Martti Välikangas

Martti Välikangas (born Martti Buddén, August 1, 1893, County of Kuopio - died May 9, 1973, Helsinki) was a Finnish architect renowned for the design of so-called "Puu-Käpylä" [Wood-Käpylä], the Garden City housing area in Käpylä near Helsinki, designed in the Nordic Classicism style.

Välikangas studied architecture at Helsinki University of Technology, qualifying as an architect in 1917. In 1921 he left on a study tour of Italy (as well as visiting the other Nordic countries, Germany, France and north Africa), a common practice at that time for architects in the Nordic countries who were turning away from National Romanticism.

After qualifying Välikangas worked in Yuzovka in Russia (present-day Donetsk in the Ukraine), but had to leave in a hurry with the onset of the Bolshevik Revolution. On his return he worked for the Brändö Villastad company as well as in the architect’s office of Gösta Juslén and, from 1918 to 1920, in the office of Frosterus and Gripenberg. Välikangas founded his own office in 1920, while also working elsewhere. He was chief architect at the National Board of Building from 1937 until the Winter War in 1940. From 1942 to 1944 he was head of the office responsible for post-war reconstruction.

For a long time Välikangas acted as the director of the board responsible for the restoration of Turku Castle. From 1928 to 1930 he was Editor-in-Chief of the Finnish Architectural Review, in doing so influencing the spread of Modernist architecture in Finland.

...
Wikipedia