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Minimal information content

in Finnish architecture

Gareth Griffiths

… that absurd period of the flowering of the birch-bark

culture, when all that was clumsy and coarse was considered
In this essay I look at how various ideas so very Finnish.
and conceptions of Finnish architecture Alvar Aalto on Finnish Jugendstil architecture1
have endured and discuss theoretical accounts
In Finland, architecture is and remains the prisoner of fo-
suggesting why they do so. reign policy. Architects feel that their duty is to sustain the
The reception of works can be said image of a young and dynamic nation through expressive
to depend to a significant extent on attributing meaning architecture that reflects their technical know-how and close-
that we have learnt in advance, ness to nature. This mythical nation avoids unnecessary intel-
and resemblance may be more easily discernible lectual play and produces a straight-forward matter-of-fact
when the factors share a minimal information content, environment for others to admire. The opposite of this is
just as the abstraction of the smiley face Sweden, where architecture is motivated by the needs of its
could represent everyone. citizens. While Finland wants to be a nation, Sweden is first
This then may allow us to see no contradiction between and foremost a society (…) Sweden and Finland are neigh-
peasant symbolism, humanism, modernity bours who don’t understand each other and who don’t under-
and estrangement, so central to the construction stand they are free. Who does? Kai Wartiainen2
of ”Finnish Architecture”, as well as allowing

I
wish to use the above polemical assertion by Kai War-
parallels to examples in other cultures,
tiainen, Finnish architect and professor of architecture
be it Danish or Japanese.
at KTH in Stockholm, not as a statement of fact but as
a text worthy of scrutiny, as an introduction to a discussion
of how various ideas and conceptions of Finnish architecture

Gareth Griffiths: Minimal information content in Finnish architecture 55

have endured, and to suggest some different theoretical word ’culture’, a class structure (or fields of action such as
accounts of why they do so. The rhetorical cleverness of architecture and ”Finnish architecture”) is created that
Wartiainen’s statement lies in its juxtaposition of an essen- legitimates itself and reproduces inequality.3 The most
tialist assertion about the nature of Finland and Sweden powerful tool in the reproduction is ’naturalization’, i.e.
against the question of freedom or subjectivity. It thus raises that things are naturally the way they are, either due to
the questions of how we might speak about cultural pheno- normative cultural reasons (”this is what we do in our
mena in a critical way, why certain ideas persist or how any- culture”) or natural meritocracy (e.g. genetic reasons). In
thing new is created. As a final case-study I will critique a architecture this naturalization would be fought over as an
piece of recent research by architect/researcher Petra Ceferin, avant-garde practice balanced between peer-group and pu-
who attempted to uncover the deliberate institutional const- blic recognition and elitist control.4
ruction of a public understanding of ”Finnish architecture”. The latter genetic argument is offered by evolutionary
psychology. Its concept of memes offers theoretical tools for
Essentialism vs Constructivism the discussion of cultural identity, though not without
Whilst wishing to avoid drawing up a diagram of the history coming close to committing the naturalist fallacy; i.e. arguing
of ideas in regards to the various interpretations of essen- from ‘is’ to ‘ought’, from fact to norm. In attempting to
tialism vs nominalism vs realism vs idealism vs constructi- bring the ”success story” of the natural sciences to the social
vism vs naturalism, some definitions are necessary. Briefly, sciences, it argues for breaking down the issues into causes
constructivism is the view that all knowledge is constructed and effects and, moreover, natural selection. Briefly, a ’meme’,
rather than discovered and that it is impossible to tell, and as postulated by biologist Richard Dawkins, is a hypo-
unnecessary to know, if and to what degree knowledge reflects thetical unit of cultural information, which would form
an ontological reality: essentialism is the belief in the real, the basis for cultural evolution in a similar way that he sees
true essence of things, the invariable and fixed properties genes as the basis for biological evolution.5 A meme is thus
which define the ’whatness’ of a given entity. Though the an idea or type of behaviour that can be copied by another;
natural sciences are the standard benchmark of essentialism, e.g. tunes, beliefs, clothes, designing buildings, etc., even
or more properly realism, one can also ascertain more const- the notion of ’tradition’ itself. A cultural trait is thought to
ructed varieties, what one could term an essentialist const- have evolved in the way it has simply because it is advan-
ructivism, paramount among which are phenomenology tageous to itself. Something might be accepted despite its
(arguably a form of idealism), as for instance in Heidegger’s lack of ‘truth’ or pathological behaviour, but because it was
view that essence – as the unconcealment of entities – is his- a good ‘replicator’. In biology cancer is such a replicator.
torical, in that each period is characterized by a particular Nikos Salingaros and Terry Mikiten have even argued ana-
way in which Being/beings are disclosed (e.g. technology in logously (though the analogy is soon forgotten) that ’modern
medieval vs modern times). Social theory contrasts this to a architecture’ is a cancerous replicator.6 Adaptive design
constructivism which recognises contingency, where culture has been abandoned, they argue, and instead the spread
has a relational rather than an atomic structure, raising the of architectural styles depends strictly on factors gover-
issue of the arbitrary character of cultural archetypes, such ning meme propagation in a society. Salingaros and Mikiten
that culture becomes defined at best as a site of contestation, argue that a minimalist style possesses an unbeatable advan-
a field of practices of domination, sub-ordination, identi- tage over more complex styles because of its low information
fication and refusal. content: simplicity, novelty, utility and formality. These
The pedigree for the socio-political viewpoint can be characterizations hold what could be called enduring mimetic
traced to the Marxist viewpoint that the dominant class of potency, that is, cultural reproducibility. They compare
society, empowered by the economy, acts in all things to the success of the methods of modernism to those used in
retain their position of power; to the Weberian view on the commercial advertising, with the focus on the seduction by
monopolization of ideal or material goods or opportunities; rhetorical imagery.7 Interestingly, what brings the evolu-
and the Bourdivin view that through ’symbolic power’, in a tionary psychology and Bourdivin views together is the

