![VIPlibrary](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/04/VIPlibrary.jpg)
Vyborg Library ( fi, Viipurin kaupunginkirjasto) is a library in
Vyborg
Vyborg (; rus, Вы́борг, links=1, r=Výborg, p=ˈvɨbərk; fi, Viipuri ; sv, Viborg ; german: Wiborg ) is a town in, and the administrative center of, Vyborgsky District in Leningrad Oblast, Russia. It lies on the Karelian Isthmus ne ...
,
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
, built during the time of
Finnish
Finnish may refer to:
* Something or someone from, or related to Finland
* Culture of Finland
* Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland
* Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people
* Finnish cuisine
See also ...
sovereignty (1918 to 1940-44), before the Finnish city of Viipuri was annexed by the former USSR and its
Finnish
Finnish may refer to:
* Something or someone from, or related to Finland
* Culture of Finland
* Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland
* Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people
* Finnish cuisine
See also ...
name was changed to Vyborg by the Soviet authorities.
The building, built from 1927 to 1935, is an internationally acclaimed design by the Finnish architect
Alvar Aalto
Hugo Alvar Henrik Aalto (; 3 February 1898 – 11 May 1976) was a Finnish architect and designer. His work includes architecture, furniture, textiles and glassware, as well as sculptures and paintings. He never regarded himself as an artist, see ...
and one of the major examples of 1920s functionalist architectural design. The library is considered one of the first manifestations of "regional modernism".
[Christian Norberg-Schulz. ''Nightlands: Nordic Building''. MIT Press, 1997. . Page 164.] It is particularly famous for its wave-shaped ceiling in the
auditorium
An auditorium is a room built to enable an audience to hear and watch performances. For movie theatres, the number of auditoria (or auditoriums) is expressed as the number of screens. Auditoria can be found in entertainment venues, community ...
, the shape of which, Aalto argued, was based on acoustic studies.
[Ola Wedebrunn et al. (ed), ''Technology of Sensations. The Alvar Aalto Vyborg Library.'' DOCOMOMO, Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, 2004. .] On completion the library was known as Viipuri Library, but after the Second World War and Soviet annexation, the library was renamed the
Nadezhda Krupskaya
Nadezhda Konstantinovna Krupskaya ( rus, links=no, Надежда Константиновна Крупская, p=nɐˈdʲeʐdə kənstɐnˈtʲinəvnə ˈkrupskəjə; 27 February 1939) was a Russian revolutionary and the wife of Vladimir Lenin ...
Municipal Library. Nowadays, integrated in the Russian Federation city of Vyborg, the library is officially known as the Central City Alvar Aalto Library.
The library restoration project lasted almost two decades from 1994 until late 2013.
The restoration work was awarded with the
World Monuments Fund / Knoll Modernism Prize in 2014 and the
Europa Nostra Award in 2015.
History
![Vyborg city library interior](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/53/Vyborg_city_library_interior.jpg)
Aalto received the commission to design the library after winning first prize (with his proposal titled 'WWW') in an
architectural competition
An architectural design competition is a type of design competition in which an organization that intends on constructing a new building invites architects to submit design proposals. The winning design is usually chosen by an independent panel o ...
for the building held in 1927. Aalto's design went through a profound transformation from the original architectural competition proposal designed in the
Nordic Classicism
Nordic Classicism was a style of architecture that briefly blossomed in the Nordic countries (Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland) between 1910 and 1930.
Until a resurgence of interest for the period during the 1980s (marked by several scholarly ...
style (owing much to Swedish architect
Gunnar Asplund
Erik Gunnar Asplund (22 September 1885 – 20 October 1940) was a Swedish architect, mostly known as a key representative of Nordic Classicism of the 1920s, and during the last decade of his life as a major proponent of the modernist style whi ...
, especially his
Stockholm City Library
Stockholm Public Library ( Swedish: ''Stockholms stadsbibliotek'' or ''Stadsbiblioteket'') is a library building in Stockholm, Sweden, designed by Swedish architect Gunnar Asplund, and one of the city's most notable structures. The name is today ...
