Lappia Hall by Alvar Aalto

Before heading to the Rovaniemi airport this morning, I made a special visit to photograph Aalto's Lappia Hall and Town Hall complex. The Rovaniemi theatre, concert and congress hall was realised in stages (1961, 1968-72, 1973-75) with the first part comprising music school and radio station as well as the youth premises.

The second stage, that is the main part of the building, included the theatre and concert hall as well as a congress hall.

The diverse possibilities of Lappia hall are reflected by the outward features of the building. The gently undulating lines of the roof have been frequently compared with the undulating mountain scenery of Lapland.

This is the second of Aalto's buildings for Rovaniemi, with the Lappia House also joined by the town hall next door.

The colours of Lappia Hall are typical for Aalto - light creamy whites and blues dominate the building both outside and in its furnishing. Parts of the walls in the entrance hall are clad with shining, dark blue tubular ceramic tiles. I would love to attend a concert inside the main concert hall next time I visit.

This photo presents a second example of Aalto's work from my short stay in this wonderful city in the centre of Lapland. Today it was his architecture and the other example a couple of days ago was his wall mounted bronze sculpture Aurora Borealis that fellow blippers feared may fall on someone's head!