Title : Academic Bookstore
Other title : Akateeminen Kirjakauppa; Akademiska Bokhandeln; Academic Bookshop; Book Palace; Kirjapalatsi; Pohjoisesplanadi 39
Creator : Aalto, Alvar, 1898-1976
Creator role : Architect
Date : 1962-1969
Current location : Helsinki, Uusimaa, Finland
Description of work : The Academic Bookstore sits on the corner of Keskuskatu and Pohjoisesplanadi next to Aalto’s Rautatalo Office Building and Eliel Saarinen’s Kinopalatsi Building. "The winning design from Alvar Aalto and his wife Elissa for the Akateeninen Kirjakauppa…was chosen in 1962 in a two-phase architectural design competition. In 1969 the Academic Bookstore opened. For its construction the adjacent ‘Kinopalatsi’ cinema hall [one of the first movie theaters in Finland] had to be demolished" (Source: Meyer, Ulf. Architectural Guide Helsinki. Berlin: DOM Publishers, 2012. p. 31). "The facade material was copper sheet, used in an axial system producing three office windows to each display window for the lower levels" (Source: Schildt, Goran. Alvar Aalto The Complete Catalogue of Architecture, Design and Art. London: Academy Editions, 1994. p. 170). The three-story hall or atrium, clad in Carrara marble, features three large skylight features. "[T]he space is entirely dominated by the three extraordinary rooflights that descend in the space like giant crystalline gemstones…The triple-layered, steel-framed rooflights are diamond-shaped in section, coming to a pyramidal point both above, at the roof, and below, in the room, and they do not so much hang as float from the ceiling down into the space, emerging from sculpted settings carved into the ceiling plane" (Source: McCarter, Robert. Aalto. London: Phaidon Press Limited, 2014. p. 210).
Description of view : View from the side of prism-shaped skylight pointing into open hall or atrium space with gallery with balustrade clad in white Carrera marble in the background.
Work type : Architecture and Landscape
Style of work : International Style [1919-1970s]
Culture : Finnish
Materials/Techniques : Stone
Glass
Metal
Source : Pisciotta, Henry (copyright Henry Pisciotta)
Date photographed : 2012
Resource type : Image
File format : JPEG
Image size : 2304H X 3072W pixels
Permitted uses : This image is posted publicly for non-profit educational uses, excluding printed publication. Other uses are not permitted.
Collection : Worldwide Building and Landscape Pictures
Filename : WB2013-0631 Academic Bookstore.jpg
Record ID : WB2013-0631
Sub collection : commercial buildings
Copyright holder : Copyright Henry Pisciotta