) to the severely
functionalist building, completed eight years later in a purist
modernist style. Such architectural solutions as a sunken reading-well, free-flowing ceilings and cylindrical
skylight
A skylight (sometimes called a rooflight) is a light-permitting structure or window, usually made of transparent or translucent glass, that forms all or part of the roof space of a building for daylighting and ventilation purposes.
History
Open ...
s, first tested in Viipuri, would regularly appear in Aalto's works. Aalto differed from the first generation of modernist architects (such as
Walter Gropius
Walter Adolph Georg Gropius (18 May 1883 – 5 July 1969) was a German-American architect
An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in conne ...
and
Le Corbusier
Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , , ), was a Swiss-French architect, designer, painter, urban planner, writer, and one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture. He was ...
) in his predilection for natural materials: in this design, "wood was first introduced into an otherwise modernist setting of concrete, white stucco, glass, and steel".
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
marked a turning point in the history not only of the library but the city of Vyborg itself, as it was ceded to the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
. The building had been damaged during World War II, and plans by the new Soviet authorities to repair it were proposed but never carried out. The building then remained empty for a decade, causing even more damage, including the destruction of the wave-shaped auditorium ceiling. During the 1950s schemes were drawn up for its restoration — including a version in the
Stalinist classical style typical of the time — by architect Aleksandr Shver.
Until the coming to power of
Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (2 March 1931 – 30 August 2022) was a Soviet politician who served as the 8th and final leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to dissolution of the Soviet Union, the country's dissolution in 1991. He served a ...
, few people from Finland, let alone other Western countries, visited Vyborg, and there were many different accounts in Western architectural texts about the condition of the library, including erroneous reports of its complete destruction. The building is now included in the Russian Federation's list of objects of historical and cultural heritage.
Restoration
Russian and Finnish committees have been founded to promote the restoration of the building, which has been progressing piecemeal, while the building remains in public use.
[Finnish Committee for the Restoration of Viipuri Library, ''The Getty Grant Report'', Alvar Aalto Academy, 2001 (no ISBN)] The restoration is being directed by the Alvar Aalto Academy, under the direction of architect
Tapani Mustonen Tapani may refer to:
* Tapani (name), a Finnish male given name
* Tapani (surname), a Finnish surname
* Tapani, Iran, a village in Kermanshah Province, Iran
* Tapani Incident
The Tapani incident or Tapani uprising in 1915 was one of the biggest ...
, together with input from architect Maija Kairamo (formerly of the Finnish National Board of Antiquities) and ex-Aalto employees, architects
Eric Adlercreutz
Eric Adlercreutz (born 1935 in Helsinki) is a Finnish architect, and head of the Helsinki-based architecture firm A-Konsultit, founded in 1962 together with his wife Gunnel Adlercreutz. His reputation is based on having won over twenty national ar ...
, Vazio Nava and Leif Englund. In 1998, to mark the 100th anniversary of Aalto's birth, a 2×10-metre section of the auditorium ceiling was reconstructed, but it was taken down in 2008 to enable the reconstruction of the ceiling proper.
In September 2003 an international seminar and workshop was held at the library, under the auspicies of
DOCOMOMO
Docomomo International (sometimes written as DoCoMoMo or simply Docomomo) is a non-profit organization whose full title is: International Committee for Documentation and Conservation of Buildings, Sites and Neighbourhoods of the Modern Movement. ...
, to discuss the restoration of the library, as well as its role within the local community. Experts in restoration from around the world attended.
