Surveys

In 2020, in addition to the alteration and renovation of the Espoo Cultural Centre, we were tasked with preparing a building historical survey on this impressive work of Arto Sipinen’s office.

A lot has already been written about Arto Sipinen’s architecture, so this survey focused on analysing and conveying the architectural identity of the Espoo Cultural Centre bulding, instead of the entire production of the office. To create a context, the survey includes an overview of multifunctional cultural buildings in the 1980s and 1990s in Finland in general, and the other cultural centres designed by Arto Sipinen’s office. The Espoo Cultural Centre has been examined from the point of view of how the building joins the surrounding environment and from the perspective of outdoor architecture, structural principle and interior architecture. The interiors have been examined in more detail by spatial category. The survey includes a comprehensive diagram of floor and ceiling materials in their current situation, which has been used to address the material hierarchy that is characteristical of the architecture. The description and diagraming of significant transformational steps are also part of the survey. Finally, the values and characteristics of the architecture are compiled both in writing and the form of diagrams.

The BIM survey model prepared by Tietoa Finland Lts and the point cloud data have been utilised in the study of the building’s history and the drawing of the diagrams.

building historical survey and architectural analysis 2020–2021
Mustonen Architects Ltd.
contractee City of Espoo