56 Nordisk Arkitekturforskning 2004: 4

reductionist belief that one of the functions of art is to gain
As a land of forests it [Finland] is characterized by endless
status, and that connoisseurship of ’difficult’ or elitist art serves
extension, which is emphasized by lack of relief and distinct
as a way of gaining cultural capital or power.
spaces. To the space of the forest belongs the cloven light that
contributes to the impression of incompleteness. Here archi-
The reproduction of Finnishness
tecture has its main task to create places in the indefinite…
In establishing a conceptual framework for cross-cultural
psychology one may thus be drawn to the perennial question An essentialist account is also evident in the reasoning of
of nature versus nurture. For instance, early anthropologists Norberg-Schulz’s teacher, Sigfried Giedion, who categori-
were concerned with ascertaining universal versus relativist cally stated that ”Finland is with Aalto wherever he goes”.12
aspects of cognition, giving examples, for instance, of how Aalto first appeared in Giedion’s Space, Time and Architec-
’primitive peoples’ viewed space differently from Westerners. ture in the second edition (1949/first edition 1941). Leading
Though there is still some research into cultural difference up to his obsession with the curved contours of the Viipuri
through brain domain specificity,8 the predominant view Library (1927–35) and the Savoy Vase (1936) to the Finnish
has been that indeed different cultures may conceptualize Pavilion for the 1939 New York World Fair, Giedion retraces
the world differently, but that such conceptualizations the history of modern architecture, the first stage con-
change over time, as shown by Aalto’s view on Jugendstil, in cerned with finding new forms of construction and the
the epigram fronting this paper. I mention this because still second with finding new forms of artistic expression. But
in the 1980s Norwegian psychologist Frode Strømnes was with these achieved it was possible “[for Aalto] to strive for
doing experiments to test his hypothesis that Finns (as further development and to dare the leap from the rational-
speakers of a non-Indo-European language) constructed functional to the irrational-organic”,13 albeit that the ‘organic
time and space differently from Westerners: the overlapping humanisation’ of Modernism “already lay concealed within
of two-dimensional space in time for the former and of three- the functional conception.”14 In thinking that form is an
dimensional space in time for the latter.9 But one would embodiment of a whole Weltanschauung of a period and
hardly need such scientific evidence for cognitive relativism place, the source for Aalto’s “organic modernism”, Giedion
to defend an essentialist-phenomenological position. For finds, however, in the nature of Finland, both of which “to
instance, Juhani Pallasmaa picked up on Strømnes’ research to many still appears rude and almost barbaric.”15 If tradition
defend his broadly phenomenological position, arguing that (and its attributes such as ‘cosiness’) is antithetical to the
“We Finns tend to organize space topologically on the basis of estrangement so central to Modernism, it could be replaced
an amorphous ‘forest geometry’, as opposed to the ‘geometry here by ascetic primitiveness.
of the town’ that guides the thinking of traditionally urbanized One of the reasons why ambitious students (and presum-
Europe”.10 Despite appearances, Pallasmaa’s suggestion should ably Wartiainen) find such essentialism embarrassing is
probably not be read as implying that the ”Finnish concept of because it seems to imply that nothing truly new can ever be
space and time” is more primitive than or closer to the truth of made – though instinct tells us that can’t be correct – or, less
human perception than the Western model. dramatically, that their work will always be interpreted from
Christian Norberg-Schulz has been paramount in Hei- the essentialist point of view as a reflection of nationality
degger-inspired essentialist descriptions of Nordic architec- or geography. But architecture cannot be simply derived
ture, even claiming to explain what Nordic architecture truly from nature or nation. When Frank Lloyd Wright said that
is, and how Finnish building is a “successful translation of his forms follow the nature of the materials, they were in
the Finnish environment into architectural form”.11 Typical fact following Wright’s understanding of what was the essence
for essentialism, Norberg-Schulz understands identity diacri- of the materials, and the same goes for Aalto or Pietilä: natural
tically: the essence of the North is that is it not the South. forms do not belong to nature but to culture, and any con-
For him, the North is a world, scarcely understood, of ception of natural or essential forms is thus subject to change.
moods as determined by the light, while the South is the Instead of direct experience, the reception of works de-
birth of Idea and Form, each entity becoming discrete: pends to a significant extent on attributing meaning that

