Long Live Wivi Lönn! At The Museum Of Finnish Architecture
01/05/2022.
[Helsinki] Finland 29.04.2022 > 08.01.2023
metalocus, JOSÉ JUAN BARBA, CARLOS RUBIO
metalocus, JOSÉ JUAN BARBA, CARLOS RUBIO
This year marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of Finnish architect Wivi Lönn alongside the 80th anniversary of the founding of the Finnish Association of Women Architects. The exhibition Long Live Wivi Lönn! deals with the female history of architecture in Finland.
Wivi Lönn was the first Finnish architect to head her own architecture studio. The exhibition celebrates the architect's career and her importance for the generations of women architects who followed her.
Wivi Lönn was the first Finnish architect to head her own architecture studio. The exhibition celebrates the architect's career and her importance for the generations of women architects who followed her.
Aleksanteri elementary school, Tampere, 1904. © Museum of Finnish Architecture. Photograph by Aukusti Heinonen.
Wivi Lönn: Detail of the decorations on the main facade depicting children playing and tending a garden.© Museum of Finnish Architecture. Photograph by Aukusti Heinonen.
Wivi Lönn and Aili-Salli Ahde: YWCA offices (nowadays Hotel Helka), Helsinki, 1928. The YWCA office building, completed in the late 1920s, was designed towards the end of Lönn's career. The apartment of Wivi Lönn and her partner Hanna Parviainen was located on the second floor of the building. © Museum of Finnish Architecture. Photograph by Aukusti Heinonen.
Wivi Lönn: Tampere Business School, Tampere, 1912. The Tampere Business School after its completion. During the early 1950s, the building was raised with a box-like extension and the original roof shape was lost. Image courtesy by Museum of Finnish Architecture.
Wivi Lönn: Tampere School of Home Economics, Tampere, 1905. The pleasant atmosphere in the interior of the Tampere School of Home Economics was created through the skilful use of light, thoughtfully placed vaults and playful ornamentation. © Museum of Finnish Architecture. Photograph by Aukusti Heinonen.
Wivi Lönn: Tampere fire station, Tampere, 1908. Tampere fire station has been in its original use for more than one hundred years. © Museum of Finnish Architecture. Photograph by Aukusti Heinonen.
Wivi Lönn: Tampere fire station, Tampere, 1908. A detail, the hose-drying tower and natural stone facade. © Museum of Finnish Architecture. Photograph by Aukusti Heinonen.
Wivi Lönn: Tampere Finnish Girls' School, nowadays Pyynikki School, Tampere, 1902. Tampere Finnish Girls' School was the first major assignment of Wivi Lönn's career and at the time was the largest school building in Finland. © Museum of Finnish Architecture. Photograph by Aukusti Heinonen.
Wivi Lönn: Tampere Finnish Girls' School, nowadays Pyynikki School, Tampere, 1902. Staircase. © Museum of Finnish Architecture. Photograph by Aukusti Heinonen.
Armas Lindgren and Wivi Lönn: New Student House, Helsinki, 1910. The New Student House was a collaborative work with Armas Lindgren. Lönn designed the spatial layout and structures, while Lindgren designed the facades and decorative motifs. Photograph by Rauno Träskelin.
Book cover. Wivi Lönn 1872–1966 — Arkkitehti.
Tampere fire station, competition drawings. The ground floor plan and facade option where, in particular, the form of the tower differs considerably from the one that was built. Image courtesy of Museum of Finnish Architecture.
Wivi Lönn: The Ebeneser kindergarten and kindergarten teachers' seminary, Helsinki, 1908. Facade drawings, Helsinginkatu and Harjukatu, 1906. Image courtesy of Museum of Finnish Architecture.
Tampere fire station, competition drawings. The ground floor plan and facade option where, in particular, the form of the tower differs considerably from the one that was built. Image courtesy of Museum of Finnish Architecture.
Ebeneser kindergarten, early facade design option, 1906. The round tower that dominates the corner of Helsinginkatu and Harjukatu was left out in the final design. Image courtesy of Museum of Finnish Architecture.
The floor plans show how many different functions were originally located in the Ebeneser kindergarten and how insightfully Lönn arranged the various rooms on the main floors so that the deep-framed building has a minimal amount of dark corridors. Photograph by Aukusti Heinonen / Museum of Finnish Architecture.
