Säynätsalo Town Hall

The Säynätsalo Town Hall (Finnish: Säynätsalon kunnantalo) is a multifunction building complex – town hall, shops, library and flats – designed by Finnish architect Alvar Aalto for the municipality of Säynätsalo (merged with the municipality of Jyväskylä in 1993) in Central Finland. Aalto received the commission after a design contest in 1949, and the building was completed in December 1951.

The town hall is considered one of the most important buildings Aalto designed in his career.

In 1944 Aalto was commissioned to design and implement a town plan for Säynätsalo, a small factory town founded around Johan Parviaisen Tehtaat wood-processing mills, from 1946 operated by Enso-Gutzeit (now part of Stora Enso), whose headquarters in Helsinki he also designed. The town hall would be built at a later date after Aalto won a government-mandated competition for its design. Aalto constructed the building into the wooded hillside of Säynätsalo creating a three-story multi-purpose building surrounding an elevated courtyard.

The design of the Town Hall was influenced by both Finnish vernacular architecture and the humanist Italian renaissance. It was the Italian Renaissance from which Aalto drew inspiration for the courtyard arrangement which informed the name of his original competition entry entitled "Curia." While the main program of the building is housed within a heavy brick envelope, the courtyard is bordered by a glass-enclosed circulation space which can be linked to the model of an arcade-bordered Piazza.

It was important to Aalto that the design represent democracy and the people's relationship with the government which is why he included a large public space, along with sections dedicated to the public.

The town hall is crowned by the council chamber, a double-height space which is capped by the Aalto-designed "Butterfly" trusses. The trusses support both the roof and the ceiling, creating airflow to manage condensation in the winter and heat in the summer. The butterfly truss eliminates the need for multiple intermediate trusses. It also gives call to medieval and traditional styles. The council Chamber is approached from the main entrance hall a floor below via a ramp which wraps around the main tower structure under a row of clerestory ribbon windows.

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Wikipedia