Gareth Griffiths: Minimal information content in Finnish architecture 57

we have built up in advance. As Juan Bonta argued, a cano-
The architectural and material decisions [in Lusto] reach
nical interpretation of a phenomenon such as a building is a
towards traditional Finnish architecture and folk building
cumulative result of many previous responses, distilled by
without compromising their modern premises.21
repetition and reduced to the bare essentials; a process of
filtering rather than growth.16 Within the process of filte- We may conclude that whether endorsing romanticism or
ring there is a necessity to reconcile contradictory aspects trying to deconstruct it, essentialist ideas about national
among diverse initial speculations. Furthermore, it could architecture were still forcing their hand. Reima Pietilä was
be argued, resemblance is more easily discernable when the thus a rare example of an architect embracing the theore-
factors share a minimal information content, just as the ab- tical possibilities of such a cultural determinism:
straction of the smiley face could represent everyone.17
I think in my native language, Finnish. I talk whilst I draw –
What limits the interpretation is the context.
the rhythm and intonation of Finnish govern the move-
Hence, not content with arguments related to a ratio-
ments of my pencil. Do I draw in Finnish? …The local cases
nality of economics and tectonic realism, even contemporary
and rationalistic vocabulary of the Finnish language are the
minimalist glass boxes in Helsinki get interpreted in terms
elements of my genuine way to express topological architec-
of “Finnishness”: historian Pekka Suhonen, for instance, saw
ture and space.22
the wooden elements in the otherwise glass-boxed Sanoma
House in Helsinki as alluding to traditional Finnish wooden Commentators have not only sensed a continuity in Finnish
boats.18 How is this possible? In terms of the Peircean semiotic architecture that seems to transcend international stylistic
notion of conventional (i.e. learnt)19 symbols, ”natural categories. Architectural isomorphisms have also been dis-
objects” such as wood become a learnt sign of Finnishness, cerned transculturally between traditional and modern Fin-
and thus may be used as quotations within a larger argu- nish and Japanese architecture, and likewise between Danish
ment of progress, arguably also fuelled by a marketing and Japanese approaches. 23 On one level, this is a matter of
rhetoric of cultural difference within global capitalism. For taking direct stylistic ’borrowings’, Japonism, but of more
example, in deliberating on the competition-winning-based interest are the deeper isomorphisms. Juhani Pallasmaa states
designs he and Ilmari Lahdelma made for the Finnish Forest that the similarity of aesthetic aspirations in Finland and
Museum Lusto (1994) and the Kaustinen Folk Art Centre Japan is evident in
(1997) Rainer Mahlamäki argued that despite the national the preference for visual reduction and restraint, apprecia-
overtones of the buildings’ functions, they didn’t want to tion of natural materials and subdued colours, the interplay
have symbolic meanings in the choice of materials or form between elements and rhythms of nature and manmade geo-
– ”that the essence of folk culture is birch-bark shoe ro- metry and a distinct sense of humility.24
manticism” – to which their answer had been to design
’abstractions’.20 However, while endorsing the view that This can even allow comparisons between what has otherwise
the great modernist principle of ”producing something been seen as the diametrically opposing schools of thought of
which hasn’t been done before” is still valid, he argues Alvar Aalto and the so-called constructivist school associ-
that when designing public buildings in Finland one must ated with Aulis Blomstedt.
to some extent follow the cultural requirements. It should Blomstedt perpetuated the belief, stemming from the
not, he argues, conflict with the value-world of society: 18th century, that architecture could be controlled through
it must correspond to the preconceived ideas. Thus, in mathematical reason alone, without mythos. This was also a
the case of the Folk Art Centre, the aim was to create a continuation of the Corbusian idea that beauty in architec-
building with a kantele character, while in Lusto the original ture is evinced by the existence of primary forms and mathe-
choice of concrete was meant to avoid the expectations matical harmony. But Blomstedt also employed Hans Kayser’s
of programmatic romanticism, though in the final scheme neo-Pythagorean harmonics and developed his Kenno pro-
it was clad in timber: portional system on the basis of the Japanese Ken standard
measurement, which he detected also in the architecture of

