Kuopio is a medium-sized city in Eastern Finland. In the 19th century, he boasted prominent cultural figures such as the philosopher, writer, statesman and banker Johan Vilhelm Snellman and socially responsible writer and entrepreneur Minna Canth. In the last century, several literary men were also born there, whose books and plays were perfect for the theater.
In the 1960s, it was government policy in Finland to build new city theater buildings for municipal troupes, and Kuopio was one of the cities to benefit from this undertaking. Its theater was designed by architects Helmer Stenros and Risto-Veikko Luukkonen. Their friend, artist Lauri Ahlgren, did a massive asecco painting in the main foyer. The resulting building was a small modernist masterpiece of white concrete, glass and terracotta tiles in beautiful hues.
The theater received the best equipment for those times and was, of course, a source of pride for the townspeople. They staged both classics and politically sharp performances, and performances that were advanced in other respects. Later, a studio auditorium was created in the side spaces.
However, with the onset of the new millennium, the theater needed renovation and expansion. Over the years, the building has been somewhat changed by the city's Technical Department, and not at all for the better. A huge amount of 50-year-old equipment also needed to be replaced - and all this had to be done with respect for the spirit of the original.
In 2008 ALA Architects won a tender to renovate and expand this modernist building. A new stage with its own foyer was to be built, and the technical rooms were reconstructed. The logistics of preparing the productions changed, so the large theater workshops moved to another building, and the seamstresses, hatters and tailors who remained at the old address needed better jobs with natural light than before.
The old foyers and lobbies, as well as the beloved main hall, also needed to be refurbished, also from a technical point of view. However, the ALA architects found the atmosphere of the 60s very pleasant in the theater, and therefore they acted extremely carefully.
They were lucky: instead of the forced collaboration with bureaucrats from the city's Technical Department, they worked together with the great master of the "theater business" Juha Westman, who had previously worked, for example, at the Helsinki City Theater. In addition, the father of Juho Grönholm, one of ALA's partners, is a legendary theater technician. Therefore, architects could in no way lose sight of the functional requirements of the “backstage part” and of the productions themselves.
Now the theater has received a grate tower that has increased in height by 4 m and a new extension from the rear facade: behind its walls of white textured concrete is a black box theater. This scene is named "Maria" after the writer Maria Jotuni. The need for a new foyer and new entrances for the small stage was met with a V-shaped bridge-type stem supported on a zig-zag steel structure. Below this new foyer, in a garden by the shores of the small lake Valkeisenlampi, there is a half-open, half-closed theater. It has no special purpose, but since the International Dance and Music Festival is taking place in Kuopio, it may well come in handy.
The old ground floor lobby has returned to its original design with concrete flooring. The wardrobe features a massive, minimalist white concrete counter and sofas upholstered in white leather, both designed by ALA.
In the main foyer on the second floor, the original "lion's mane" carpet has been recreated to match Algren's murals. The solid wooden benches by the windows have been replaced with similar modern ones. In addition to their obvious function, they contain components of ventilation and heating systems.
As audiences nowadays need more drinks and snacks than in the 1960s, two new bars were added with rows of laconic white tables.
The walls of the "black box" hall repeat the relief of its facades. They are perforated and covered with metallic paint. The main stage, named "Minna" after Minna Kant, looks almost the same: changes in technical spaces and a new ventilation system are almost invisible, although the floor level under the auditorium has been raised by 30 cm.
The theater staff of 80 people (20 of them are actors) is obviously pleased with the reconstruction. The only problem is the illumination at the top of the building, which seems too bright and "Shanghai", especially for this location: it brings rather catchy colors to an exquisite and very beautiful environment - among other things, the theater offers beautiful views of the lake. This pink-purple-reddish flashy color was not the original idea of the architects. In addition, ill-conceived additions like advertising screens have already disrupted the clarity of the ALA-created spaces. But these small details can be corrected in the friendly dialogue mode.
The project budget was about 27 million euros. For our time, this is a large investment for the mid-sized capital of one of the provinces of Finland. But - for comparison: the Center for the Performing Arts "Kilden" of the same ALA in the Norwegian Kristiansand cost almost 10 times more.
On days when in many small towns theater directors are chosen not for artistic merit, but for other merits, it is hoped that the theater in Kuopio will focus on more than musicals. The renovated building challenges his troupe: let them show what they are capable of. For the opening night, a new play by the Kuopio-born playwright Sirpa Kähkönen was chosen, casting a glimpse into the life of another Finnish woman, now highly acclaimed artist Helene Schjerfbeck. So far, it seems, the theater is in good hands.
In conclusion, we would like to remind that ALA has recently received two more major projects for the "revival" of iconic buildings. One is the Finnish Embassy in New Delhi, and the other is the expressive Dipoli, the conference center of the Aalto University campus in Otaniemi. Both of these buildings are masterpieces by Reima and Riley Pietilä.
