RB_RestorationoftheViipuriLibrary

PR­640­01 History and Theory of Preservation Prof. Nadya Nenadich  Rodrigo Balarezo  Research topic: 

Restoration of the Central City Alvar Aalto Library in Vyborg

“Intuition can sometimes be astonishingly rational”

-Alvar Aalto

The city of Vyborg, located in what is

now North-Eastern Russia, has

witnessed numerous wars during its

seven century history. The town was

evidently transformed by WWII in its

build environment, and “all cultural

continuity between the pre-WWII and

post WWII era was broken”. Today,

Swedish, Finnish and Russian cultural

heritage is utilized to help the citizens

look for identity in their post-communist

settings.

The most visible landmark of the town, the central tower of a castle, was built in 1293 as

crusaders lead by Tyrgils Knutsson (Swe,. Torkkel Knuutinpoika in Finnish) claimed the area for

the Western’s Church sphere as well as for the Swedish

Kings who would rule over the territory for the next 400

years. Knutsson served as regent for the underage Birger

Magnusson, but He was decapitated in February 1306

after the king’s brothers have successfully seeded distrust

on the king against his marshal Knutsson. On an event

known to history as the Third Swedish Crusade, Knutsson

fought the Novgorod Republic, Russian medieval republic,

which had attacked the town of Tavastland. Hence, the

castle at Vyborg was conceived as a fortress, and the

town developed sporadically on the adjacent

archipielago. The town received its charter in 1403, and

the building of a stone wall surrounding the town began

in 1470’s. Later fortifications were done in 1547-1550,

and the largest effort was done in 1563 when the wall

was extended to the south-east along with the ramparts

that gave the area its name: Valli (Finish) The rectangular street grid that remains to this day

was mostly established in the 1600’s when the Swedish Kingdom replaced the Old Town street

grid that followed the curvature of the land. In 1710, Peter the Great conquered the town and it

was claimed for the Russian Empire as a fortress town to protect the capital, St. Petersburg. A

russian wave of rebuilding and public works followed a fire in 1793. In 1809, the Tsar Alexander

I conquered territory farther into the east of the Swedish Kingdom, and he established the

Grand Duchy of Finland to which Vyborg was joined in

1812. At this time, the town was still a fortress town

composed by: the castle, the main fortress (surrounding

the main city), and St. Anna’s Crown.After the Crimean

War (1854-1856), Russia handed over the fortifications

around the main city to the civilian authorities who

decided to implement urban changes such as filling in

the moats, demolishing fortifications, and buildinging

new streets. A new street grid was drawn by surveyor

Berndt Otto Nymalm, and it was ratified in 1861. Two

new districts followed, Salakkalahti to the north-east of

the main town, and Pantsarlahti to the south-east. The

existing suburb of St. Petersburg became two districts:

Repola and Kaleva. In 1869, street signs were set, and a

need to name streets arouse which constitutes evidence

to the political changes in Vyborg as these street signs have taken both Finnish and Russian

names at different times in history. Infrastructure works such as the completion of the Saimaa

Canal in 1856, the Helsinki-St.Petersburg in 1870, and the Karelia-Vyborg expressway in 1894

allowed the city of Vyborg to grow to host about 50,000 inhabitants by 1910. However, periods

of finish oppression followed from 1899-1905 and 1909-1917 until the Grand Duchy of Finland

seceded from Russia after the October Revolution of 1917. The new state enter civil war in

1918 between the “white” bourgeois representing the legal government, and the “red” guards

hoping to create a socialist republic. The town of Vyborg was conquered by the white army in

April 1918 with reds fleeting to St. Petersburg. At this time Vyborg was considered a bastion of

western culture at the fringe of communist Russia. In 1923, Maria Lalukka, the widow of Juho

Lalukka, donated funds for the construction of a municipal library, and an architectural

competition was established in 1927. Alvar Aalto won the competition, with a classicist scheme,

as it was announced in February 1928. However, a list of considerations were given to the

architect which spurred the development of numerous schemes until 1929. In 1929, the first

cycle of street name changes occurred as some of the street names were changed from Russian

to Finish in order to represent the new cultural values and in order to forget old Russian

oppression. Coincidentally, the recession at this time caused the project to be delayed until

October 1933 when the location of the library changed, and Aalto was required to submit new

and final drawings which lead to the library’s completion in 1935.

