functionalism from a psychological and physiological point of view.

The building sees the different functions divided between four buildings, grouped around the entrance: the main part, consisting of the patient wing and the one dedicated to rest, the administration wing, the service wing behind the latter and the central heating plant. Lifts and stairwells are placed in the entrance area, connecting the different wings.

The wing of the patients opens to the south to the light, while the one dedicated to the rest, which connects to it diagonally, dominates the complex. The small building located to the north houses canteen, kitchen and common areas. The wing A and the wing B, delimiting the entrance court, form an angle of 20 °, creating a perspective optical illusion in the tradition of the Cour d’honneur.

The structure is composed of concrete pillars and external brick infill panels; Aalto here uses the reinforced concrete construction as an aesthetic means and leaves it visible.

In its original configuration, the Sanatorium is one of the buildings fully furnished by Aalto himself, designing all the details, down to the sinks.

Many of his most important insights into furnishing come from here, such as the famous Paimio chair No. 41, where the angle between the back and the seat was designed to facilitate the patient’s breathing.

Aalto was very careful in designing the rooms of the patients trying to make everything as pleasant as possible by eliminating sources of disturbance.

The rooms have ceiling heating and are painted in soft colors; a view of the surrounding pine forests opened out from the beds. Light sources outside the field of vision and noiseless washbasins complete the whole.

The choice of colors for the interior aims to enliven the bare white

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plan of Paimio Sanatorium

Paimio Sanatorium 11

functionalism of the hospital. Patient rooms show colors based on earth tones, while bright colors have been chosen for common rooms. Equally well-known are the orange colors of the balustrades and the yellow of the stairwells, in addition to the orange and green of the awnings.

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Paimio Sanatorium, stairwell

Paimio chair n°41

Paimio Sanatorium, terrace 13

the city of Oulu

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Oulu

Country: Finland Province: Oulu Region: Northern Ostrobothnia Area: 369,43 km2 Population: 200.000 Region of Northern Ostrobothnia City of Oulu

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Typpi Oy industrial area Typpi Oy (later Kemira Oy) in Oulu’s Laanila factory area is made of industrial buildings and related structures and facilities. Buildings serve the needs of the chemical industry, which is the reason why the area and many of its buildings have experienced many changes. Typpi Oy’s operations have been characterized by continuous construction and operation expansion.

In this way, it appears to have different strata due to a general expansion, as well as dismantled objects.

The design of the area and its buildings was commissioned to Alvar Aalto Studio, located in Helsinki, an office with experience in the construction of factory building (like Toppila and Sunila), and in October 1950 the construction began. Later on, other architects have been responsible for the design: Architectural Office Seppo Valjus Ky, who was responsible for designing factory buildings, moved to Aalto’s office in the late 1960s. The factory also includes buildings declined as housing constructions for the staff.

The plan of the first factory area comprised thirty-five buildings, which were mainly placed according to the conveyor system. Factory buildings were planned following the technical requirements, but Aalto also looked at their aesthetic and socio-psychological factors, such as the human scale. Aalto’s handcraft is particularly noticeable in material selection and details. In Laanila factory area there are the same features as in the Sunila factory area in Kotka, a major pulp mill factory set up by the former Aalto office in the years 1936-1954.

The buildings of the Laanila factory area are divided into production and production storage spaces. The façades of the buildings designed by Alvar Aalto’s office are mainly made of red bricks and partly using metal and Eternit fibre-cement boards.

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genesis of h–talo The architecture of Alvar Aalto in the post-war period falls in the second half of the so-called “experimentation” period and in the mature phase of his career, which can be called “monumentalism”. Starting from the 1930s, Aalto experimented with bricks, laminated wood, sculptures and abstract reliefs, characterized by organic curved shapes. Using his knowledge, he was able to solve problems of a technical nature and solve spatial issues.

This phase is also called the “period of red bricks”, in which the aim was to avoid an overly perfect and “mechanical” aspect of the façade, in favor of an animated and natural aspect that acquires a sculptural quality in the light.

His interest in these details illustrates once again that for him design was a unique, inseparable process: from large to small scale, from urban planning to the parapet of a stairway. In other words, the exceptional character of Aalto’s architecture lies in the fact that he designed everything personally, down to the smallest detail.

In the following or last period, the “monumentalism”, in the ‘60s and’ 70s and until his death in 1976, many key projects in Helsinki marked the mature part of his career. In this period he worked mainly with tiles and marbles, which gave his architecture a purity.

Moreover, during this period urban plans represented a crucial part of his working life, such as the Töölö bay in Helsinki. It was a long journey from the first “urban dreams” of Aalto to the great sculpture of the plan for the center of Helsinki in the 50s and 60s.

