Espoonlahti Church
Sector
Public
Location
Espoo, Finland
Year
2017
Full exterior and interior renovation and modification
Espoonlahti Church is one of the highly respected church designs in the capital area and its original architects were brothers, Tuomo and Timo Suomalainen, who also built the well known church called the Rock Church in Helsinki.
The low bearing glue lam -beam structures in the church were severely damaged and the roof was in a risk of collapsing. During the damage assessment, moisture and indoor air problems were found. These were mainly due to the placement of the church which was built directly on top of a rock.
During the renovation, the entire copper roof was demolished and redesigned from its load bearing structures. The building windows, plumbing, electrical, wall structures and existing original furniture were also renovated. The kitchen facilities were completely redesigned to meet the current needs. The old caretaker's quarters were redesigned for church daycare use. A new cafe and meeting place were added in the administrative wing, otherwise the administrative wing went mainly through small changes which included new program organization to serve the use better and select furniture that was able to function in multi purpose use.
Outdoor changes included a new parking lot, courtyards, playground and landscaping. A new outdoor structure for bicycles and recycling was added by the service entry.
During renovation the main focus was put in the detail to keep the existing architectural language and refurbish what was possible. One of the biggest undertakings was to match the fabric to existing chairs that the original architects had designed back in the 1980s.
In this project Jonna joined the design team at the beginning of the construction. Her main duties during the project was to handle daily tasks of construction, including site visits, drawing / model updates and interaction with the client. She also designed the interior modifications which included new custom furniture throughout the spaces and planned the means and methods to refurbish the existing original furniture which included pulpit, church chairs and altar furniture.
