Remember, passion is what makes you an architect....

Przemysław Ciępka

27 of December '24

Professors Pekka Salminen and Romuald Loegler

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He built sports facilities, airports, theaters and museums. Professor Pekka Salminen was a versatile and ubiquitous architect. Extreme rationalism combined with sensitivity to the local context allowed his designs to succeed not only in his native Finland, but also in Germany, Canada and even China, where he eventually opened a branch of his studio. We talk about his contacts with the Polish architectural community, Finnish functionalism and his passion for design with his longtime friend, Professor Romuald Loegler, winner of the 2024 "Bene Merentibus" medal.

Pekka SALMINEN - Finnish architect born in Tampere (1937). Graduated from Helsinki Technical University (1966). After graduation, he began working alongside renowned designers Aarne Ervi and Tim Pentilla. In later years, he founded a studio called Koivisto-Salminen-Siivola Architects KSS, which eventually evolved into PES-Architects. In addition to his design work, he has been active in the architectural and scientific community, being a member of the Finnish Academy of Technical Sciences and serving as president of the Finnish Association of Architects SAFA. For his achievements, he was honored by the Finnish president with the title of professor (1998) and the "Bene Merentibus" medal (2019) awarded by the Association of Polish Architects for his contribution to the development of Polish architecture and the association.

Romuald LOEGLER - Professor, architect, laureate of the Honorary Award of SARP (1994), respected lecturer, since 1987 he has run his own studio Atelier Loegler Architekci in Krakow. For years, he has not only designed and shaped urban space, but has also been active in the field of architectural debate - he was, among other things, co-founder of the Architecture Biennale in Cracow, as well as publisher of the monthly magazine "Architektura & Biznes". His architectural portfolio includes numerous award-winning projects, including the Krakow Opera House, the Lodz Philharmonic building, the expansion of the Cracow University of Economics, the new wing of the Jagiellonian Library and the Mies van der Rohe Award-nominated Gate to the City of the Dead - a funeral home in the Batowicki Cemetery in Cracow. Awarded the "Bene Merentibus" medal (2024) by the Association of Polish Architects.

Przemyslaw Ciępka: This year, on May 30, the renowned Finnish architect, Professor Pekka Salminen, passed away. You were connected by a long-standing friendship. Under what circumstances did you become acquainted?

Prof. Romuald Loegler: The circumstances were quite fortuitous, Pekka was a guest of the Warsaw Confrontations, and it so happened that my activity in the Association of Architects of the Republic of Poland at that time directed him to Krakow. I knew his colleague and close associate, Jouko Mähönen, who taught urban planning at the University of Oulu and also shared his knowledge at guest lectures organized by SARP. It was through him that the first contact with Pekka took place. Later, when I invited him to Krakow and we met in person, it turned into an acquaintance.

Przemysław Ciępka: There was also joint work. How did it come about that you started designing together?

Prof. Romuald Loegler: A favorable coincidence determined this - I became a scholarship holder of the Finnish government, and Professor Salminen was appointed as my mentor. He offered me not only support during my studies, but also the opportunity to live in his house. As a result, I had daily contact with Pekka and his family. This atmosphere brought us very close, they were not just casual meetings - practically from breakfast to dinner we had opportunities to talk. As part of the scholarship, I toured the length and breadth of Finland, studying public architecture there. On occasion, we designed together for competitions, and I helped with work that required a slightly different perspective. I eagerly joined in helping to draw, and there were also many discussions. They gave us both a great deal of satisfaction, because we had different potentials of knowledge about contemporary architecture. This was due to how backward Poland was in this matter compared to Finland at the time. This knowledge was available in our country, but with difficulty. Fortunately, I had some experience from my stay in Vienna with Professor Karl Schwanzer. Pekka knew that for more than a year I was in contact with one of the most prominent Austrian architects of the time, which allowed me to broaden my horizon with this Western architectural thought.

Ski Museum in Lahti, Finland, 1999.

Przemyslaw Ciępka: The fellowship came to an end, and the friendship continued. What was your relationship like in the following years?

Prof. Romuald Loegler: After the scholarship, our private relations were already very closely knit. We designed together for competitions in Finland or Germany. At that time our contact actually did not stop. Vacationing together in his villa in Unije, Croatia, was a wonderful vacation combined with discussions about architecture, actually permanently occupying our free time. Taking the opportunity, with pencil and paints in hand, I drew the ascetic buildings of the fishing village. We were fascinated by what such buildings provided in terms of a synthetic view of architecture. Pekka, on the other hand, studied Italian building art, because the island on which Unije is located was once under the influence of Italian culture. He wanted to build his villa based precisely on these building and material experiences, thus fitting into the climate and landscape of local architecture.

Pekka Salminen in his villa Oliva on the island of Unije, Croatia.

Przemyslaw Ciępka: Is there any particular memory associated with Professor Salminen that has stuck in your mind?

