Hvitträsk

Three young architects built a shared home and office in the forest by Lake Vitträsk. The house mixes fieldstone, logs and steep roofs with Karelian and English models. It became a symbol of Finnish National Romanticism.

Herman Gesellius, Armas Lindgren and Eliel Saarinen had started a shared office in 1896 and attracted attention with Finland’s pavilion at the Paris World’s Fair of 1900. They bought land by Lake Vitträsk west of Helsinki and in 1901–1903 built a complex with homes for their families and a shared drawing office. Lindgren moved out after a few years, and after Gesellius’s death in 1916 Saarinen stayed on until 1923, when he moved to the United States. He is buried on the site.

The buildings are joined around a courtyard and stand on a slope above the lake. The lower parts are built of rough fieldstone, the upper ones of logs, and the roofs are steep and shingle-clad. Models were drawn from Karelian farmhouses, medieval Finnish churches and the English Arts and Crafts movement. The interiors were designed by the architects, with open fireplaces, ryijy rugs, furniture and textiles in the same spirit. Saarinen’s part of the house burned in 1922 and was later rebuilt.

Hvitträsk is today a museum managed by the Finnish Heritage Agency. The house shows how National Romanticism combined national motifs, craftsmanship and natural materials in an artistic whole. The office also designed the National Museum in Helsinki, and Saarinen went on by himself to design Helsinki Railway Station among other works.

• National Romanticism
• Eliel Saarinen