Eliel Gotlieb Saarinen
Typescript in Australian Archives, ACT, Series A762.
Eliel Gotlieb Saarinen (1873-1950) was born at Rantasalmi in East Finland and went to school in Vyborg and Tampere. In the fall of 1893 he entered the Helsinki Polytechnic Institute, graduating from the Department of Architecture in 1897. Before 1907, when he opened his own office, he was associated in the practice of architecture with Herman Gesellius and Armas Lindgren, Institute classmates who began a joint practice even before graduation.1. Plan of the principal means of communication between the Federal Capital City and the outlying districts surrounding it. (Drawn on the Topographical Map of Federal Territory.)The Gesellius Lindgren Saarinen partnership achieved early fame for its design of the Finnish pavilion at the Paris International Exposition of 1900. This followed an important commission in 1899 for the office of a large insurance company in Helsinki. Their design of the Finnish National Museum in 1902 was another important commission. Saarinen gained international prominence two years later when, as an individual competitor, he won the competition for the design of the Helsinki railway station.
What would become an important aspect of his career began in 1911 with three projects. That October Saarinen met with city planning experts in Budapest to study that city's plan, and he wrote a detailed commentary that appeared the following year. Late in 1911 he also served as a consultant to the Town Planning Committee of the City of Tallinn, Estonia advising on conditions for a town planning competition. He entered the competition and was declared the winner in the spring of 1913.
Saarinen only learned of the Australian competition in midNovember. If he allowed a month for the drawings to reach Melbourne by the closing date of January 31, 1912, he would have had only six weeks to prepare his entry. No doubt the finished renderings and, perhaps, some or many of the details, came from the hands of two architects in his office, Frans Nyberg and Berndt Aminoff.
In acknowledging the letter informing him of his secondplace prize, he wrote the Australian Department of Home Affairs: "By mere accident I did not receive the program until the middle of November, a fact which I regret very much, as the problem interested me exceedingly, and my plan, with more time at my disposal, should have been more complete and finished in detail.... After having been honored with the second prize, I regret still more that my time was so short.
Saarinen maintained his interest in city planning throughout the rest of his life. His most important contributions were for Helsinki. In 1911 he began and in 1915 completed a detailed design for the MunkkiniemiHaaga District, a tract of nearly 2,000 acres to be developed by a private company. Part of the street plan and the design of some of the squares and buildings of this area owe their origins to Saarinen's proposals.
At about the same time Saarinen began work on a master plan for the entire Helsinki metropolitan area. This was not sponsored by the municipality or any other governmental agency, but Saarinen collaborated on some aspects of the project with Bertel Jung, the town planner for Helsinki. His master plan was exhibited in 1915, but he continued to work on the project for several years thereafter.
In his later career Saarinen added to these achievements. His second prize design in the Chicago Tribute Tower competition in 1922 was widely regarded as an outstanding solution to skyscraper architecture and made his name better known in America. Saarinen came to the United States the following year and settled in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. However, he continued to spend his summers in Finland where he maintained an architectural office.
At his new home he designed most of the buildings for the Cranbrook Institute of Arts which he served as President from 1932 to 1948. From 1948 until his death two years later he was director of the Institute's graduate programs in city planning, urban design, and architecture. Many young graduates of more traditional architectural schools spent one or more years under Saarinen to be exposed to his approach to design. He presented his urban planning theories at length in his book, The City, Its Growth, Its Decay, Its Future, published in 1943. Honored with the gold medals of the American Institute of Architects and the Royal Institute of British Architects, decorated by the Finish government, elected a member of several national academies and other societies, and awarded numerous honorary degrees, Saarinen enjoyed a remarkably productive career until his death at the age of seventyseven.
The design for the Federal Capital City of the Commonwealth of Australia includes the following plans:
2 Plan of the general disposition of the town, including:
(a) Direction of thoroughfares with their levels at junction with other streets, thereby causing the intervening areas to be divided up into building blocks, parks and gardens and ornamental water.