58 Nordisk Arkitekturforskning 2004: 4

Mies van der Rohe.25 This line of argument was then taken works. For instance, architects Heikkinen and Komonen
up by Blomstedt’s students, for instance by Kirmo Mikkola have described their projects for Vuotalo Cultural Centre
and early Pallasmaa, in works that evoked both Japanese and the Max Planck Institute with reference to the works of
architecture and Miesian essentialism (albeit that some Minimalist artist Donald Judd.32 But when directly asked
structures didn’t endure the Finnish climate).26 Still, in each whether they are Minimalists, Heikkinen and Komonen
case the architecture was seen both as an abstraction of and cleverly replied that what they do is ’Maximalism’: “We do
subjugation to nature. Indeed, Blomstedt argued that not try to reduce the unnecessary in our buildings; just the
opposite, we try to gather, concentrate in them… the essence
The higher the level attained in a certain form of civilization,
of architecture.” This is indeed the point that Pallasmaa
the more resources become refined in the direction of sim-
makes about abstraction, inspired by thinkers such as
plicity – the palette becomes barer.27
Gaston Bachelard: ”The real significance of the abstract
If Plato rejected mimesis in art because it cannot achieve concept is not outward simplicity and limited content; on
the truth of the original idea, the neoplatonically inspired the contrary, it is a simple concentrate of meaning and asso-
abstraction in Modernism – exemplified by Kandinsky, ciation.”33 As Bachelard himself asked: ”How can a (poetic)
Mondrian and van Doesburg – opted for anamnesis and image, at times very unusual, appear to be a concentration
attempted to create a perfect non-mimetic, virtually im- of the entire psyche?”34
material art. In this view, evident also in Blomstedt’s writings,
purity is guaranteed by a universal vision of harmony.28 Modernism, estrangement and the peasant symbol
Thus the point would be not to see cultural phenomena Finnish architecture is routinely characterized with the
as the essence of architecture but merely a local materiali- positive features of nature, landscape, and the use of natural
zation of universal proportional systems. Indeed, the work materials. Finland is also usually seen as a country that
of Mies hardly gets linked to German culture but with a embraced Modernism; and while that is primarily associ-
universal classicism based on architecture’s essence being ated with instrumental progress, one would also have to
one of proportional systems. On the other hand, one might account for its other associated values, especially central to
try to “geographically locate” such universalism in Euro- the arts, such as estrangement or alienation.
centrism.29 Although its roots lie far back in the Judeo-Christian tra-
In discussing this ease of detecting isomorphism at low dition, the concept of alienation first gained prominence in
levels of information, it’s important not to forget that Mini- the philosophy of Hegel, and later Marxism, psychoanalysis
malism in art was supposed to allude to nothing: in striving and existentialism. In ‘modern architecture’ there could be
for non-referentiality the viewer’s pure experience of obser- said to exist a fundamental conflict between familiarity and
vation would become the content of the work. But as Rosalind estrangement, between architecture as an autonomous art
Krauss has emphasised, Minimalism from the very begin- and dwelling. This could be said to be a consequence of
ning located itself within the technology of industrial pro- architecture’s lingering attachment to the aesthetic, and
duction, thus lending itself to replication and a break with can be traced back to Nietzsche (for whom the discordance
the irreproducibility of the unique art object, as well as between art and truth aroused dread because the former
creating the potential for the market to restructure the appears as somehow more truthful than empirical truth)
aesthetic original.30 Thus while Minimalism may have been and before that to Romanticism and Kant in securing auto-
conceived originally as a form of resistance to mass/con- nomous domains of aesthetic, cognitive and moral judge-
sumer culture31 through its banalized and commodified ment – which could be said to constitute post-Cartesian
objects, thus restoring the immediacy of experience, it never- modernity. Alienation has a more recent characterisations
theless held the formal potential for capitalist production. in Russian formalist Victor Sklovskij’s notion of ostranenye
In the case of current Minimalist architecture in Finland, [’making strange’] and in Theodor Adorno’s negative dialectics
the objectlikeness of elitist artworks is re-invented under – modernist works of art ask us beyond our ability to redeem
the guise of making buildings into non-representational art their claims conceptually, demanding acknowledgement

