Malcolm Quantrill’s Juha Leiviskä and the Continuity of Finnish Modern Architecture is one of the first international monographs published about the great Finnish modernist Juha Leiviskä (b. 1936). The volume presents selected works from Leiviskä’s career spanning from the early studies to the appraised churches and cultural centres.
The projects included are: Kouvola Town Hall; Villa Nikamaa; Cemetery and Chapels of Rest in Vaasa; Nakkila Parish Hall; Puolivälinkangas Town Plan and St Thomas’s Church and Parish Centre in Oulu; Myyrmäki Church and Parish Centre; Vallila Library and Daycare Centre; Kajaani Art Museum (unrealised); Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Helsinki, Männistö Church and Parish Centre in Kuopio; Newspaper Offices in Väterås, Sweden; Villa Thorén-Söderström in Tammisaari; Pirkkala Church and Parish Centre; Museum of Contemporary Art (competition entry) in Helsinki; National Museum of Art (competition entry) in Tallinn; the remodelling and additions to the Harju Funeral Chapel in Mikkeli; and the Dar Al-Kalima Cultural Centre in Bethlehem, Palestine. Malcolm Quantrill’s introduction to Leiviskä’s architectural thinking gives this book particular depth and significance.
Leiviskä’s distinctive architecture does not easily fit any stylistic category. He is first and foremost an architect par excellence: curious for finding optimal solutions, always in search for the perfect plan. For further information, please read Leiviskä’s 80th-anniversary interview on finnisharchitecture.fi (by Anni Vartola, yes that’s me).
The copy currently in stock is in very good condition. The pages are clean; the glueing of the binding is fine; the covers have only some minor signs of shelf wear.
