Parish Church and Centre for Myyrmäki

Architect: Pekka Kivisalo, Juha Ilmari Leiviskä

Address: Uomatie 1, Vantaa, Finland

Web:www.vantaanseurakunnat.fi

Completion:1980-84

The western boundary of the site is formed by the high embankment of a railway line that carries frequent commuter traffic. Leiviskä resolved this situation by converting the narrow strip of land into a continuous park. This is truly an architecture of resistance in which the church as an intermediary object forms a bastion between the hostile railway and the tranquil park.

„On the embankment side, the building mass forms a 'wall' that gradually rises to the south towards the church and its bell tower. This wall counteracts the dominance of the railway station and protects the parkside form its environmental intrusion. The wall also excludes the visual polution of the high-rise housing that exists on the other side of the tracks. I have explained my ideas about spatial arrangement and the use of natural light in discussing St Thomas's Church in Oulu. A possible model for my Myyrmäki design could well be Balthasar Neuman's greal abbey church for Neresheim in southern Germany.“

Juha Leiviskä