![Vyborg AaltoLibrary 006 9856](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/81/Vyborg_AaltoLibrary_006_9856.jpg)
In the first phase (until 2009), the following parts of the building have been restored: the large glass wall in front of the main stairs; the roofs (including the cylindrical roof-lights); the steel windows and external doors; entrance to the children's library; the former janitor's flat; the periodicals reading room; the auditorium, including reconstruction of the undulating suspended ceiling. Due to piecemeal funding, the restoration has progressed slowly. The restorers have emphasised that the work has progressed in terms of greatest urgency; thus, to the casual observer, the interior walls still have flaking paint, giving an impression of lack of maintenance; but the restorers argue that this is the least important aspect of the work, compared to significant structural repairs. To mark the progress of the restoration, a book outlining both the history of the building and the restoration work was published in 2009, "Alvar Aalto Library in Vyborg: Saving a Modern Masterpiece", edited by Kairamo, Mustonen and Nava.
![Alvar Aalto Library Vyborg3](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7e/Alvar_Aalto_Library_Vyborg3.jpg)
The restoration project gained speed in 2010 when Finnish president
Tarja Halonen
Tarja Kaarina Halonen (; born 24 December 1943) is a Finnish politician who served as the 11th president of Finland, and the first woman to hold the position, from 2000 to 2012. She first rose to prominence as a lawyer with the Central Organisati ...
met with then-Russian prime minister
Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin; (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who holds the office of president of Russia. Putin has served continuously as president or prime minister since 1999: as prime min ...
and asked about the library. Shortly after this the project received 6,5 million euros funding from Moscow. In late 2013 the restoration was finally finished, having cost nearly 9 million euros altogether. Architect Maija Kairamo praised the end result and said she wasn't sure whether the building was in as fine a condition even when it was originally opened.
In 2014, the restoration committee and the library received the
World Monuments Fund / Knoll Modernism Prize for the restoration work.
In 2015 it also received the
Europa Nostra Award, the jury calling the restoration "exceptionally well-researched and highly sensitive" and commending the project's transnational collaboration.
In art
The Vyborg Library has also been the starting point for a very different kind of art project, a film titled ''What's the time in Vyborg?'' (2002) by
Finnish-American
Finnish Americans ( fi, amerikansuomalaiset, ) comprise Americans with ancestral roots from Finland or Finnish people who immigrated to and reside in the United States. The Finnish-American population numbers a little bit more than 650,000. Man ...
artist
Liisa Roberts
Liisa Roberts (born 1969) is a Finnish-American artist. She was born in Paris, France, to a Finnish mother and an American father of Russian-Jewish descent.
Work
Roberts is known for her installation works that use film. The visual style of her wo ...
. Roberts was challenging the introspective view Finns have of their former city, by organising and filming writing workshops arranged for local Vyborg youths.
[Tere Vaden, Mika Hannula, Juha Suoranta, ''Artistic Research. Theories, Methods, and Practices''. Kuvataideakatemia, 2005. ]
Quotes
When I designed the Viipuri City Library (and I had plenty of time, a whole five years), I spent long periods getting my range, as it were, with naive drawings. I drew all kinds of fantastic mountain landscapes, with slopes lit by many suns in different positions, which gradually gave rise to the main idea of the building. The architectural framework of the library comprises several reading and lending areas stepped at different levels, with the administrative and supervisory centre at the peak. My childlike drawings were only indirectly linked with architectural thinking, but they eventually led to an interweaving of the section and ground plan, and to a kind of unity of horizontal and vertical construction. (Alvar Aalto, "The Trout and the Stream", 1947)[Göran Schildt (ed), ''Alvar Aalto in his Own Words''. Otava, 1997, page 108. .]
References
External links
*
Alvar Aalto Foundation website*
Vyborg Libraryo
ArchitectuulThe restoration of Alvar Aalto Library in Vyborga
Google Arts and Culture{{Authority control
Alvar Aalto buildings
Buildings and structures completed in 1935
Buildings and structures in Vyborg
Restored and conserved buildings
Libraries in Russia
Modernist architecture in Finland
Modernist architecture in Russia
Organizations based in Vyborg
Cultural heritage monuments of federal significance in Leningrad Oblast