Finlandia Hall
 Finlandia
Hall is Helsinki's leading concert and congress centre. Conveniently
located in the park beside Töölö Bay, it includes
facilities for concerts, conferences and exhibitions and is
equally suitable for symphony concerts and light entertainment,
international congresses and small meetings.
Finlandia Hall was designed by Alvar Aalto and was built
in 1967-71. The congress wing was added in 1973-75.
Aalto's masterpiece is an attraction in itself. The main
part of the building rises like a tower and has an inclined
roof. Aalto thought he could improve the acoustics by providing
a resonance space overhead. The audience cannot see it because
of the suspended ceiling, but it creates the kind of acoustic
effect that is characteristic of churches with high ceilings.
Unfortunately, this aspect of the architecture was not entirely
successful.
 Finlandia
Hall has hosted various world congresses and UN conferences
as well as the 1975 Conference on Security and Cooperation
in Europe. Numerous heads of state have visited the building,
including US Presidents Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan and George
Bush, Soviet Presidents Leonid Brezhnev and Mikhail Gorbachev,
German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, British Prime Minister Margaret
Thatcher and French President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing.
Other famous visitors have included Prince Philip of England,
Queen Beatrice of the Netherlands, the Nobel Prize winner
the Dalai Lama, and numerous orchestras and musicians such
as singers José Carréras and Luciano Pavarotti.
Alvar Aalto used Carrara marble on the exterior as well as
inside the building. He viewed marble as an important link
with Mediterranean culture, which he wanted to bring to Finland.
Finland's climate caused the marble to warp and break, however,
and the building has had to be resurfaced. The most recent
refurbishing began in 1990 and lasted nearly a decade. It
was finally completed in 1999, after a number of colourful
stages
http://finlandia.hel.fi/
http://www.alvaraalto.fi/
Photographs:
- Finlandia Hall
Photographer: Matti Tirri
- The Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe took
place at Finlandia Hall on 30 July - 1 August 1975.
Signing of the Helsinki Act on 1 August 1975.
Photographer: Tapio Korpisaari, Helsinki City Museum's photo
archives.
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