Architecture at Everest: Week 3 Post 3

Intersession
Architecture and Design
Audie Santos
1/24/13

Jan. 24th, 2013

Documentary: Saynatsalo Town Hall 

The Saynatsalo Town Hall was completed in the year of 1951. It is located in Saynatsalo Finland.Alvar Alto had the won design contest to begin construction on the Town Hall. Aalto's design of the building was a large square surrounding the courtyard. However, the square is not fully closed as to give off a contrasting feeling of how closed and open the Saynatsalo Town Hall can be. This feeling is supported by the fact that there is a lot of nature in the courtyard. Aalto had made his building entirely out of bricks. He wanted the building to look as if it were made by the locals and not commercially because in their history they were part of a communist government and they want to forget that part of their history, hence the locally made-look.

The layout of the building surround an inner courtyard. The Saynatsalo Town Hall boasts a variety of different uses such as government offices, city hall, and a public library. People use the courtyard as a place to read after borrowing a book, or to reflect on a decision, as the courtyard is an ideal place to do so. The grass stairs shown below also offer some sanctity to read.

Saynatsalo town hall's all natural grass staircase.

http://openbuildings.com/buildings/saynatsalo-town-hall-profile-2975


 The Council Chamber, (shown below) is where all of the representatives held meetings to discuss town issues. Alvar set up the chamber in a classroom style fashion because he believed that this way the people in the chamber would come up with thoughtful self-relfected answers to the current issues. The roof of the Council Chamber is slanted, so Alvar came up with a way to support the roof with something he called "Butterfly Beams". The beam (or truss) was composed of 3 major beams which supported the smaller beams holding up the roof.

A view of the "Butterfly Trusses/Beams" in the council chamber designed by Alvar Aalto.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/doctorcasino/sets/72157608422335190/detail/?page=8