The floor plan of Lönn’s and Lindgren's winning proposal for the Estonia Theatre, Tallinn, 1909. Image courtesy of Museum of Finnish Architecture.
Wivi Lönn's proposal “TKO” in the invitational competition for the Tampere Business School. The floor plan also shows Lönn’s outline for a future extension. Image courtesy of Museum of Finnish Architecture.
The YWCA building was completed with a significant donation from Hanna Parviainen. The condition for the support was that Parviainen and Lönn had use of a corner apartment on the second floor of the building. They lived in this apartment for the rest of their lives, Parviainen until 1938 and Lönn until 1966. Image courtesy of Museum of Finnish Architecture.
Kesämaa was built by Baron Eino-Sakari Yrjö-Koskinen in 1908. The main facade of the villa is dominated by a large gable dormer and a long sloping roof plane. The layout of the facade emphasizes its horizontality, and the design and composition of the windows create a visual richness. Image courtesy of Museum of Finnish Architecture.
Studying architecture at the Polytechnic Institute in Helsinki. From 1870 onwards, women in Finland were allowed to take the student matriculation examination, but the condition for this was the exemption from the “gender barrier” granted by the Russian Tsar. 20th century. © Architectan arkisto. Photograph by Kansallisarkisto.
Architecture students at the Polytechnic Institute in Helsinki. From 1879 onwards, women were allowed to study at the Polytechnic Institute, albeit on a limited basis. The study period for women, however, was shorter than for men by one year and with fewer courses open to them. 1890s. Photograph by MFA.
Architecture students celebrating May Day. © Salme Setälä's album. 1920s. © MFA. Photograph by Salme Setälä's album.
Architecture students Toini Ojala, Salme Setälä, Sylvi Nyyssönen and Annikki Paasikivi sitting in the park in front of the Swedish-language co-educational school (nowadays the Design Museum). 1910s. © MFA. Photograph by Salme Setälä's album.
Architecture students on a building site, interior view. 1910s. © Arkitekturmuseet. Photograph by Salme Setäläs album.
Aili-Salli-Ahde’s bachelorette party. © Arkitekturmuseet. Photograph by Salme Setäläs album.
Architects of the National Board of Building. Salme Setälä worked for the National Board of Building as an auxiliary architect from 1929 to 1954 and as an office architect from 1954 to 1961. © Arkitekturmuseet. Photograph by Salme Setäläs album.
Architecta's tradition of excursions or study trips includes visits to building sites with presentations of the buildings given by their architects, meetings with artists and trips both within Finland and abroad. Architecta's excursion to Denmark. 1951. © Architecta archives. Image courtesy of National Archives of Finland.
In Architecta the older generations of women architects have been commemorated and acknowledged in a variety of ways. Over the decades, various anniversaries and other important occasions for women architects have been celebrated within the circle of the association. Bertha Enwald’s 80th birthday celebrations. Enwald stands on the stairs with Wivi Lönn. © Architecta archives. Image courtesy of National Archives of Finland.
In Architecta the older generations of women architects have been commemorated and acknowledged in a variety of ways. The tradition of commemoration began at Wivi Lönn’s 70th birthday celebrations. Wivi Lönnin receives Architecta’s medal of honour on the occasion of Architecta’s 20th anniversary celebrations. © Architecta archives. Image courtesy of National Archives of Finland.
The Finnish Museum of Architecture exhibition celebrates both the 150th anniversary of the birth of Wivi Lönn, Finland's most important female architect, and the 80th anniversary of "Architecta", which was founded on the occasion of Lönn's 70th birthday in 1942. During these years, the association has provided professional support, with initiatives such as a platform to write the history of Finnish women architects, generating an extensive archive of their activity and work.
"Wivi Lönn was a master at creating comfortable functionality in her buildings and using even scarce resources to her advantage. She closely followed the developing trends in architecture and her design was always contemporary. At the same time, he had his recognizable style based on the precise identification of users' needs. During his lifetime, he received much less recognition than, for example, Eliel Saarinen and Lars Sonck, who belonged to the same generation, even though Lönn's extensive output was by no means qualitatively inferior to theirs. It is good to emphasize now the importance of Lönn's exemplary career."
Anna Autio.
