Otaniemen kappeli

The chapel at TKK was designed by Heikki and Kaija Siren in 1952-53. Completed in 1956, it was destroyed by arson twenty years later but was rebuilt according to the original design. Tadao Ando visited this church before he designed the Church on the Water. Click on any of the images below for a larger version.

The chapel is on a low wooded hill at the east side of the campus. Rebecca's dorm is immediately behind me to the left.


The courtyard of the chapel. To the left is a screen of branches laid horizontally between steel uprights. In the center of the courtyard, paved with cobbles, are several conifer trees and the bell tower. The perimeter of the courtyard is paved in brick. Behind the bell tower's cross are tall west-facing clerestory windows. While the bricks and mortar are still unweathered, there is considerable efflorescence. The chapel will be closed for restoration from May through December.


The entire east wall of the chapel is glazed. In this interior elevation the cross is centered beyond between two columns; however, from most seats the view is unframed and thus open to individual interpretation. Window mullions are hidden behind the timber columns that support the roof trusses. Beyond the white steel cross the hill descends toward the Laajalahti bay; a fence, invisible from the chapel, prevents people from walking through the view. The building is five structural bays wide. The four northern bays form the worship space, while the fifth includes the entrance, circulation space, the organ, and the chaplain's room (the roof of which is just visible to the right). The chaplain's room was not part of the original design; it was added when the building was reconstructed.


Although not "architecturally correct," this photo does show how small the room is, front to back, and how trusses (timber with steel tension rods) support a steeply-sloped roof. The slope not only provides for the clerestory at the left, but also generates a forced perspective that makes the space seem deeper than it actually is. Without this effect, it might seem too shallow given its width. The room is actually wider than it is deep.


This photo was taken from the organist's point of view. The first time I was in this building, a student was playing Rachmaninov on a piano; the second time, the organist was practicing. The music seems to fill a much larger space than is actually present, probably as a result of the ceiling angle. The extensive view, the forced perspective of the ceiling, and the acoustical properties of the room reinforce each other in enlarging the space.


My 2 € lunch at Dipoli (the student center at TKK)


On Wednesday, I went to a lecture (in English, at the Helsinki Ateneum) on Erik Gunnar Asplund. Eva Eriksson discussed recurring elements in Asplund's buildings: apparently symmetric facades that that, upon close inspection, turn out to be asymmetric; cylindrical "served" spaces set within generally rectangular "servant" masses (to appropriate Louis Kahn's terminology), with stairs often wrapping the former; special attention given to stairs, including skylighting; central volumes that, while entirely enclosed, are treated as if they were outdoors; and a rather postmodern use of ironic humor.