Juha Leiviska and the Continuity of Finnish Modern Architecture

JUHA ILMARI LEIVISKÄ has enjoyed a distinguished career as one of Finland's leading architects. This book provides a perceptive account of his work to date, locating it within both Finnish modernism and that of Dutch De Stijl.
Leiviskä's profound interest in architectural history has not led him to mere imitation of historic forms: even in his faithful adherence to the principles of De Stijl he succeeds in dissolving its formal vocabulary of abstraction by his uncanny and totally unnerving use of daylight. What is reflected in Professor Quantrill's authoritative account is not only Leiviskä's sensitivity to the chemistry of built form when immersed in light, but the interaction of physical form and musical structure in his designs.
Born in Helsinki in 1936, Leiviskä studied architecture at Helsinki's celebrated University of Technology in Otaniemi. After graduating in 1959, he began lecturing there on the history of architecture, and continued to do so until 1971. His architectural practice dates from 1964, when he was only 28, and his best known and most admired work - both executed buildings and projects - has centred on the design of religious buildings for the Lutheran Church. The qualities of his architecture, as well as his own uniquely personal talents as a designer, have been widely recognised since the completion of St Thomas's Parish Church and Centre in Oulu (1975).
Leiviskä was made a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts in 1991, and was appointed as an 'Artist Professor' by the Finnish President in 1992. In 1994 he was made an Honorary Fellow of the American Institute of Architects. He was awarded the prestigious Carlsberg Prize in 1995, and in 1997 he followed Alvar Aalto and Reima Pietilä in becoming the architecture Member of the Academy of Finland.

by: Malcolm Quantrill