According to some of Aalto’s description of the project the form and design resulted from the

change in the library’s location which allowed him to “freed the design from the constraints of

external formality”. The three main elements were: the library itself with its various

departments which form the main massing with interdependent relationships focused on

serving the human eye; the socially active part of library such as clubrooms, smaller spaces and

offices “open to the exterior, and light in construction” focused on the human ear, and the

internal circulation network which becomes the “medium combining the above psychological

conditions”. The entrance to the kid’s library was at a lower level whereas the main entrance

was at the intersection of a group of meandering paths, and the newsroom was accessible

directly from the street.

He describes the roof to be made of a reinforced

concrete slab with special beam forms of only

one span at 17.6 meters. In fact, the original

proposal by Aalto conceived of a glass roof over

the main lending hall, and he let it go during the

design process only to return in the final scheme

as the 57 circular openings of 1,80 meter diameter.

He describes that the depth of the cones was such

that a “52 degree sunbeam cannot pierce it freely”

in order to allow “optically hygienic overall lighting”

so that reading could be done without producing a

shadow. Circular coarse glass sheets were placed

on the concrete conicals and they relied on their own weight. On the solid parts a

panel-heating-system was placed by means of radiant heating pipes in order to provide heat to

the main hall. Artificial lighting had also been placed in the solid parts by means of recesses and

directed towards the adjacent walls to produce indirect lighting. The elevated location of the

lending department and leading rooms that form a single hall was provided by setting them in

multiple levels. The 75 cm thick brick external walls included the ventilation ducts and allowed

for no partitions.

The clubroom and office wing had a steel frame construction, and the floors were massive

concrete slabs where the floor finished was fixed directly on the slab with sound insulation

provided by the heaviness of the slab and soft fibre boards insulite. The roofs were insulated

with a fabric which had a lead membrane between two bitumen layers, and it didn’t have filling

as in the hall. Roof outlets for rainwater drainage and flashings were made of copper. Since the

human ear was the main concern, the lecture hall’s undulating lamellas were used so that

sound could be emitted and received at any location in the hall, and not just at one location as

it’s the case in a concert hall. The windows were steel frame covered with teak on the inside.

Different woods had been placed in different locations depending on the possibility of wear:

karelian red pine in the clubrooms, sycamore in the entrance hall, oak, birch in the children’s

library and teak in the furniture, red beech and karelian pine (most durable) in the actual

library. The central heating was made of the “panel-heating”system which produced radiant

heat to warm up the concrete and plaster surfaces by a “dense network of pipes” thus

providing no conflict between shelves and the heating system. Additionally, the central

ventilation system was produced by fresh air distributed by ventilations pipes thought the

different parts of the building. the distributing branches of these were glazed fire clay or cast

iron. Textiles also played an important role in the buildings as curtains, door and wall coverings,

and elements separating different spaces. The natural lime painted surface remain in order to

make reference to natural materials. Thus, the main color scheme is made in reference to

materials. In 1938, the Museum of Modern art displayed drawings for the Viipuri (Vyborg)

Library, the Turum Sanomat Building, and the Paimio Sanatorium in its first exhibition of an

International Style Architect consolidating Alvar Aalto’s international fame.

By the WWII, Vyborg was

the second largest city in

Finland with around 75,000

to 80,000 inhabitants.