Gareth Griffiths: Minimal information content in Finnish architecture 59

while simultaneously resisting being fully understood or Øystein Sørensen and Bo Stråth have shown that the
explained.35 For Sklovskij, ”habituation devours art works”; Enlightenment – as the cultivation of the public sphere –
art works exist, he argues, ”that one may recover the sensa- has formed the development trajectory of the Nordic count-
tion of life, it exists to make one feel things, to make stone ries, though one unlike any other Western standard, in that
stony”.36 The technique of art is ”to make objects ’unfamiliar’, it has the peasant as its foremost symbol.41 This peasant was
to make forms difficult, to increase the difficulty and length not the backward, uneducated or idealised figure of Sturm
of perception because the process of perception is an aest- und Drang romanticism, but an active participant in politi-
hetic end in itself and must be prolonged.” This thus pre- cal processes. Moreover, this was Enlightenment paradoxi-
sents a novel interpretation of artistic development: art need cally driven by the powerful presence of Christianity. The
not express new content but make strange habitualised form. peasant symbol has persisted in Finland, but also building
This idea of alienation has, of course, been more proble- close to nature has been a virtual self-evident fact, even in
matic in architecture because of its concern for notions of the cities. Due to the dominance of the Agrarian party, the
dwelling and shelter. Recognizing this dilemma, Pallasmaa post-war reconstruction in Finland was not used as a mo-
has argued that “Architecture and the home are contra- tive for a policy of urbanisation; and reconstruction began
dictory concepts”.37 In this regard, Pallasmaa approaches the instead in the rural areas. But subtle changes become evident,
position of Adolf Loos, who once argued that while the for instance, in the gradual modernization of seemingly
house as home is the store of pleasant memories and the rural house types for reasons of instrumental progress –
shelter of the individual, art (including the art of architec- making them cheaper to build/afford/maintain.42 An anti-
ture) questions complacency and wants to draw people out urban critique has been persistent, epitomised by the foun-
of their state of comfort.38 Put rather differently, Kaj Nyman ding of Tapiola Garden City in 1953 and the general ’forest
has argued that with the post-war rationalisms, continuing town’ planning. It should also be mentioned that in Finnish
up until the postmodernist turn, beauty was deconstructed, mythologies and narratives (e.g. Kivi’s novel Seven Brothers)
containing its counterpart, ugliness,39 but that this was not the forest is not a place of alienation, but of protection –
a conscious deconstruction (as occurred later) but an ’acci- from urbanity.
dental’ one, where the user is forced to re-gestalt his/her
environment. The Construction of “Finnish Architecture”
The above claims would need to be analysed in terms of In her thesis-based book Constructing a Legend. The Inter-
geo-political and historical contingency (e.g. the movement national Exhibitions of Finnish Architecture 1957–1967,43
for attaining Finland’s sovereignty as a nation connected to Slovenian architect Petra Ceferin examined a very specific
the construction of a national identity as a Western capitalist construction: how a group of architects and associated pro-
state), and cognitive agency based on various semiological fessionals set out to propagate an image of Finnish architec-
isomorphisms based on ’scarcity’ – consonant with Rune- ture abroad. From 1957 to 1967 no fewer than nine different
berg’s words in the Finnish national anthem “Vårt land är exhibitions were organised by the Museum of Finnish Archi-
fattigt, skall så bli”; that is, compatibilities between Finland tecture (founded 1956) for distribution, around first Europe,
being a sparsely populated country with a predominantly then further afield. It was through these exhibitions, Ceferin
rural culture, rural poverty, origins, asceticism, Lutheranism suggests, that an identifiable image of “Finnish Architec-
(and its work ethic and non-confrontationalism), pietism, ture” was first created. There is a certain leeway in terms of
modernism, aesthetic minimalism and rationalization (to what buildings were exhibited, but all could be said to be
the point of bureaucratization). In a rather extreme for- promotions of Modernism, packaged in an exhibition de-
mulation of this rhetoric of scarcity, Finnish architecture sign emphasising mood (e.g. darkened exhibition spaces),
has even been described as embodying an archetypal silence, naturalness (e.g. presence of nature, wood, etc). Indeed, the
both phenomenologically and critically; in comparative exhibitions’ hosting nations often marvelled at the moder-
terms of social structure and architectural form but also as nist spirit of the Finns, forward-looking but still close to
the defensive character of Finnish critical dialogue.40 nature, as if the exhibition presented a place not previously

