Säynätsalo Town Hall Workshop and The 3rd Alvar Aalto Researchers Nework Seminar will take place in Jyväskylä, Finland June 2017. Photo Alvar Aalto Museum.

Alvar Aalto Academy invites researchers and practitioners involved in the process of preservation, conservation, renovation or transformation of buildings, sites and neighborhoods of modern architecture, to participate the Säynätsalo Town Hall Workshop – Modern Masterpiece in Contemporary Society, in Säynätsalo, Finland 7–8 June 2017. The workshop is arranged by the Alvar Aalto Academy / Alvar Aalto Foundation in collaboration with the City of Jyväskylä.

The theme of the workshop is this modern masterpiece of Alvar Aalto in our contemporary society. The aim of the workshop is to provide new multi-discipline information and understanding of the values and prerequisites for the use of the Säynätsalo Town Hall. The use of the building is currently in a state of flux, since the municipality of Säynätsalo merged with the City of Jyväskylä in 1993, which put an end to its original functions as a town hall.

The workshop will have four themes: Public, Housing, Commercial and Environment, which will be studied in four working groups. Under these main themes, the workshop will contribute to identifying the values, the architectural and technical principles, the issues involved in preservation and conservation, the relationship between the building and the landscape, and the problems encountered in the adaptive use of the site. Each working group will have a moderator (Architect, Director of the Alvar Aalto Foundation, Tommi Lindh; Professor, Director of the Alvar Aalto Academy, Markku Hedman; Professor at Tampere University of Technology, Olli-Paavo Koponen; and Architect at the Alvar Aalto Foundation, Jonas Malmberg) and a representative of the site’s owner, the City of Jyväskylä. Commentating on the work done in the workshops will be David N. Fixler, FAIA, LEED AP.

The working method used in the workshop centres on the process of preparing a Conservation Management Plan (CMP) for the site. A CMP for Paimio Sanatorium prepared by the Alvar Aalto Foundation in 2015 will be used as an example project (www.alvaraalto.fi/paimio). All four themes will be explored from three different perspectives, reflecting the basic structure of a CMP: Premise, Policy and Strategy. A fourth additional perspective, The Future, will be left to be implemented and monitored by the owner, the users and other stakeholders by the site.

Venue Säynätsalo Town Hall, Parviaisentie 9, FI-40900 Säynätsalo, Finland

Further information and registration
Säynätsalo Town Hall Workshop – Modern Masterpiece in Contemporary Society, in Säynätsalo, Finland 7–8 June 2017

Additional information and enquiries:
Nina Heikkonen
Alvar Aalto Academy
nina.heikkonen@alvaraalto.fi
+358 (0)44 500 1257