However, in November

1939, Russia attacked

Finland at the beginning of

what became known as the

Winter War, and bombing raids began over Vyburg whose population was forced to escape. At

the end of the hostilities, Finland was forced to hand over part of its eastern territory along

with Vyborg to Russia. Hence, the second cycle of changes occurred to street names, this time

turning Finish street signs to Russian. After the Continuation War in 1941, the finish recaptured

Vyborg. and They started a resettlement program that brought its population back to 30,000 in

three years along with new street name changes. However, the finns were again forced to

evacuate after a massive Red Army attack in 1944. At this time, Finland and Russia signed a

peace treaty which conceded Vyborg to Russia, and the town which was once considered a

bastion of western civilization officially became a Soviet border town which continues to be

until the present day. The library, which was not greatly damaged by the wars, was left empty

and unattended for the following 10 years as the new Russian inhabitants labored to rebuild

this then ghost town.

In 1955, the first of a series of restorations to the

library began. Aleksandr Mihailovich Shver lead the

first Russian restoration, but the government denied

his request, due to the political climate, for Finish

original drawings and other Finish bought elements

such as the circular glass panels for the oculi, and

the air-conditioning equipment. The flat roof pitch

was altered by inclining the concrete pouring by two

brick rows, and the windows of the main lecture hall

were reduced about 8 in in high because glass

wasn’t manufactured at that dimension in the Soviet

Union at this time. However, the lecture hall was not

altered to host a movie theater as proposed, the curved paneling of the ceiling was restored

using spruce timber, old pictures and paint marks on the wall, and the library continued to

operate as such.

Then, around 1970s concerns were raised about the condition of the library and appeals were

sent to the the Russian Government. In May 1989, after these appeals were not answered, a

group of twenty leading architects and professors sent a letter to the then president of Finland,

Mauno Koivisto, in an effort to preserve the library. However, the political environment at the

time didn’t allow for any effective change, until March 1991 when the Finnish Ministry of the

Environment, chaired by Mikko Mansikka,

organized a seminar in Helsinki titled

“Renovation of the Library of Vyborg.” Sergey

Kravchenko, russian architect who had

documented the library, presented his findings

on the poor condition of it, and the opportunity

to restore it. In the summer of 1991 an

international campaign was launched by the

Alvar Aalto Club (an unofficial organization of

architects who had been employed by Aalto’s

office) in order to produce an appeal and to

bring international support to the restoration of the library and awareness of Aalto’s

architecture. In January 1992, Aalto’s widow Elissa Aalto, the Finnish Ministry of the

Environment, and Finland’s Consulate General in St. Petersburg visited the library for the first

time and handed the mayor, Nikolai Smirnov, the above mentioned appeal with over 1000

signatures from around the world.

This spurred a series of bilateral agreements between Russia and Finland in order to provide

the administrative and financial backbone for the restoration of the library. For instance, the

Protocol of Intentions on Joint Activity in the Restoration of the Alvar Aalto Library was signed

in July 25th, 1991, and the Supplementary Protocol of Intentions for the Restoration of the

Municipal Library Alvar Aalto in Vyborg was signed in March 24, 1992. Furthermore, in May 21,

1993, the St. Petersburg Union of Architects, the St. Petersburg Cultural Foundation, the Finnish

Committee for the Restoration of Viipuri Library (Founded by Elissa Aalto, the Alvar Aalto & Co.

Architectural Office, and The Finnish Ministry of the Environment), and the Finnish Association

of Architects signed an agreement on the use of Donations and other contributions to the joint

Russian-Finnish Restoration Project. For the management of the project, three different

managers were employed mirroring the three different channels of funding. First, the Cultural

Commision of the Leningrad Oblast, which is part of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian

Federation, has a Department of Architectural Monuments which receives drawings and

specifications from the Finnish Committee for the Restoration of the Viipuri Library, in charge of

architectural design and restoration, choses a contractor from a call for tenders, inspects and

manages its projects. Second, The city of Vyborg funds and manages its own projects along with

consultation with the the Finnish Committee for the Restoration of the Viipuri Library and the

director of the library. Again drawings and specifications are provided by the committee, and

the contractor is chosen by the city out of a list of tenders. Third, works financed by the the

Finnish Committee for the Restoration of the Viipuri Library, which are financed by Finland and

contributions abroad, are managed by the library. The committee delivers drawings and

specifications, and the library chooses a contractor from a call for tenders.