Architecta's excursion to Denmark. 1951. © Architecta archives. Image courtesy of National Archives of Finland.
"During the early days of Wivi Lönn's career, at the beginning of the 20th century, the social situation of women was very different from today. There were many obstacles and hurdles in the way of a woman's professional training. In Lönn's time, there were no other women architects in Finland who ran their own offices and were successful in architectural competitions. Why? Why were there no other independent women architects in Finland? The exhibition tries to find answers to these questions as well."
Jutta Tynkkynen.
"The history of the communities of women architects sharpens our understanding of the work and life of architects. In the exhibition, a large number of women architects are mentioned by name, who like a diverse group are in my opinion perhaps even the most important part of the whole. To what extent can an individual architectural narrative be true? We need new ways of looking at things, which dismantle the myths of person-centered architecture"
Hanna Tyvelä, who has researched the history of Architects for the exhibition.
"The exhibition spans from Wivi Lönn to the present day and also broadens the perspective to encompass international debates. Feminist architects pay attention to the importance of gender and equality in the field of architecture. For example, the Muslim Women in Architecture collective, founded in London, highlights the perspectives of minority architects."
Marja Rautaharju.
The exhibition has been jointly curated by the staff of the Museum of Finnish Architecture, Anna Autio (curator of collections), Jutta Tynkkynen (curator of exhibitions), and Marja Rautaharju (head of exhibition services), together with art historian and Ph.D. researcher Hanna Tyvelä. The exhibition was designed by designer Hanna Anonen.
Book: Wivi Lönn 1872–1966 — Arkkitehti
The exhibition book being published in honor of the 150th anniversary of the birth of Wivi Lönn will be the first collection of articles focusing on her diverse work as an architect. The book consists of five expert articles that look at different aspects of her production and career. Among other things, the book examines Lönn as a designer of housing and schools, discusses her travels, and analyses her production in relation to the prevailing society and networks that proved important to her. The book’s contributing authors are Finland’s leading experts on Wivi Lönn’s architecture: Renja Suominen-Kokkonen, Susanna Aaltonen, Hanna Tyvelä, and Anna-Leena Lehto.
More information
Curators
Anna Autio.
Dates
29.04.2022- 08.01.2023.
Location
Kasarmikatu 24, 00130 Helsinki, Finland.
Photography
Book: Wivi Lönn 1872–1966 — Arkkitehti
Name.- Wivi Lönn 1872–1966 — Arkkitehti.
Author.- Susanna Aaltonen, Petteri Kummala, Anna-Leena Lehto, Renja Suominen-Kokkonen and Hanna Tyvelä . Language.- Finnish.
Publishers.- Parvs Publishing and the Museum of Finnish Architecture.
Year.- 2022.
Author.- Susanna Aaltonen, Petteri Kummala, Anna-Leena Lehto, Renja Suominen-Kokkonen and Hanna Tyvelä . Language.- Finnish.
Publishers.- Parvs Publishing and the Museum of Finnish Architecture.
Year.- 2022.
Olivia Mathilda Lönn. Wivi Lönn
Olivia Mathilda Lönn, (May 20, 1872, Onkiniemi, Finland - December 27, 1966, Helsinki, Finland) also known as Wivi Lönn, was a Finnish architect. She was born on 20 May 1872 in the village of Onkiniemi, near Tampere, where she graduated from the Tampere Industrial School. Years later she moved to Helsinki, where she studied architecture at the Polytechnic University. She was the first independent practicing architect in Finland.
In 1904 she won the first architectural prize in a competition at the Tampere School of Economics. From 1909 to 1913 Wivi Lönn and Armas Lindgren designed and built the Estonian Theatre. In 1942, together with other colleagues such as Elsi Borg, she founded the Official Association of Finnish Women Architects, which is still active today. Between 1944 and 1945 the architect-designed her last building, the Tähtelä Observatory.
In 1904 she won the first architectural prize in a competition at the Tampere School of Economics. From 1909 to 1913 Wivi Lönn and Armas Lindgren designed and built the Estonian Theatre. In 1942, together with other colleagues such as Elsi Borg, she founded the Official Association of Finnish Women Architects, which is still active today. Between 1944 and 1945 the architect-designed her last building, the Tähtelä Observatory.
Categories
Our selection
