Tampere’s Metso library celebrates 40 years as an architectural icon

Tampere’s Metso Main Library is marking 40 years since it opened, celebrated today as one of Finland’s best-known public buildings. The library was a deliberate challenge to the box-like architecture of its time, Yle reports.

Designed by architects Raili and Reima Pietilä, Metso attracts visitors from around the world. Its name comes from its shape, which from above resembles a displaying grouse with its tail spread.

Olli-Paavo Koponen, a professor of architectural history at Tampere University, was a young architecture student during the building’s construction. He says its copper and fine materials stood in sharp contrast to the rational, straightforward architecture students were taught to design.

“Metso was a statement in favour of architecture that was people-centred, interesting and offered different kinds of spaces,” Koponen says. “It was a deliberate provocation.”

The project began in 1978, when the city held an architectural competition for a new library. The Pietiläs’ entry, titled “Soidinkuvat,” was selected from 120 proposals. The name was soon changed to Metso, and construction, which required extensive manual work, took three years. Yle archive footage shows city employees building much of the library by hand.

Koponen recalls being impressed when the concrete vaults were completed. The halls curved in two directions, creating spaces he remembers as clear and striking. The Pietiläs also designed the furnishings, allowing the library to hold a very large number of books.

The library opened to the public on August 21, 1986, and was officially inaugurated on October 10 that year. It has three floors of services and a slightly tilted dome that gives the entrance hall a changing appearance as daylight moves through it.

Metso’s construction cost 69 million Finnish marks, with about seven million marks more spent on furniture and equipment. The city had set aside 84 million marks for construction, so the project came in 15 million marks under budget. The building’s cost is equivalent to about 28 million euros today. It covers 11,225 square metres.

Over four decades, about 45 million people have passed through its doors, and more than 80 million loans have been made.