Architect:
Juha Leiviskä

Client:
Kuopio Lutheran Diocese

Construction Design:
Harry Dunkel Engineers

Acoustical Design:
Alpo Halme Architects

The objective was to create a solid spatial organism combining the existing surroundings and the new buildings. The church and its terraces, the parish centre and the public recreation centre to be constructed later have been raised on the slope so that they adjust fully to the background of 1960s blocks of flats. These prefabricated buildings, as gloomy as they may be, were integrated to make them an equal part of ´good´ urban structure. The high church hall with the adjacent bell tower at the southern end of the complex dominates the landscape. The layout is based on an active dialogue between small and large, low and high, closed and open, shade and light. The most important material in the church hall is daylight, working in the space as mainly indirect, occasionally coloured reflections. The spatial atmosphere is constantly changing, depending on the time of day and the season, or whether the weather is sunny or cloudy.