Alvar Aalto continued to apply natural metaphors composed of sinuous forms and movements to all aspects of his work, ranging from the large scale of urban planning to the small scale of interior design or sections of buildings. The wavy shape also had an impact on the façades and in the interior spaces of the volumes. Starting from the natural wavy shape, Aalto evolved it into an oscillating asymmetrical shape, which he used both as a natural metaphor and as a functional and design factor. This form is a fundamental guide for much of its “naturalistic” design, from urban planning to architecture; from the volume of a building to the internal

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Typpi Oy industrial area, Oulu

H-talo, Oulu, entrance 19

partitions.

Focusing on the general plan, we can find the “h” shape also in two other projects. The first is part of the beginning of his career and is the sanatorium of Paimio, the other is the hostel for students in Otaniemi, dating back to the mid-60s. We can see the similarity of this form in the entrance. Alvar Aalto tends to realize the entry in the bifurcation of the letter “h” to create a perspective effect and approach between the two legs. In these two buildings, the bifurcation is one of the most important and emphasized points and is made up of a wide and luminous entrance through the use of a brilliant material for the floor. One of the differences between the H-Talo and the Paimio sanatorium lies in the materials. In the sanatorium, Aalto used whitewashed cement as in the works at the beginning of his career, and this is classified as “international style”. As we know, Aalto changed his style and began using bricks and curved shapes from the middle of his career; this can be seen for example in the Otaniemi student hostel. Although the latter and H-Talo were built around the same time, H-Talo does not have an organic form. It was considered that the intended use would have been industrial, so that type of form would not have been suitable for the function of the building, or that it was not necessary to realize a particular façade towards the forest.

There are similarities between the H-Talo and some famous Aalto projects in terms of the relationship between the building and the landscape context. For example, considering the municipality of Säynätsalo (194952), the Aalto studio (1955-56), and the civic center of Seinäjoki (1963-65), the ground floor is half-buried. This concept, recognizable in the H-Talo, keeps the building on a “human” scale making it feel lower than it actually is.

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Paimio Sanatorium, entrance

Otaniemi hostel, entrance 21

h-talo building history Prior to the construction of the research laboratory, the research work was already in progress in a factory laboratory. The facilities were reserved for current productionrelated analyzes and other checks, but were small for the help of wider research work. Although the research activity devours a relatively large amount of money, it was considered essential to the development of the chemical industry. For these reasons The AGM decided to build a new laboratory building on the mill site on 17 December 1965.

The purpose of designing the premises was to meet the needs of the future demands of new research subjects.

When designing new premises, the need for laboratory facilities at Oulu University of Technology was taken into account by designing the building sufficiently large. The idea was to rent part of the premises for a fixed period to the University of Oulu, and thus also to prepare for later growth in the company’s own research. Such co-operation between the industry and the university under the same roof received a considerable attention and was the first in Europe. Preliminary plans for the building were made by the company’s senior research team, Niilo Lounamaa. Based on these drafts, Architect Olli Penttilä of Alvar Aalto’s office designed the building.

1967

The new research laboratory was solemnly inaugurated on April 3, 1967.

It is a reinforced concrete frame, with concrete faces supporting façades made of pure red brick.

The roof-top was covered with asbestos fiber-cement slab, which was replaced by a miner plate in the 1998 repair. The bottom of the building is made of concrete. The building was three-storey with a ground floor and two upper floors with a total floor area of 8600m2, with 2/3 taking Typpi Oy. Under the terms of the agreement, the University of Oulu rented for ten years about a third of the building covering the entire southern section

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of the building.

Typpi Oy’s premises were divided into laboratory spaces, office and conference facilities, library rooms, workstations, storerooms, public spaces, technical aids and social spaces. In addition, the space program included hall and corridor facilities. Laboratories were divided into three parts: one was dedicated to the development of the research, the second one supported the production, and the third focused on the support and service of the previous activity.

The entrance to the three compartments of the building led the walker to the bright main hall from the left ramp, to the ground floor from the middle or to the premises of the process engineering plant through the right-hand main entrance.

In the bright main hall there are the doorman’s facilities and the library’s premises, serving the entire factory area.

Previously, the facilities of the library were located in the middle of the mill site, but they changed after the laboratory building was completed.

Its material was technical sciences and consisted mostly of various magazines, but also books were borrowed diligently in different parts of the mill as needed.

The library’s premises covered about 350m2, of which 100m2 were located on the second floor of the building as a lending and reading area.