(b) List of the more important buildings.
(c) a scheme for the laying of a tramway system.
(d) a scheme for the laying of the railroad and distribution of stations along the line.
(e) a scheme for the construction of basins for ornamental water, the level of which is given at those places where it is thought advisable to construct locks.
(Drawn on the Map of Contour Survey of site of Federal Capital as required in conditions of competition).
3. A colored design of 2 shewing clearly the disposition of the different quarters of the city, and the method of building dwelling houses, shops etc., on the several plots, into which the blocks are divided, as described later.
4. One sheet illustrating graphically two sections.
5. Three sheets of perspective views, shewing the grouping of the main building.
In planning the future Capital City for the Commonwealth of Australia it is first of all necessary to lay down the lines upon which we should run. In this work we are aided by the immense resources which are offered us in the extensive statistical records which have been compiled during the last century and this and from which we obtain the necessary facts as regarded the growth of population and the like.
It is not necessary here to meditate on the reason for this growth and thereby take the offered opportunity of calculating the possible increase of population for this town in view. We may content ourselves with merely stating the fact and point out the difficulties most cities have been plunged into by not having taken notice of this development in time and often having proposed plans for regulating a town too late. By virtue of this rapid development, we find that a science of townbuilding has arisen for the purpose of aiding towns in their plans for regulation. In planning the city in question the high development of modern townbuilding technique will be of great use and we shall not fail to apply all its most modern inventions.
The possibilities of development of the future city. We can to a certain degree and with the aid of the before mentioned statistics calculate the possibilities of development within a certain time, but we cannot anticipate this development in a more distant future with new possibilities. Consequently, it is safest to plan the town in its principal outlines so that its expansion can take place without hindrance and li[letters not copied]. And we need not fear the said expansion while in the other case nothing is lost.
The grouping of the different parts of the town To facilitate an undisturbed growth we must first place the different parts of the town in groups, so that each can grow without encumbering the other. We must moreover set down the plan for the nearest surroundings of the town and choose suitable places for its future suburbs, each with a character of its own.
We have, -
(a) the official town with the Houses of Parliament, the Ministerial
Buildings, and all houses which are to surround them.
(b) the university quarter;
(c) the military quarter;
(d) the commercial quarter;
(e) the industrial quarter with its population of workmen;
(f) the quarter for hospitals etc.
According to the above groups the main quarters are the following:
Arriving by train we have the centre of the commercial quarter quite
close to the central railway-station. It is of great consequence to make
the central railway station the centre of business, because thus the communication
between the future suburbs and the business quarter is facilitated. An
expansion of the said business quarter is possible towards the south and
southeast. South of the station is the market place with the market halls.
to the northwest of the station lies the City Hall, the Police Station
and the Exchange. The business quarter can expand along the broad avenue
running through the town to the north bank of the Molonglo river.
From the central railway station we proceed along the broad straight avenue, leading westwards through a triumphal arch to the official and diplomatic quarter. here we see two large avenues crossing each other. If we stand at their intersection we see the Houses of Parliament rise imposingly in the south-west on wooded slopes. The Houses of Parliament together with eight Ministerial Buildings, the Houses of the Governor General, and the Prime Minister form a group dominating the town. The wood behind these buildings can easily be changed into a beautiful official park which may also serve for public use. At the other end of the park avenue leading from the central Railway Station we find the National Art Gallery museums and libraries and the National Monument. On the north bank of the river opposite the Houses of Parliament lies the University with its hospitals and its university park as well as the technical colleges. North of these we have the military quarters.
On account of the prevailing winds the industrial quarter must be placed in the east. The residential part need not then be troubled by disagreeable factory smoke, neither during the summer months when northeast winds from the sea are prevalent. The factories being situated here the workmens' houses must also be placed near by.
