Part of:

People:

Kivi Sotamaa (archive creator)
OCEAN North (architectural firm)
Johan Bettum (collaborator)
Markus Holmstén (collaborator)
Kim Baumann Larsen (collaborator)
Lasse Wager (collaborator)
Vesa Oiva (collaborator)
Hein van Dam (collaborator)

Title:

Terra Cultura – Jyväskylä Music and Arts Centre, international competition entry

Date:

1997

Level of archival description:
Project

Extent and medium:

272 digital files (198 MB), 57 photograph prints, 23 drawings, 2 models

Scope and content:
Project records document the design process for OCEAN North’s competition entry for the Jyväskylä Music and Arts Centre in 1997. The project was titled Terra Cultura by OCEAN North.

The international competition called to create a multi-usage space that would include a venue for the symphonic orchestra, a music school, exhibition spaces, and the possibility to host a variety of small cultural events in the Finnish city of Jyväskylä. The proposed site is in the center of the town, across the street from the Jyväskylä city church and its park, and nearby buildings designed by Alvar Aalto.

OCEAN North’s concept presents a topological surface as an extension of the surrounding urban scape with two masses that would host the formal functions of the building (concert hall, music school, exhibition halls). The two volumes, or raised blocks, are divided along a diagonal elevated space, which is the extension of the ground’s topological surface filled and dubbed “Liquid Flow Space” by the design team.

In their interview with Greg Lynn, Johan Bettum and Kivi Sotamaa mentioned that the idea for Jyväskylä was that it was a cloud. Digital files, in particular, show the process to achieve the projected design. Drawings provide views of streamed particles and of resulting peels. They also include plans, elevations and axonometric views of the structure. Most files are raster or vector images, likely saved from CAD software. A few files are in CAD formats such as Microstation, 3D Studio and form*Z.

Digital files also present sine wave analysis and resulting charts for each component of the program. The analysis and charts present the relationships between various components of the building’s program such as the Art Museum, the Concert Halls, the technical space, and the Common facilities. These files are raster images and spreadsheets. Photographs of the site in Jyväskylä and of models built by OCEAN North were digitized and are included with the digital working files.

Physical drawings are chiefly floor plans for the building, but also include sections and sketches.

Finally, project files include photographic prints of two built models. One of these models, a small model of the conceptual masses of the building structure, is itself in the archive. Photographs show the model in the context of a city scape model. The second model, not part of the archive at CCA, was built at a bigger scale and was an intricate cardboard and wooden stick structure.

Sources:
Softspace: from a representation of form to a simulation of space, Edited by Sean Lally and Jessica Young. London, New York: Routledge, 2007.
Greg Lynn, ed. Archaeology of the Digital 17: OCEAN North, Jyväskylä Music and Arts Centre, Montréal: Canadian Centre for Architecture, 2017. ePub.

Reference number:

AP198.S1.1997.PR02

Arrangement:
Material from this project was arranged by the creator and has mainly been kept in its original order.
Two digitized photographs that were kept on another CD, among similar files, were added to the main Jyväskylä directory in a new directory named “Model photos”.

Location:

Jyväskylä Finland

Language of material:

English, Finnish

Related units of description:

OCEAN North was invited by the Venice Architectural Biennale to present the project in 2004. This led to a second and third phase of the project, led by Michael Hensel with the participation of Kivi Sotamaa. Resulting models and documentation are part of the Orléans FRAC Centre (France) collection.