The story of the Lahti church (Evangelical Lutheran) begins at 1950, when the city of Lahti announced an architectural competition what was won by Alar Aalto. The original site however was not empty-on the hill there stood the city’s wooden church, what was from 19th century and designed by Jacob Ahrenberg, apparently the wooden church was too small for the community. The church is on the visual axis with Lahti town hall designed by Eliel Saarinen. The drawings for the construction of the project were drawn in 1969.
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The construction was finished in 1978, almost 30 years later than original design was made. If one looks at the design as from late 50’s, early 60’s the impression is one, but if you look at it at something from late 70’s there is a completely different attitude. The spacial solution of the roof structure nevertheless is still very impressive. All the details like interior and exterior lamps, handles and seating are designed by Aalto, except of the ones in the basement. The final design undergone many alterations from the original project: the number of seating decreased; a basement was added; additional balconies were added as well.
The space was very pleasant, the colours almost grey-scale, the day when the photos were taken was rainy and gloomy (I guess typical Finish weather), but inside only due to natural light it was still bright, the atmosphere was uplifting and it was easy to concentrate. Those are the features that, I assume, were originally sought after by Alvar Aalto himself.
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The legend tells – that this was the last project of Alvar Aalto. And when the star-architect died, the drawings of Lahti church were on his drawing table.
Interesting notice: there was actually no real cross on of the tower in the original designs. After long discussions and negotiations now the tower has a small cross on it after-all (not visible in my photos).
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