60 Nordisk Arkitekturforskning 2004: 4

touched by human hands: not Corbusian tabula rasa, but approached by natural grass-lined steps, or irrespective even
rather a new frontier. of the buildings having been designed by a famous architect,
Ceferin remarks that the organisers she interviewed thus giving cultural capital to their host communities.
saw no conspiracy at work. She thinks they were deluding The counter-argument to the evolutionary psychologists’
themselves, at best, and raises a number of examples of hard viewpoint is to press them on their own contradictory
evidence to the contrary. The most blatant evidence is the admission that it’s in fact possible to “tell your genes to go
manipulation of photographs to back up some essentialist and jump in the lake”.46 The counter-argument to the
idea behind the works. Old buildings were erased from the essentialist view is to consider Wittgenstein’s anti-essentia-
views, obtuse camera angles chosen, and tree branches lite- list notion of family resemblance – in the sense of a factor a
rally dangled in front of the camera. Though Ceferin doesn’t sharing a resemblance with b, which shares with c... and so
state so, the Museum’s attitude could be shown to be propa- on, but that no discernable resemblance exists between a
ganda for its historicism: an institution that calls itself a and say e, and that there is no essential ’thread’ between all
museum displays work from the present day, suggesting of them – allowing us to still recognise difference; thus,
that the work forms a new link in the chain of architectural for example, making Aalto’s work a vehicle for the synthesis
development, without there being sufficient distance to merit of values alien to Finnish culture.47 And the counter-argu-
such a judgment.44 ment to the Bourdivin ”sociologist-as-divine-spectator”
But this raises the question, how could it have been viewpoint, concerned with the social production of archi-
done otherwise? Does not selection necessarily imply ex- tecture, is to stress not so much the autonomy of the art of
clusion? Ceferin suggests that on the one hand certain architecture but people’s experiential response: the environ-
symbolically important buildings were excluded, such as ment might be a social construction, but we each learn to
Sirén’s Parliament building, while on the other hand the live with what we have, and make it our own.
production of more vernacular-based type-houses – and
both Aalto and Blomstedt also designed these – was also
not included. While the exhibitions could be tied to the
socio-political programme of progress, Ceferin sees the
lack of the display of everyday life (the lack of people) in
the exhibition photographs as being in conflict with Finland’s
reputation for a “humanised modernism”. But taking this
for a contradiction, Ceferin does not fully understand the
complexities of Finnish architectural discourse. For Blom-
stedt, at least, Humanism was about human progress and
the creation of an absolute architecture: for him the duty
of the architect was to defend man’s right and unity to
basic values of life through order and harmony.45 Gareth Griffiths, Architect/researcher
Ceferin’s admirable striving for transparency could be Tampere University of Technology –
dismissed as something of no ultimate consequence, for the [email protected]
reason that it’s ”interpretation all the way down”, with
nothing essential uncovered in the transparency. After all,
Aalto’s Viipuri Library and Säynätsalo Town Hall are seen
to have great merit – raising the question ”Seen by whom?”
– irrespective of the photographs taken with branches dang-
ling in front of the camera, and irrespective of Aalto literally
and metaphorically building up the site of the Säynätsalo
Town Hall to achieve the Stadtkrone and Italianate motifs