Most of the premises were located on the ground floor of the building as a local storage and archive rooms. The central location of the library was important in order to make the use of premises both for the factory and the building staff as smooth as possible. The use of the library was made easy and the use of the activity was encouraged by a well-functioning service.

The main research laboratory facilities were housed in the second floor of the building as a whole and in addition to the first floor in the northeast wing. On the floors were also office space for research facilities and researchers’ offices. Right at the northeast of the building were laboratories that used, among other things, X-rays to define various elements. On the southwestern part of the first floor of the building, there was room for additional office spaces, where a design department worked. The ground floor covered the laboratory’s service and social facilities, warehouses and even a glass blower.

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H-talo, Oulu, entrance

H-talo, Oulu, parking and test plant 25

1970s

In the 1960s and 1970s, the research laboratory was wide-ranging. In 1972, Typpi Oy’s research laboratory became Kemira Oy’s Oulu Research Institute due to the merger of the plant. This was followed by the transition of the administration of the building to the subordination of the central administration, which had previously operated under the auspices of the Oulu mills.

In the mid-1970s, the health center moved to the new premises downstairs in the research laboratory wing. In addition to the health center, the cellar’s service stations were in operation. The repair shop’s electronics workshop mainly took care of the repair of laboratory equipment but also built new equipment. In addition to these, perhaps a more special activity on the ground floor was the factory’s own photographic plant, which was designed to monitor the mill’s development by describing items at regular intervals and documenting machine damage to the plant. All images were developed in the laboratory building itself.

The use of the premises changed partially in 1977, ten years after the inauguration of the building. The lease of the University of Oulu began to lapse and the Department of Process Engineering moved to Linnanmaa in the University premises destined for it. For 2.5 years, the VTT (= Technical Research Institute of State), which used the research laboratory’s premises, released its space to the factory and rented the newly-liberated university premises from the south side of the building. In connection with the changes, the research institute got back the auditorium suitable for lectures and training.

Various sports and competitions were a common way for employees to relax through the history of the building.

1980s

In 1989, VTT also moved to its own premises in Linnanmaa, and the first floor of the building’s south wing was again liberated from its tenant. In the meantime, the premises of the building’s wing area were renovated, after which the facilities were reorganized among the users. Polartek Oy, an engineering firm based in Oulu, leased the first floor of the vacant wing and part of the ground floor. The second floor of the wing took over the catalyst section. The health center was also able to expand its facilities

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H-talo, Oulu, level 1

H-talo, Oulu, library 27

and in the same year it became a physiotherapy operation.

1990s

In the 1990s, the use of information technology became increasingly associated with chemical research. The building was also marked by a lack of office space. Some user changes were made to the research premises, but no structural changes were made before the 90s. At that time, horizontal rooms for laboratories were converted into office and accounting facilities.

During the same decade, some of the laboratory facilities were painted and, where it was necessary, repaired in connection with the renovation of the roof in 1998. In addition, some of the downstairs laboratory facilities were converted into conference rooms and research rooms. The basement floor workshop was renovated in 1999.

2000s

In the 21st century, the use of information technology as a tool for research increased. Computer screens in the laboratory’s work desks began to appear, as well as hardware to determine elements of the periodic system. The equipment mentioned in the June Performs, such as the gas chromatograph, the liquid chromatography and the capillary electrophoresis device, indicate the versatility of the equipment involved in the study.

The installation of new technology in the premises required renovation of the building, whereby the premises were wanted to be enlivened. In 2003, during the summer and autumn, a renovation was carried out at the research laboratory premises, designed by architect Teiju Autio of the NOON Architectural Office.

Changes to the building were wanted to be implemented so as not to interfere with Aalto’s architecture. Materials selection has made use of Kemira archives during the design planning period and drawings. The aim was to make the spaces compatible and timeless, and, inter alia, to change the floor surfaces to the original design. Floor materials were reported in 2005 by the “Technopolis building condition check” in their old service life and were prompted to change them whenever the repairs were made. This activity can be seen, for example, in basement rooms as varying flooring materials. Some of the interior wooden doors in the

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H-talo, Oulu, level 2

H-talo, Oulu, corridor in the south wing

H-talo, Oulu, office 29

building were renewed in the 2003 renovation and the doors are still in good condition with respect to their age and to the small wear caused by mechanical stress. The windows had been refurbished to triple woodframed windows at the beginning of the new millennium.

