Kuopio (Kuopio, 1994)
The parish of Männistö in Kuopio began its work Mirja Airas: Paavo Ruotsalainen, the founder of on January 1 st 1963, when it was separated from the finnish pietistic movement was an original and the parish of Kuopio Cathedral. Nowadays there powerful personality. The series of watercolours in are six evangelical-lutheran parishes belonging Männistö St. John Church is dedicated to his to the Kuopio group. memory. He himself is known to have said that no memorials Männistö's congregation grew rapidly in the 1960’s should be erected for him; therefore it could be and 1970's. For a long time it was Kuopio’s most thought meaningful that a group of small, light highly populated parish, having atthemost 16 200 coloured pictures with delicate images convey parishioners. At the end of 1993 there were about the light of his message. Here and there, his 12 500. beloved profile can be recognised, elsewhere his listeners can be seen in devout meditation. The parish had been using the old Männistö I have been able to carry out the work with the church, built asachapel in 1913and consecrated silent blessing of Yrjö Tengvall, Paavo Ruotsalaias a church in 1945. nen’s successor and the first parson of Männistö St. John Church. An invited competition was held for the design of Markku Pääkkönen: My point of departure was a new church, to which five architects were invited. light, my aim peace and my instrument colour. The competition was resolved on November 19th I have brought coloured reflections down to the 1986. Architect Juha Leiviskä won the competition human level, where belief and prayer are; series of with his proposal. Building began in spring 1991. colours descend from the level of the roof, as an The church of Saint John in Männistö was handed answer from near heaven. The colours are many, over to the parish in October 1992 and consecraas there are prayers and answers to prayers. Light ted on the First Sunday of Advent November 29th. breathes in colours. Juha Leiviskä: My aim has been to achieve a stable spatial organism, formed by the existing environment together with the new buildings, which in terms of the townscape is based on growth in progressive stages. The church, the parish centre and the local authority leisure centre, which is to be built later, are raised up on the slope (contrary to the original town plan) as a plinth to the backdrop of 1960s high rise housing blocks. These pre-cast element buildings, in themselves gloomy, were wanted as equal ingredients of a ‘good’ urban environment.The space of the church itself complete with its belltower, at the southern end of the complex dominates the view. The park area in the foreground is left as extensive and uninterrupted as possible and the fine group of pinetrees to the north of the site can be preserved as part of the park. Between the housing blocks an the new buildings an intimate pedestrian milieu is created which is bordered by the fences and planting of the upper level courtyards. The overall effect is the same as in ancient hill villages and towns, for instance in southern Germany and in Italy. The entrances to the church and the parish centre are situated at the lower level, on a raised terrace facing the park. Because of the hillside solution, the foyers meander below ground level, behind the halls and are quite narrow in places. The church and the parish hall are approached from two directions, past groups of watercolours by Mirja Airas depicting the life and work of Paavo Ruotsalainen, which are toplit by rooflights. The foyers act as transitional spaces between the great outdoors and the main rooms, so that there are no local emphases in them, which would draw power away from the church itself. I have aimed at artistic economy based on ‘gradually growing influences’. The most important building material of the church is daylight which affects the space mainly as indirect reflections, which are at their most intense in the late morning, during morning service. Markku Pääkkönen has used these reflections as material for his huge altarpiece. I have tried especially to ensure that all the components of the space, such as the different kinds of wall with their works of art, the ceiling, the slanting gallery, the organ etc. belong together and form an entity. A living interaction of large and small, open and shut, high and low, light and shade, spaces 'as instruments for light to play on’ a continuously changing, shimmering veil of light, these are the characteristics I have aimed at, here, as in all my works.