Between the business and factory quarters where the Molonglo river curves, a public park with its buildings has been planned. North of the park we find plots for surgical and clinical hospitals.
Northwest of the public park and close to the railway we see the Stadium which thus has good communication with the University, technical schools, the military quarters and industrial quarters. For convenience sake it has its own railway station.
The railway line. In designing the route the railway takes through the town I have departed from the proposed course. I have been obliged to do so on account of my disposal of the town and because I did not wish to draw the railway through the wood which I had reserved for a university park. It is of consequence that the line runs through the town in such a manner as to give the central railway station a central position while the other stations can be placed so that each forms its special centre. We have already mentioned the position of the Central Station on the plan in question. On the north side of the town we find another station which forms the centre for a network of thoroughfares. This station is necessary for the northern expansion of the town and is besides situated at a suitable distance from the central railway station.
The railway line which naturally in this case must be a high level one has been designed in such a manner as to allow the goods stations and the marshalling yards to remain on the street level, which is quite practicable owing to the formation heights of the ground, and consequently without heavy expense tracks can be added to either side of the permanent way. The goods station is southeast of the central railway station. It is thus suitably placed between the business centre and the industrial quarter. To begin with the south side of the goods station can be used as marshalling yards for trains running north. A territory further south must however be reserved for future wants. Trains running south have their marshalling station in the northern part of the town. For the transport of farm produce and food supplies a siding has been projected near the market halls. A special branch line leads to the industrial quarter and is arranged in such a manner as to allow all trains running on the main lines to reach this part of the town without any special shunting.
Those railway lines which are outside the town-territory must of course in this plan be considered only as proposed and after closer examination and with the help of more detailed survey maps will probably need slight alteration. The planning of these lines and the reserving of the necessary ground is of course essential when a town is planned with due foresight. According to the plan lines running to distant parts leave the station in five different directions. Two circular lines for suburban traffic are designed to join these.
Electric Trams. A modern townplan must differ from the middleage system with circular thoroughfares. The way the towns expand in our days, demands more or less radial mainroads. Consequently, all main thoroughfares within the town or leading from the town to the surrounding country and the electric tramways thereon should be planned in a radial direction.
The starting point should be the same as for the railway traffic, viz. the centre of the town and the railway station placed therein. From this place all electric tramway traffic should radiate. In order to facilitate the communication with the different parts of the inner town, I have, over and above these radial tramway lines proposed two circular lines a double circle with smaller radius and a single circle with larger circumference.
The building of a future underground railway. Even if the future city should not need an underground railway within a calculable period, it is just as well to take this circumstance into consideration when the town is being planned.
The electric tramway traffic is often delayed by frequent stoppings at stopping places, thereby causing more distant parts of the town bad access from the centre. In order to remove this inconvenience, parallel lines should be laid down for greater speed with fewer stoppages. To place these lines within the town side by side with the above mentioned tramway lines would encroach too much upon the width of streets and also in many other ways hinder the traffic. Should this line be arranged as a high level line it would very much spoil the appearance of the town and moreover cause some difficulties at those places where it would cross the railway lines. Thus there is no choice but to project the expensive underground system. The most practical way is to plan this system together with the tramway system, so that the same stopping places can be used for both.
Of such main thoroughfares we have to plan several kinds, as regards the width of the street, and the division of the street area. It is unnecessary here to lose ourselves in detailed descriptions of all these different types and to render them graphically, in their various phases. There are enough examples and explanations of this in those works on modern townplanning technique, that have been published lately. When planning the different main thoroughfares one has carefully to discriminate between the various purposes of these streets. Besides the electric tramway communication that has to pass along these streets, they have to serve as roads for different kinds of vehicles. The motorcar traffic, which is getting more and more general has to be arranged so that a quick progress is not hindered by frequent and unnecessary stagnations. Thus we have either to reduce the number of streets for local traffic crossing the thoroughfare to the lowest possible, or, one part of the width of the street has to be reserved for fast traffic. I think the former method prevents one from attaining that clearness, which one ought necessarily to seek in the street system of a town. Consequently my project is made in keeping with the latter system. According to this, the whole width of the street is most conveniently divided by lawns or flower borders which divide the street into three different widths, the middle one for fast traffic. Streets running into those parts of the main street intended for local traffic ought not to be extended too frequently into the middle part of the street. The lawn should be interrupted for cross-traffic by vehicles only, when necessary. Pedestrians on the other hand are less disturbing to motorcar traffic and may consequently be allowed to pass more frequently across the lawns. It would be most convenient to lay the electric tramway lines along these lawns.