Gareth Griffiths: Minimal information content in Finnish architecture 61

Notes 15. Ibid., p.468.
1. Alvar Aalto’s view in the 1920s, cited in Göran Schildt, Alvar 16. J. P. Bonta, Architecture and its Interpretation, London, Lund
Aalto. The Early Years, New York, Rizzoli, 1984, p.160. Humphries, 1979, p.143.
2. Kai Wartiainen, ”Model Societies”, in Jari Jetsonen (Ed.), 17. See Ernst Gombrich, “Expression and Communication”, in
Little Big Houses, Helsinki, Rakennustieto, 2001, p.86. Meditations on a Hobby Horse. London, Phaidon Press, 1963,
3. Pierre Bourdieu, ”Social space and symbolic power”, Sociolo- p.56. Gombrich emphasises the information science view-
gical Theory, 7(1), 14–25, 1989. point that signals don’t convey information as railway trucks
4. See, for instance, Garry Stevens, The Favored Circle. The So- carry coal, but rather have an information content by virtue
cial Foundations of Architectural Distinction. Cambridge, Mass., of their potential for making selections. Images ‘carry infor-
MIT Press, 1998. mation’ only in so far as there is an agreed interpretation of
5. Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene, Oxford, Oxford Univer- the symbols between sender and receiver.
sity Press, 1976. 18. Suhonen interviewed in Helsingin Sanomat, 13.11.1999, on the
6. Nikos A. Salingaros & Terry M. Mikiten, ”Darwinian proces- opening of the new building.
ses and memes in architecture”, Datutop 23, 2002. 19. A symbol ”depends either on convention, a habit or a natural
7. The “lie” of Modernism, it’s argued by another evolutionary disposition of its interpretant”. Justus Buchler (ed.), Philoso-
psychologist, Steven Pinker, is that it is based on a false theory phical Writings of Peirce, New York, Dover Publications, 1986,
of human nature, the so-called Blank Slate, the view that the p.105.
sense organs present the brain with a tableau of raw colours 20. Timo Koho, Heurekasta Kiasman. Helsinki, Rakennustieto
and sounds and that everything else in perceptual experience Oy, 2002, pp.76–80.
is a learned social construction. If Modernism’s purpose was 21. Elsewhere the architects argue that ”The characteristics of
to diagnose and cure the sickness of humankind, that human wood, delicacy and richness in nuances, are accentuated against
nature could thus be changed and that the transformed humans the concrete.” Finnish Forest Museum Lusto (with Mikko
would thus construct a better society, evolutionary psychology’s Kaira), ARK, 5–6/1994, p.48
counter-examples are found in the normative view that art 22. Reima Pietilä, Intermediate Zones in Modern Architecture,
should reflect the perennial and universal qualities of the hu- Helsinki, MFA, 1985.
man species, and moreover, looking to the sciences (just as 23. From the 1930s onwards, Danish architects (e.g. Erik Chr.
indeed the Bauhaus studied Gestalt psychology) for the univer- Sørensen, and Ebbe and Karen Clemmensen) specifically
sality of basic artistic taste. The most remarkable conclusion drew on themes in Japanese architecture – e.g. planning in
to be made from such an argument is that to say one likes a terms of the flow of open spaces, the study in ‘the nature of
modernist work would be a case of (at best unknowingly) materials’ and the contact between interior and interior –
lying to oneself or of pathology. Steven Pinker, The Blank both from direct sources and via other western architects,
Slate. The Modern Denial of Human Nature. London, Penguin, primarily Wright, and later Mies and the Bay Region architects
2002, pp.400–420. of California. Fred Thompson ”En spaltet national-identi-
8. For instance, Tadanobu Tsunoda has demonstrated that the tet”, Arkitekten 25, 1996.
domain of the brain of Japanese people for cogniting the 24. Juhani Pallasmaa, ”Japan in Finnish Architecture – Japanese
sounds of nature such as bird song is also the same one used to Influences on Alvar Aalto and Finnish Rationalism”, English
cognite traditional Japanese atonal music, while a different manuscript: published in Japanese in the magazine Kenchiku
domain cognates tonal (Western) music. See J.V. Wertsch et Nunka, Tokyo, 1999.
al (Eds.), Sociocultural Studies of Mind, Cambridge, Cam- 25. Helena Sarjakoski, Rationalismi ja Runollisuus. Aulis Blomstedt
bridge University Press, 1995. ja Suhteiden Taide, Helsinki, Rakennustieto, 2003.
9. See G. Griffiths, ”’Drawing in Finnish’? Notes on Cultural 26. Juulia Mikkola, ”Finding an excuse”, ARK, 2/2004.
Relativism”, Datutop 21, 2001. 27. Aulis Blomstedt, ”Rakennustaiteen näköaloja”, Arkkitehti, 6–
10. Juhani Pallasmaa, ”Culture, Identity, Environment”, in Nina 7/1956, 99.
Vakkilainen (Ed.) Built Environment – Identity – European 28. Mark A. Cheetham, The Rhetoric of Purity. Cambridge, Cam-
Integration, Helsinki, Suomen UNESCO, 1991, p.111. bridge University Press, 1991, pp. 52–53.
11. Christian Norberg-Schulz, Nightlands. Nordic Building, Cam- 29. Mitchell Schwarzer, German Architectural Theory and the
bridge, Mass., MIT Press, 1996, p.195 Search for Modern Identity. Cambridge, Cambridge Univer-
12. Sigfried Giedion; Space, Time and Architecture. 2nd edition, sity Press, 1995.
Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 1949, p.455. 30. Rosalind Kraus, ”The Cultural Logic of Late-Capitalist Mu-
13. Sigfried Giedion; “Alvar Aalto”. The Architectural Review, Feb. seum”, October, nr.54, Fall 1990, p. 5.
1950, p.77. 31. Wilfred Wang, ”Minimalismen – En krise i samtiden”, Arki-
14. Giedion, 1949, p.60. tekten, 03, Feb. 1998, p. 11.