International organizations, exhibitions, conventions, and academic studies were organized

over the decades in order to raise awareness of Aalto’s architecture as well as to raise funds for

the restoration of the library in Vyborg. For instance, the Friends of Viipuri established in 1995

an International Honorary Committee with close to 100 members from 22 countries, the Aktion

Viipuri in Switzerland provided fundraising as well as Alvar Aalto Gesellschaft in Austria,

Germany and Switzerland, Comitato Italiano Aalto/Viipuri in Italy, Alvar Aalto Sallskapet in

Sweden, and the Charitable Trust of the Friends of the Viipuri Library in the UK. International

conferences included: one at the Milan Triennale in November 1996 organized by the Comitato

Italiano Aalto/Viipuri, “The Viipuri Library - Saving a Modern Masterpiece” organized by Friends

of the Viipuri LIbrary, the Finnish Committee for the restoration of Viipuri library, and MOMA,

and “Lit by Aalto Skylights” in March 2003 organized by the Finnish Committee. A touring

exhibition of the library in its original form was presented in the summer of 1994 during the

Alvar Aalto Symposium in Jyväskylä, Finland and it toured the world for 14 years until its final

exhibition in Jyväskylä in October 2008 during the Finnish-Russian Cultural Forum. Other

donations came from the Omega Foundation in Switzerland, and the Getty Foundation in the

United States which allowed for a studio course on preservation headed by the Helsinki

university of Technology and and training program dealing with management, site practices,

quality demands, contractor’s responsibility and working methods for the Russian partners.

Scientific studies were also made by the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen, and

the Netherlands Department of Conservation in Zeist whose paint studies, headed by architect

Mariel Polman, were very instrumental to the restoration.

The restoration as presented by the committee had a total budget of 6.5 million Euros. One

common principle of the restoration process was to start a project only when there were

enough funds to bring it to completion. Additionally, decisions were made to retain the

alterations done on the 1956-1961 restoration as a historical layer, and to consider the modern

requirements of the library operations such as technology, security, energy savings, etc.

Restoring modern buildings some of the challenges that are found are: that many of the details

created in the modern movement are extremely vulnerable due to movement’s concern for

minimal use of materials and for functionality, buildings are presently in use and this may cause

conflicts again due to the functionalist focus of their conception, original drawings may differ

from actual construction due to architects’ on-site final detail changes i.e. Alvar Aalto used to

sketch final details on a PAP tobacco box.

The restoration was divided in multiple subprojects in order to facilitate the continuing

operation of the library. These were:

1. The glass facade of the main stair hall,

1994-1996. Which included conservation the

original steel frame and brass hinges of the original

glass facade, and replacing the steel windows,

corroded iron fittings, and rotten wooden lists from

the Soviet restoration. Screw joints were

completely replaced by welding as started by the

Soviet Restoration. The metal parts were given rust

protection and the wooden parts were protected

with linseed oil.

2. The library caretaker’s apartment 1997-2000. Provided the opportunity to test the

interior materials and details to be used in the rest of the library. All surface materials

were removed to the bare structure. The walls and ceilings were plastered with lime and

painted with Sax Tempera, the floor was leveled and covered with parquet and

linoleum, and the new doors were rebuilt according to original specifications.

3. The roofs, 1996, 1999-2001, 2001-2003. The

later added bitumen and insulated layers above the

original concrete roof were removed. Cement screed

K20 was wood-floated to a minimum of 1:100 to

improve the roof slope. The contractor installed new

bitumen waterproofing to the edges of the eaves, and

by the vertical structures up to 2 in. Above it, new

thermal insulation (extruded and half

tongued-and-grooved 2 in. polystyrene with 32 kg/m3

density) was installed. Filter Cloth Class 1 was installed

on top, and a new reinforced (#5-150, B 500 K)

frost-resistant (K45-1) concrete slab was cast on top.

20x20 mm pine battens were installed to form the slab

joints. The rainwater pipes were cleaned and and new

stainless steel pipes were installed. The original height

of the parapets were established and copper copings were installed.

