The Temppeliaukio Lutheran Church is located not far from the center of Helsinki, in the Finnish district of Teele, between granite rocks.
If you look from the side of Fredrikinkatu Street, the design of the church looks almost elusive against the natural background: the flat dome barely rises above the surrounding landscape. An unassuming entrance surrounded by concrete walls leads visitors through a dark corridor into a light-filled sanctuary carved right into the rock. Due to the rock walls, the church was also nicknamed as the “Church in the Rock”. To contrast with the heaviness of the materials, the skylights surrounding the dome create a play of light and shadows, giving the building a feeling of airiness.
The church itself is the result of an architectural competition won by the brothers-architects Timo and Tuomo Suomalainen in 1961. Their original vision of this project was recognized not only for creativity, but also for the respect shown to the goal of the competition: to preserve as much as possible of the natural rocky ledge of the square. Their winning proposal achieves this by embedding the church in the rock and placing the parish premises on the edges of the hill.
Construction of the building began in February 1968, and a year and a half later, in September 1969, the church was opened for consecration. Due to the economic difficulties of the post-war period, the proposed plan was cut, and the interior space of Temppeliaukio was reduced to about a quarter of its original area. Initially, public opinion was critical of the design – some feared that it would resemble a bunker. Others believed that the money allocated for this project could be spent for better purposes, for example, to support the victims of famine in Biafra, a state in the southeastern part of Nigeria. In 1969, Christian students even painted graffiti on a construction site with the inscription “Biafra!” – this was one of the first recorded cases of public graffiti in Finland.
Despite past disagreements, today the Temppeliaukio Church is regarded as one of the most beloved sights of Helsinki. Moreover, it serves a dual purpose: a place of worship for the Teele parishioners and a valuable concert venue due to its impressive acoustic properties. This feature is achieved thanks to the rough exposed stone walls. In the initial project, the Suomalainen brothers proposed a smooth concrete finish on top of the stone, fearing that the exposed rock would be too radical for the jury of the architectural competition. However, conductor Paavo Berglund and acoustic engineer Mauri Parho convinced the designers that the uneven surface has better acoustics, which led to the decision to leave the stone walls intact.
Another main feature of the building is its roof – a flat dome with a diameter of 24 meters, supported by radial concrete beams. On the inside, the dome is covered with an unoxidized copper thread 22 kilometers long. The 180 glass planes surrounding the dome form a large skylight that lets natural light into the main space of the church. The shape of the glass panels changes, creating a transition from the strict geometric shape of the dome to the free form of rock walls with varying heights.
Large granite rocks mined on the same site are laid on top of natural stone walls, creating a space 13 meters high. The building emphasizes its natural elements and its connection with the earth. In spring, when the snow melts, water seeps out of cracks in the rock and collects in small channels in the floor. Thus, the design of the church comes from the theme of coexistence with nature – Finns have always perceived nature as an inexhaustible source of wisdom. Attention to the context of the place, the ability to work with the material, as well as social reflection – all this is part of the architectural traditions of Finland. The materials used, such as copper and exposed concrete, were chosen in such a way as to complement the shades of pegmatite (pink) granite. Temppeliaukio fits perfectly into the local landscape, conveying the national identity and culture of Finnish architecture.
The floor of the sanctuary is designed to be on the same level as the highest street facing the square – this allows visitors to enter directly inside without having to climb stairs. A folded public gallery connects the main space with additional parish premises located on the edge of the hill. Another unusual feature of the church is the absence of a bell tower. As compensation, a recording of bells from the Finnish composer Taneli Kuusisto is played from the speakers on the outer walls.
In this way, in Temppeliaukio, the design solution enters into a harmonious dialogue with the unique geological features of the city of Helsinki.
The author of the article is Varvara Sergeevna Kartushina