Prof. Romuald Loegler: There are quite a few of these memories, of course. Pekka's passion was sailing. He was a captain, commanding a large yacht. Our adventure together was a trip on a boat called Izadora. We were to sail from Helsinki to Sweden and on to Denmark. During the voyage we experienced a huge storm at sea, which took a heavy toll on the stomachs of the crew. By a strange coincidence, I was the only one who did not succumb to seasickness. We were in the middle of the Baltic, and I stood at the helm for the first time, knowing that these could be our last moments. Fortunately, pinned to the post of the steering wheel, I picked up the rhythm of moving through the high waves and somehow we managed to get out of it.

I also remember when I became a Finnish government scholarship recipient for the second time. At that time we managed to spend an incredibly pleasant time during a two-week scholarship in Paris, where we worked together on a competition design for the Finnish President's house. It was absolutely fascinating work, and we had the right conditions in the house adapted for scholarship recipients - there were a studio and sleeping areas. However, sometimes it happened that we needed to eat something. We went to bars then. One of our favorites was the Petit Gavroche bar in the Saint-Germain district. The nice atmosphere, tasty food and aniseed vodka became the seed of a friendship with the owner of this establishment, who was delighted by the constant presence of visitors from two different European countries.

Przemyslaw Ciępka: Coming back to architecture - you have submitted several competition entries together, including for the Kronprinzenbrücke in Berlin or a concert hall for the Sinfonia Varsovia Orchestra in Warsaw. Have you been able to realize any of the joint projects?

Prof. Romuald Loegler: We rarely created projects that could be brought to the realization stage. The structure of the profession in us and in Finland was too different, and we could not find a legal formula that would allow us to form a partnership. We formed the Salminen-Loegler Architects studio, but it mainly produced studio projects. The execution of works, for example, as a result of winning a competition, could not be carried out directly by the office, it was always necessary to find an intermediary in the form of a Polservice-type company. Western countries did not accept this, they did not want to be tied to a state institution mediating between a private architect in Poland and a private architect in Finland. Nonetheless, some of Pekka's projects were completed with my participation, although only in conceptual terms.

Expansion of Terminal T2 of Helsinki Airport, Finland, 1999.

Photo: Jussi Tiainen © PES-Architects

Przemyslaw Ciępka: Which of these joint works is most memorable to you?

Prof. Romuald Loegler: Certainly participation in the construction of the Lahti City Theater - I had the opportunity to work there on a few elements of the foyer, definitely different from the traditionally understood representative space in the theater. It was a very pleasant experience, and we were able to arrive at a solution in which, instead of monumental staircases leading to the various levels of the foyer, we used intimate, landscaped staircases. Together with the variation of floor levels, this gave a space inspired by the Finnish landscape. Its horizontality and picturesqueness clearly differentiated this facility from other theaters, where verticality tended to come into play, monumental staircases and a grand hall were mandatory. In addition to the theater in Lahti, I also helped with work on the police school in Tampere and at the Vantaa Airport terminal in Helsinki.

Lahti City Theater in Lahti, Finland, 1983

Photo: Pekka Piiparinen | Vastavalo.net © PES-Architects

Przemyslaw Ciępka: How would you describe the philosophy that Professor Pekka Salminen followed when designing? How did his approach to architecture evolve?

Prof. Romuald Loegler:Pekka was first and foremost an architect who deeply believed in the aesthetics of modernism. At first, he led it in the direction of asceticism or a kind of constructivism. Take his sports complex in Lahti as an example, there you can see the synthesis and restraint of form very well. However, this was not Bauhaus modernism, but rather a redaction of it taken from the classical work of Alvar Aalto. At some point Pekka abandoned reinforced concrete forms in favor of structures based on steel structures. This can be seen, for example, in the aforementioned Vantaa Airport, with which he became part of the then philosophy of architecture determined by the quality of glass and steel. In his later works, created mainly in China, the pursuit of a constructive understanding of the criterion of form was coupled with the need to integrate the designs into the atmosphere of local architecture, which he achieved through the use of traditional materials. Pekka Salminen pioneered the use of bamboo, which is, after all, China's national wood, as an acoustic covering. He introduced into the main hall of the Grand Theater in Wuxi a material that was rather associated with traditional architecture or the construction of slum districts. As a result, bamboo became associated with a different social status. Pekka's building drew attention to the quality and value of this material, which in his work became a regional contribution to contemporary architecture. In another project, the Fuzhou Cultural and Art Center, he alluded to the porcelain that made its way to Europe from that port city. He made the entire brise soleil protecting the glazed facades from excessive sunlight with ceramic cladding. It's a sensational architectural theme, and I don't think anyone has repeated it since.

Cultural and Art Center in Fuzhou, China, 2018

Photo credit: Marc Goodwin © PES-Architects

Przemyslaw Ciępka: How did ProfessorPekka Salminen manage to instill the most important qualities of Finnish architecture in these international projects?