4. The skylights, 2001-2003. In order to replace the

plastic domes added in 1990, modern 8+8 mm

laminated round-sawed edge-ground glass was installed

as the finishing glass in lieu of the original roughcast,

and an additional sheet of 4+4 mm round-sawed

laminated glass was installed in the interior of the

drums. Waterproof plywood ground rings were added

on top of the concrete drums waterproofing to adjust

for height. Vertical wood studding and expanded wood

insulation were also added. Skylights flashing is made of

0.9 mm copper sheathing.

5. The entrance doors, 2001, 2002-2005. all of the doors add larger profile sections added

during the first Russian restoration except for the doors to the periodicals rooms. These

were cleaned, rust was removed, and the lower parts of the frames had to be renewed.

Handles were reconstructed according to drawings and photographs, and the locks were

modernized.

6. The exterior stairs of the lending hall terrace, 2001. The stairs have been conceived as

cantilever beams, but the concrete has deteriorated and the reinforcing bars rusted.

Thus, the carbonated concrete was removed, the bars were cleaned, sandblasted, and

corrosion protected, new reinforcing rods were added, and new concrete was cast.

7. The children’s library entrance, 2004-2005. The exterior walls were rendered with lime

plaster and then white-washed. The plinth was restored, the entrance flagstones were

leveled, and the surrounding ground was lowered to the original height. The interior

repairs involved: the complete restoration of the toilets, the restoration and

conservation of the 1935 steel windows, and the completed preservation of the

entrance doors. The lockers which have been restored in the 1960s were cleaned and

preserved.

8. The iron/steel windows, 2001-2008. After the windows at the keeper’s quarters, the

lecture hall windows where next to be repaired. The wall below the window was lower

to its original height, the corner detail of the window was reconstructed, the lower

rusted parts of the iron window frame were renewed, the window frame was increased

by 20 cm to become 317 cm, and the ventilation grills were reconstructed. The rest of

the window frames in the building were sandblasted, and the broken parts renewed. 4

+4 mm laminated glass windows were inserted in the restored frames and Tremco

Multifog as the base putty was used between the frame and the glass, and Tremco

Mono 321 (white) for the exterior putty. Glazing beads were made of oak with a teak

stain and then oiled with linseed oil.

9. The periodicals reading room, 2004-2005. At this room all of the surfaces were

renovated. The electrical and lighting methods and conduits followed the original routes

and designs, and they were replicated as much as possible. The walls were painted with

Tikkurila White semi-gloss alkyd paint. One of the doors that was removed during the

Russian restoration was replaced, its details and specifications were replicated, and

handles were chrome coated. The floors were covered with 2,5 mm marble-figured

Norament Vario Rubber Carpet.

10. The lecture hall 2006-2009. All 1960 restorations

were removed and done anew including: the entrance

wall, the wooden ceiling, and the worn-out parquet

flooring. Visible reinforced bars were brushed clean

and a two layers of an anti-corrosive cement coating

was applied. The lower part of the entrance doors were

rebuilt and new ventilation ducts were placed behind

following the original design, and they were rendered

with lime plaster to the height of the lower level of the

bay window. The upper part of the wall is made of 50 x

100 mm frame screwed to the frame and covered by 12

mm veneer boarding. The brick walls were plastered

with three layers of lime plaster (ventilation ducts were

inlaid inside the walls according to original

specifications), beams were plastered with three layers of lime-cement plaster. All walls

were given a lime wash finish. Steel pillars were brushed clean, given corrosion

protection, covered with steel nettings, given three layers of lime cement plaster, and

then finished with natural oil paint. All floor layers were removed down to the original

slab which was vacuum cleaned, and moist for two days to assure adherence to the new

concrete layer which consisted of 1 part cement, 2 parts fine gravel from 3-6mm, and 1

part screened sand, and which was cured carefully, vibrated, and wood floated. Fescon

Coarse Floor leveling compound was sued for uneven areas less than 40mm and final

levelling was done with concrete pour finish. The final material of the floor was new oak

parquet according to original specifications. Simultaneously, the side corridor was

restored, and all surfaces were treated similarly except for the floor which was covered

with gray rubber carpeting.

