Säynätsalo Garden is a design studio led by Toshiko Mori at Harvard Graduate School of Design in 2017; exhibition, presentation and documentary filming in Finland in 2018.
“We need to do something to save Aalto’s masterpiece.”
Sections
The Säynätsalo Garden and Community Center is an educational, training, orientation space shared by refugees, immigrants and local residents.
The project is an extension to Alvar Aalto’s Säynätsalo Town Hall, to respond to the contemporary situation in Finland that requires to absorb increasing number of refugees and immigrants, and to give a new function to Alvar Aalto’s Säynätsalo Town Hall. Three volumes of the buildings are arranged in a seemingly casual manner, resonating rural residential compound typologies on the island. The space between the three blocks are connected with a sloping glass roof, forming the interior gardens for people to enjoy.
Säynätsalo Town Hall” Exhibition and Säynätsalo Talks is being organised by Harvard University Graduate School of Design in cooperation with Alvar Aalto Foundation, Artek Oy Ab, Tavolo Bianco Oy and Allan and Bo Hjelt Art Foundation.
1:100 model, with real plants picked from Finland.
Northern Light
Studio Brief
There is an endemic problem surrounding the fate of 20th century iconic buildings. They were once masterpieces with progressive vision, but over the past five or six decades, their original programs have become obsolete, economic and political situations have shifted and society has changed. It is a problem we face today to work with the historical skeletons of these vibrant structures of the past. There is a necessity for contemporary practice to update their identities, invent new uses and programs, supplement with contextual planning and ancillary buildings, and conserve them for the purpose of common history to ensure continuity of civilization. The iconic structures of Alvar Aalto are no exception. At least four canonical buildings are facing the fate of demolition due to their deterioration or loss of use. The list includes Defense Corps Complex, Vuoksenniska church, Paimio tuberculosis sanitarium, and Saynatsalo Town Hall.
Our studio will take on the case of Saynatsalo Town Hall compound in Jyvaskyla. The merger of municipalities made this Town Hall obsolete and the current political body wants it gone, disregarding that it is one of the most archetypal examples of Alvar Aalto’s work. It illustrates masterful arrangements and coexistence of diverse scales, its siting making the compound expansive and monumental for the size of the building. There are 28 Aalto structures in this area once his childhood home, the Aalto Foundation and its archive and museum existing nearby. Aalto also made early seminal town plans for Jyvaslyla.
In collaboration with Aalto Foundation and Aalto Foundation, the studio will propose new use for the building by identifying conservation strategies and upgrades. There is an adjacent site where the original daycare center was once proposed where we will propose an ancillary structure to absorb contemporary necessities and additional programs for the survival of the main building. Students will analyze and study Saynatsalo Town Hall as well as other buildings of Aalto and propose a design in dialogue with his architecture, ideas and materiality. Since Aalto was known for designing in multiple scales, the studio will work on architecture as well as the intimate scale of detailing and furniture design.︎
Exhibition at Artek Helsinki
Säynätsalo Garden
Academic Work ︎ Harvard GSD
2017 Fall
Site
︎︎︎Säynätsalo Town Hall, Jyväskylä, Finland
Exhibition & Presentation
︎︎︎Artek Helsinki, Finland
︎︎︎Säynätsalo Town Hall, Jyväskylä, Finland
︎︎︎May - June, 2018
Professor
︎︎︎Toshiko Mori
Responsibilities
︎︎︎ Research and concept, sketches, 3D modelling, rendering and post-production, narrative and presentation
︎︎︎ Coordinated with Artek Helsinki and Säynätsalo Town Hall for exhibition arrangements, on-site set up and presentation
Projects start with a question
How do we celebrate the future?
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Architecture/Exhibition/Graphics
How can we overcome grief?
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Theater/Set & Lighting/Graphics
What can we do to further education quality in under-priviledged areas? ︎
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Architecture/Installation
What if “Art” is redefined in a coporate office?︎
︎︎︎
Strategy/Interior Design
How can we take care?︎
︎︎︎
Strategy/Industrial Design
How can we connect the existing and the new?︎
︎︎︎
Architecture/Exhibition
What does it mean to direct ourselves?︎
︎︎︎
Directing/Art
︎︎︎
Strategy
How can we preserve a culture?︎
︎︎︎
Art/Exploration
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︎
︎︎︎ Architecture/Exhibition
What does it mean to direct ourselves?︎
Projects start with a question
(01)
How do we celebrate the future?
︎︎︎
Professional, Architecture/Exhibition
︎
(02)
How can we overcome grief?
︎
︎︎︎ Professional, Theater/Set & Lighting/Graphic
(03)
What can we do to further education quality in under-priviledged areas? ︎
︎︎︎Volunteer, Architecture
(04)
How can we take care?︎
︎︎︎Academic, Strategy/Industrial Design
(05)
How can we connect the existing and the new?︎
︎︎︎Academic, Architecture
(06)
What does it mean to direct ourselves?︎
︎︎︎Academic, Directing/Art
(07)
What is the post-pandemic future of work?︎
︎︎︎Professional, Strategy
(08)
What if “Art” is redefined in a coporate office?︎
︎︎︎Professional, Interior Design
(09)
How can we preserve a culture?︎
︎︎︎Personal, Art/Exploration
(10)
Anymore?︎
︎︎︎Academic, Theater/Lighting
︎︎︎Personal, Sketches/Random Stuff
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