Architecture Award Winner Church in Viikki Designed with ArchiCAD

International Architecture Award for the best New Global Design was awarded to the Finnish JKMM Architects, who used ArchiCAD to design the winning structure in Viikki, Finland. Viiki is located in the Ostrobothnia region, near the campus of Helsinki University.

The award-winning church, which forms the core of an area plan that will be implemented gradually. extends into a narrow site amid building fronts, a park and a market place. The designers at JKMM Architects emphasized the harmonious relationship between the church and its surroundings. The lines of the eaves echo the forms of a stand of trees surrounding it.

Photo: Arno de la Chapelle A.D.L.C. Arkkitehtuuritoimisto Oy

The architectonic choices of the church were guided by prefabrication, as the church was built of factory-made components from start to finish. The building is braced by attaching insulated outer wall elements to the pillars and the panels of the ceiling to the glulam beams. The paneling was already attached to the plate stiffener of the inner walls at the factory. The church hall was built in a single phase. Its untreated and grey-aged facade is clad in cleft aspen shingles and fine-sawn drop siding. The interior lining of spruce was treated with a wash of lye, leaving it easy to clean and renew. The acoustic elements of the false ceiling were created from pressed veneer elements.

The furnishings and lighting were custom-designed to suit the church’s activities. The hall’s stackable chairs create the impression of a long church pew. The altar furnishings, highlighted by aspen surfaces, are outlined against the tripartite silver surface altarpiece, whose wine-colored tones are transformed by light.
The church combines modern and ancient building methods, sophisticated and rough-hewn surfaces, location and purpose, temporality and eternity. The intention of the client has been to create a modern successor to the long tradition of Finnish wooden churches, which takes into account the ecological ideas and criteria of sustainability of the whole Viikki area.

About JKMM Architects:

The JKMM Architects firm was established in 1998 by four partners Asmo Jaaksi, Teemu Kurkela, Samuli Miettinen ja Juha Mäki- Jyllilä. Their goal is to create buildings with exceptional architectural and technical quality.

In their buildings, they aim to bring together passion for architecture, common sense, sensitivity towards materials and technical innovation. This means careful deliberation of architectural solutions in all design phases and scales. To achieve quality in a finished building, good coordination of the planning process and experienced design work is required. JKMM Architects uses the latest technology, Building Information Modeling (BIM), as a tool in the design process.

Over the past years, they have received over 56 prizes (including 20 first prizes) in architectural competitions in Finland.