ABSTRACT
The Main Building for Joensuu University by Jan Soderlund, Erkki Valovirta and Risto Marila is much more successful. Although it derives its inspiration from Aalto, in particular from the Main Building at Jyvaskyla University, this building is not at all a tired replay of exhausted Aalto themes. For the architects two things were of paramount importance: a careful relationship between the delicate quality of the site and its natural surroundings and a sense of close identity with the building users, the metalworkers. A variety of enclosure and semi-enclosure is achieved in the overall grouping of buildings on the undulating site, with a lot of interplay between the formal character of the layout and the natural landscape elements. The 1970s ended with the construction of a number of other buildings of note, for example, Keijo Petaja's office building at Etelaesplanadi 20, Helsinki. Upon entering the 1980s there is less certainty about the origins and intentions of the new Finnish architecture.