This system refers above all to those radial streets where great speed of traffic is desirable. In addition to these peripheric streets are projected to connect different parts of the town. Naturally these streets will not be as crowded as the radial streets. They have consequently to be planned with a different distribution of area. Being less frequented and thus suitable for walking, these streets will be arranged for this purpose in places where it is required by the nature of the town plan, and can be abundantly provided with lawns, flower borders and trees.
In the present project the streets are almost exclusively continuous yet so as to easily admit of an entire picture.
The secondary thoroughfares are mostly drawn with a slight curve of the street lines. The road runs evenly without any hindrance to the traffic. A pleasant change in the street views could easily be got by the arrangement of the houseblocks and proportion of the height of building to the street line. Besides this it is always possible to obtain variation in a street view by the formation of large and small ornamental squares parks gardens and monuments.
It is clear that the building areas which form the several districts of the town must be differently divided up in each case.
For the local traffic to each houseblock separately we ought to intersect these districts by so called residential streets. In such streets the traffic is considerably less than in the above mentioned thoroughfares, and the carriage way can be considerably narrower. These residential streets should be planned so as to allow as direct and as convenient a communication as possible.
The arrangement of the residential streets and grouping of the various houseblocks round them admits of creating many kinds of interesting street and place scenes from the plastic and the picturesque point of view. The residential streets might be treated in many ways. They may either widen into a sunny airy square with lawns and plantations, or one can arrange small open courts and useful local athletic grounds for out door games and the like. For local communication we have still to consider narrow streets or lanes intended only for pedestrians. These lanes might run through blocks of private flats in convenient places and might, by a closed system of building lead into the residential street through gateways and portals. (See colored plan).
We have -
5 - 6 storied houses,
3 - 4 storied houses, built according to the closed or half-closed
system.
Dwelling houses in rows and private villas.
Of course these require a different dividing up of each plot as regards form and size. The ever increasing demand for healthy hygienic dwellings, forces us to reject the old way of dividing up plots for many storied houses built according to the closed system. In the old method, buildings nearest the street with their more or less extension courtyard wings made a void space of the unbuilt part of the plot, which instead of being a source of light and air looked more like a dark cave, unpleasant and difficult to keep clean.
Modern townbuilding technique allows only the building of a street frontage the large or small courtyard that has been left, forms with the neighbouring one a whole area large enought [sic] to give air and light to the surrounding houses. The plots are no longer a place where so and so much per cent of the area may be built upon and this without a thought of cooperation with the neighbours.
We may cancel this percentage calculation altogether. The system itself guarantees that a certain percentage is not exceeded to the detriment of hygiene. What then if a plot owner can build according to a higher percentage than another! When we provide our plots with inner and outer building limits, the value of the plot can be calculated according to the area that may be built and eventually one calculates a lower price for the square area of the courtyard. Thus we get to a certain extent rid of the injurious plot speculation, gain very much from the hygienic point of view and are able to arrange dwelling houses to our aesthetic satisfaction. When people settle to live in streets of primary or secondary importance where there is or probably will be lively traffic and the neighbourhood ["neighbourhees" is the typescript spelling]. consequently has a good commercial situation, the conditions for the building of a dwelling plot are different. For instance one might in such cases allow the plot to be built over the whole area not only with a basement but also with shops. This mode of action will be allowed for the whole system of plots forming a boundary round one courtyard. Thus we increase the trade value of the plot without losing anything hygienic and aesthetic. The only difference is that in this case the courtyard is some ten feet higher up. The shops below the courtyard get their light on the one side from the street and on the other through pavement windows let into the courtyard, without preventing a nice pleasant arrangement of this yard with trees and flower borders. In the present case we should provide the courtyard with a convenient carriage gate.