Prof. Romuald Loegler: It is important to note here first of all the functionalism that is very deeply rooted in the Finns. In Pekka's case, functional solutions were applied to the point of pain, there was no question of accidental elements that are subject to the aesthetic rule, but at the same time do not meet one hundred percent of the functional requirements. This principle was even his motto.

Przemyslaw Ciępka: Professor Salminen took part in the Warsaw Confrontations, and also helped organize the first International Architecture Biennale in Krakow. How else did his activity in Poland manifest itself?

Prof. Romuald Loegler: There was an extremely interesting initiative in Krakow, where thanks to my relationship with Pekka, our branch of the Association of Architects of the Republic of Poland organized a workshop for students on designing sports facilities. At the time, Pekka came with his wife, bringing with him numerous victuals, such as herring, dishes, Finnish cheese and local bread. We made sandwiches out of all this during the workshop so that participants could eat. His willingness to help people and his friendliness were values that I appreciated tremendously in him. Above all, however, the workshop was about the opportunity to get in touch with Finnish, internationally acclaimed architecture. This event was extremely valuable and gave hope that we can someday reach the same level of architecture as them.

Przemyslaw Ciępka: What did it look like in later years?

Prof. Romuald Loegler: Pekka participated in subsequent editions of the International Architecture Biennale in Cracow, or events such as the BUDMA in Poznań, where I asked him to give a lecture on the aforementioned bamboo cladding in Wuxi. In later years, this activity quieted down as Pekka became more active in China. Nonetheless, his earlier activities in Poland were recognized by awarding him the Bene Merentibus honorary award. It should be remembered that his help for our environment also consisted of accepting Polish students for internships. For example, Mr. and Mrs. Wlodarczyk worked for him, and I also referred several people to his office.

Cultural and Art Center in Fuzhou, China, 2018

Przemyslaw Ciępka: You mentioned Professor Salminen's increased activity in China. How did it come about that he was able to open a studio there?

Prof. Romuald Loegler: Pekka's creativity manifested itself not only in design, but also in skillful organization of contacts with the world. Having a large office, he must have had some business skills. He took on interns from the Netherlands, France, Germany or Italy. For three years there was also an architect from China who came to him for an internship. They talked about his homeland, and from word to word, the idea of setting up an office in Shanghai took shape. The apprentice shared his knowledge, the plan was refined and they eventually established a company in China. The prerequisite for carrying out foreign projects in the country was the support of a design unit that worked with the Chinese office and a total of at least a hundred people. Participation in competitions there required inviting a branch of the China office, so the criterion of cooperating with a Chinese entity was taken care of in advance.

Przemyslaw Ciępka: In your opinion, what made Professor Salminen's architecture attractive not only on European soil, but also in Asia?

Prof. Romuald Loegler:Rationalism in architecture is a criterion valued by investors around the world. Nevertheless, Pekka's architecture, built on the premise of a rational, geometrically ordered expression of the final object, underwent a certain metamorphosis in later years. His formal language was transformed, perhaps in part due to new collaborators, of whom he must have had a great many. This was first felt in the design of a small stadium in the form of a leaf. The motif was not yet very sophisticated in this concept; it was limited by technical possibilities. However, this thought haunted Pekka all the time, and after many years he realized the building of the Grand Theater in Wuxi, where he developed this motif with the appropriate technical and engineering facilities.

Wuxi Grand Theater, China, 2012

The second project that discovered in him the need to think sensitively about context was the conversion of the Marienkirche in Neubrandenburg into a concert hall. All that was left of the bomb-damaged church was an old Gothic wall. Pekka did not abandon concrete during the reconstruction. More, he supplemented it with glass, which was completely incomprehensible to acousticians at the time. This did not prevent him from winning many awards for his reconstruction of the Marienkirche in Neubrandenburg. In this project, Pekka showed that the sensitivity of the medieval architectural thread cannot be overwhelmed by rationality, which would take away the importance of the Gothic form in the final expression of this interior. I suspect that it was Pekka's sensitivity as a human being that translated into this architecture, which preserved functional principals but also knew how to respect the finesse provided by the Gothic.

Conversion of St. Mary's Church in Neubrandenburg into a concert hall, Germany, 2001

Przemyslaw Ciępka: What do you think young architects today could learn from Professor Pekka Salminen?

Prof. Romuald Loegler: It may sound trivial, but first of all passion. Pekka spoke to me in various circumstances, very often also in the sauna: Remember, passion is what makes you an architect. It does it when you sleep, when you wake up in the morning, run to your sketchbook and draw. When you ride the train and pull out your notebook to write down a new idea. You don't solve problems during an eight-hour work day - you know that you are a person who creation must catch in a moment prompted by your own sensitivity. This is a prerequisite for being a good architect.

Przemyslaw Ciępka: This is very romantic. Thank you for the interview!