62 Nordisk Arkitekturforskning 2004: 4

32. Petra Ceferin, ”Thoughts on light, geometry and snow, with 39. Kaj Nyman, ”The architectural language of housing develop-
Mikko Heikkinen and Markku Komonen”. Architectural Bul- ments”, Arkkitehti, 1/1991, p.29.
letin-Arhitektov bilten, 2003. 40. Roger Connah, “Sometimes and always with mixed feelings:
33. Juhani Pallasmaa, ”Our Future Lies in Modernism”, Arkki- Untimely notes on a culture of silence” and Kaisa Broner-
tehti, 5–6/1980. Bauer, “Aarno Ruusuvuori and the continuity of Finnish mo-
34. Gaston Bachelard, The Poetics of Space, Boston, Beacon Press, dernism”, in Malcolm Quantrill and Bruce Webb (Eds.), The
p. xiv. Culture of Silence, College Station, Texas A&M University
35. Theodor Adorno, Aesthetic Theory, London, Routledge, 1984, Press, 1998.
pp.34–35. 41. Øystein Sørensen and Bo Stråth, The Cultural Construction of
36. Victor Shklovskij, ”Art as Technique” (1917), in Russian For- Norden, Oslo, Scandinavian University Press, 1997, p.19.
malist Criticism. 4 Essays, translated and introduced by L.T. 42. See especially Kirsi Saarikangas; Model Houses for Model Fami-
Lemon and M. Reis (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, lies. SHF, Helsinki, 1993.
1965). 43. Petra Ceferin, Constructing a Legend. The International Exhi-
37. Juhani Pallasmaa, “Identity, Intimacy and Domicile – Notes bitions of Finnish Architecture 1957–1967, Helsinki, SKS, 2004.
on the phenomenology of home”, Arkkitehti, 1/1994. 44. This would require comparisons with other nations. In a re-
38. Loos writes “The house has to please everybody, contrary to view essay of Ceferin’s book, I take up the example of Sweden.
the work of art which does not. The work of art is a private See G. Griffiths, “Architecture in the Service of Finnish Cultural
matter for the artist. The house is not. … The work of art Policy and ‘Realpolitik’”. Ptah, 1: 2004.
wants to draw people out of their state of comfort. The house 45. Helena Sarjakoski, “Aulis Blomstedt’s Modular Studies and
has to serve comfort. The work of art is revolutionary, the Ancient Egyptian Modernism”, Ptah, 2003:1.
house is conservative. … Does it follow that the house has 46. Pinker admits that not everything we do is simply reducible
nothing in common with art and is architecture not to be to our genetic dictates. For example, why should he himself
included amongst the arts? That is so. Only a very small part choose to remain childless? Because he is happy that way and
of architecture belongs to art: the tomb and the monument. ’if my genes don’t like it, they can go jump in the lake’. Steven
Everything else that fulfils a function is to be excluded from Pinker, How the Mind Works. London, Penguin, 1997.
the domain of art.” Adolf Loos, “Architektur,” Sämtliche 47. Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations, Oxford,
Schriften. Ins Leere Gesprochen. Trotzdem. Wien, Verlag Herold, Blackwell, 1958.
1962, p.317.

Gareth Griffiths: Minimal information content in Finnish architecture 63

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