Such grouping of plots can be much varied, and thus we get not only the courtyards differently formed but street views as well. We might for instance in some places draw the buildings farther back on the plot to get an airy place by the street. Or we might form two half courtyards of suitable shape opposite each other and let the street pass between. Thus the whole courtyard is spread before the eyes of the passers by, yet the peace need not be disturbed through this if we separate the courtyard from the street by a trelliswork or plantations or some wall arrangement. To let a street pass a courtyard through two fine portals, might also form an agreeable break in the street line.
It is, as a rule necessary to limit the number of stories and not let the houses run up as is the case in American town[s]. From the hygienic point of view it is no longer of such great importance, now that our system provides us with light and airy courtyards, enough so even for buildings higher than 5 or 6 stories. But to attain architecturally consummate town views this limitation is a great help. On the other hand one might in some places get a happy concentration of such masses of high houses, as to attain a monumental effect, and to get a more vivid modelling of the town. If we thus lose nothing from a practical and hygienic point of view and may attain certain advantageous pictures in the architecture of the town, I cannot see why we should not allow a higher system of building in some places.
When planning and grouping houses of a more limited system of building, we may use the same manner of proceeding as the above mentioned. With these we could by different groupings attain several kinds of effects in the architecture.
On the other hand these basins help greatly towards the aesthetic aspect of the town. For this purpose something must be done to keep the water-level something like constant during long periods of dry weather. Above the town in some suitable place a large quantity of water should be concentrated by dams so as to form a lake like water cistern. This reservoir should be big enough to store water sufficient to fill the basins in the town during prolonged droughts, so that a minimum waterlevel within the City area can always be counted upon. Through simple lock arrangements we are thus able to obtain this constant waterlevel in the basins. The different heights are written on the Contour Survey Map.
Thus walking along a street we can see renaissance, gothic and many other styles together making one front. To all this comes our present day longing for individualism in architecture and lose reins to the imagination of the architect.
For building a town harmoniously and in keeping with style, it is necessary to make plastic models of the town, when the definite town plans are being worked out. Thus we are able by a model on a convenient scale, to judge the total aspect of the town. We can easily overlook the grouping of house masses in the different districts and regulate them according to ground conditions.
Moreover it is convenient to make models on a larger scale to be able to determine how the bulks and proportions of the buildings stand to the different squares, markets and street-widths. It is convenient to work these detail models, so that they can easily be put together to give a total view.
The town builder has a very grateful material with which to model a town. He has at his disposal buildings of different form and size. By tastefully grouping them, he can achieve almost every artistic effect, as silhouettes against the sky and as individual detail views within the town. In this work he will be greatly helped by the above mentioned models.
This committee should watch over the whole and keep a vigilant eye on it, so as to allow no transgression of the principles of unity in the buildings.
This committee should be entitled to approve or reject the different house fronts as far as regards bulk proportions, style and material for exterior covering. This not only for fronts facing streets, the walls facing courtyards should also have a harmonious character.
Such severe control on the part of a building committee, does by no means fetter the action of the individual architect to the disadvantage of his particular professional creation.
One of the chief principles of architecture is that when a house has been planned practically and of suitable size and proportions, it has to be toned into harmony with its surroundings. The existence of a severe aesthetic committee for buildings, secures the individual architect harmonious surroundings for his house. The building committee will be helped and directed by the above mentioned models, and will thus be able to work in the directions given, when the plan of the town was made.
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