Kulttuuritalo (The House of Culture, Helsinki) has a legendary status in the Helsinki scenery. For decades, its distinctive architecture designed by Alvar Aalto has stood guard of Sturenkatu, one of the the arterial road east of the city centre. Despite the strictly political origins of the building, it has managed to house a number of events that have affected all the Helsinki townspeople. Until the opening of the Helsinki Music Centre in 2011, the concert hall was the main venue for the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra. In the 1980s, Kulttuuritalo, or 'Kultsa' as the locals say, was the best place in town both for ball dancing and teen disco nights. From the 1960s up until today, Kulttuuritalo has gone wild with all top artists from Ella Fitzgerald and Jimi Hendrix to Duran Duran and Lady Gaga.The first Photo Poem is about Kulttuuritalo by Marc Goodwin, a photographer from the UK and doctoral student at Aalto University, School of Arts and Design in Finland.Completed in 2013, the Kulttuuritalo conservation project by Architects NRT was nominated in the Finnish Architecture Review 2014 by Museum of Finnish Architecture.[nggallery id=15]
Coming up in Photo Poems
Museum of the History of Polish Jews (Architects Lahdelma & Mahlamäki, 2013).
Photographs by Konrad Pustola (b. 1976, Warsaw, Poland).