2014

At present, the building is known as Technopolis Laanila, which leases its premises to various kinds of business. The core of the building was the Kemira Oy Research Center. Having sold its formic acid plant to a US company called Tamnico, Kemira has become a water-based chemical company. The use of the building is currently low, and the southwestern corner of the first and second floors and some of the laboratory facilities are completely empty. On the ground floor there are office spaces, as well as empty storage and maintenance facilities. The activity still seems to be physiotherapy and healthcare facilities.

Surface materials are in good conditions, especially on the first and second floor, where the materials have remained unchanged. The partitions are made of white painted bricks, except frome some of them which are lightweight. The interior sides of the exterior wall are painted molded concrete, as are the ceiling surfaces of the rooms. The floors of the first and second floor have original gray plastic roof mat and a new plastic mat introduced in 2003. The floor surfaces of the basement floor are also in plastic mat, with the exception of concrete surfaces in storage spaces. The heating coils in the cellar and corridor spaces are steel plates and flat radiators.

2017

The beginning of the year marks a new change in the property of the building: from Technopolis to Typpipark, with the aim of renting the spaces to startups.

summary

During its entire history, the building has been characterized by renting premises to various operators. The ground floor has also been used with versatility for mechanical repair of equipment, storage facilities, office space, recreational activities and health care.

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H-talo, Oulu, basement

H-talo, Oulu, storage in the basement

H-talo, Oulu, basement entrance 31

The building has been, for many aspects, an extension of the insufficient facilities in the factory area and partly the rented premises of outside operators, in addition to the research laboratories that are the main use of the building.

There have been many user changes over the decades in the building.

In the basement floor, the variations in the uses of the spaces have been reflected in surfaces that are different in time, which has resulted in varying flooring materials, for example.

The current use of premises due to the leasing of spaces continues to be the old tradition of the building, even as one of the starting points for the design of the building is the rental of premises to the university.

Over the years, technology has partially settled into the building, taking up a lot of space. At the planning stage, however, space reservations have not been able to anticipate technological progress.

There is still space in the building and a desire to seek renewal of technology and to keep up with it. In laboratory spaces, the flowing of the decades is emerging on hardware platform and on a partial decline in floor tiles. Renewed equipment in the basement workshop has been fit, but the equipment required for penetrations and piping has no better place than the floor surface.

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H-talo, Oulu, handrail detail

H-talo, Oulu, handrail section

H-talo, Oulu, workstation

H-talo, Oulu, workstation 33

the project The project for the recovery of the area, the theme of this thesis, aims to rethink the building and establish new functions. For the part designed

by Aalto, a function that is well suited to the building without causing changes or distortions is the establishment of a start-up incubator in the technological field, given the strong vocation of the city.

The extension, in line with the destination for cultural purposes of the area, aims to become a museum of technology, focusing in particular on those sectors that have favored the growth of the city of Oulu: telecommunications, with Nokia, processing of cellulose, shipbuilding.

This new building is related to the existing through a covered square, which acts as a hinge and new center of the complex, which also overlooks a wooden pergola that houses the coffee shop. This element also integrates and relates to the original test plant, which is converted into a restaurant with large windows overlooking the water.

The actual museum consists of three two-storey galleries, each with its own lifts and dedicated to a specific theme. On the ground floor, at the exit of the galleries, there is a winter garden that offers original views of the surrounding environment and allows visitors to sit and rest.

The volumes of the auditorium and the cafeteria create a courtyard with stone paving that is completed with a descent towards the water.

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Alvar Aalto buildings in Oulu 1:15000

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S01 -pavement, 1cm -foundation in lightened concrete screed, 10cm -thermal insulation in Finnfoam panels, 10cm -reinforced completion flow, 5cm -polypropylene ventilated crawl space type IGLU 45x45, 40cm -foundation slab S02 -pavement, 1cm -foundation in lightened concrete screed, 8cm -thermal insulation in Finnfoam panels, 5cm -slab type U-BOOT, 34cm -plaster finish S03 -extensive green roof -substrate, 10cm -filter element -draining element and prefabricated water storage -mechanical protection element -root barrier -bituminous membrane -slab, 10cm -main beam in HEB 600 steel

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S04 -plaster finish -reinforced concrete septum -Finnfoam thermal insulation with integrated vapor barrier, 14cm -facing brick

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Bibliography ARCHIVES Alvar Aalto Foundation Oulu School of Architecture, Restoration course BOOKS Aalto, Louna Lahti Alvar Aalto, The complete work Alvar Aalto Library in Vyborg - Saving a Modern Masterpiece, Part 1 Alvar Aalto Library in Vyborg - Saving a Modern Masterpiece, Part 2 Marco Biraghi, Storia dell’architettura contemporanea I, 1750-1945 Kaupunkistrategia Oulu 2020 (PDF)

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