11. The undulating wooden ceiling 1998, 2007-2008.

Numerous acoustic studies were done on the undulating

ceiling particularly by the dutch engineer Bo Martinsen

from the School of Architecture at the Royal Danish

Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen. The original panels

were made by carpenters working on site who

specialized on boat construction. Unfortunately, it was

destroyed after the war and then rebuilt during the

Russian restoration, but the craftsmanship at the time

wasn’t the best. Hence, the roof was completely redone during the latest restoration

following models found on Aalto’s own residence. The original steel anchors were

preserved and the new wooden frames for the ceiling were hanged from them. 9

kilometers of pine strips were produced for the ceiling’s paneling which was produced

and installed by the Rudkij Project Carpenter’s workshop in St. Petersburg.

The restoration of the complete library was accomplished in 2013, and World Monuments Fund

awarded it the 2014 World Monument Fund/Knoll Modernism Prize which was given to the

Finnish Committee and the Library Administrators at MOMA in December 2014. One of the

incredibly notable aspects of these project was the cooperation among Finnish and Russian

private and public institutions and citizens ranging from mutual governmental agreements,

fund-raising, management, and actual construction. Similarly notable was the participation of

the international community which recognized the value of the library and rallied labors

towards the common goal of preserving it. Not only as a future preservationist, but as a

member of our common humanity and citizenry, I couldn’t be more thankful for the work

performed.

The times and methods available to Alvar Aalto allowed him to cover much conceptual and

technical ground. Coming from an era in which technology was supposed to provide a solution

for all nations’ physical ills, Aalto was still able to reconcile the technical abilities of his time

with a delicacy as much as complexity both in monumental gestures as well as architectural

details. At the Viipuri LIbrary, He talked about about “optically hygienic and lighting

psychological solutions as well as heating and

ventilations systems”, which is demonstrated by

his previous work on the Paimio Hospital, but this

work doesn’t show an overpowering of the

technical over the natural environment. His works

show a balance and cooperation between the two.

Technology is exalted for its own good, but it

doesn’t impose itself or subdues the fact of its

natural setting. The awareness of this delicate

interaction is perceived and well executed in his

buildings from their setting in the landscape to the

execution of details. The building environment as

well as the global citizenry own Aalto gratitude for

such executions, and the restoration of the, now

called, Central City Alvar Aalto Library is a great

reminder of his work and how much we can learn

from it. Studying his work, one can conceive why

the use of paper for any purpose other than

architecture would be “a waste of paper”.

Works Cited

Adlercreutz, Eric, Gareth Griffiths, and Kristina Köhl. Alvar Aalto Library in Vyborg: Saving a

Modern Masterpiece. Helsinki, Finland: Rakennustieto Pub, 2009. Print.

Aalto, Alvar. Kaupunginkirjasto Viipuri. Jyväskylä: Alvar Aalto-museo, 1997. Print.

Neuvonen, Petri, Tuula Poyhia, and Tapani Mustonen. Viipuri: Opas Kaupunkiin = Vyborg : Town

Guide. Helsinki (Finland: Rakennustieto Oy, 1999. Print.

Schildt, Göran. Alvar Aalto: The Decisive Years. New York: Rizzoli, 1986. Print.

Spens, Michael, and Alvar Aalto. Viipuri Library, 1927-1935: Alvar Aalto. London: Academy Editions,

1994. Print.

"Viipuri Library." Viipury Library. World Monuments Fund, n.d. Web. 05 Dec. 2014.

Winston, Anna. "Restoration of Alvar Aalto's Viipuri Library Wins 2014 Modernism Prize."

Dezeen Restoration of Alvar Aaltos Viipuri Library Wins 2014 Modernism Prize

Comments. Dezeen, 31 Oct. 2014. Web. 05 Dec. 2014.