- PlaceÄhtäri
- Completion 1973, 1976
- Decade1970s
- PeriodThe rise of the welfare state
- Year of selection2023
As people’s standard of living rose in Finland from the 1960s onwards, and leisure time, the use of private cars and tourism increased, also the hotel and restaurant industry began to grow. A large number of hotels and holiday villages were built around the country, up until the energy crisis of the mid-1970s.
The state-owned company Alko was, in addition to holding the exclusive rights to manufacture and sell alcohol, also a large accommodation and catering business. Alko owned two restaurant companies, of which Kantaravintolat developed restaurant and hotel services in rural areas. From the 1960s onwards, the company founded tens of restaurants and twenty Kantakievari hotels. Hotel Mesikämmen became the chain’s largest branch.
The municipality of Ähtäri promoted the tourism and hotel project from 1966 onwards, and in 1973 it founded a real estate company together with Kantaravintolat in order to build a hotel. That same year, an invitational competition was organized for the design of the hotel, which was won by architect brothers Timo and Tuomo Suomalainen.
Hotel Mesikämmen, located in a forest alongside Lake Hankavesi, was completed as part of a new tourist centre in the spring of 1976. Situated next to it were a camping ground, a holiday village and a zoo, the buildings of which were also designed by the Suomalainen brothers. According to the custom of the time, the hotel was equipped with a large restaurant, bar, nightclub, conference rooms as well as a spa that also served as a public swimming hall. The Suomalainen brothers later designed three extensions to the hotel. All the spaces received individually designed high-quality furnishings, and some of them have been preserved almost in their original state, as has the entire building.
The architects took the surrounding nature as the starting point for their design. The building is naturally stepped into the forested slope, and the structures above ground are mainly in wood. In the interior, the tall corridors, excavated into the bedrock, are impressive in their ruggedness, with bare rock face, exposed concrete showing plank-shuttering markings and walls built from quarry stones. The atmosphere in the interior is simultaneously down-to-earth and sublime, bringing to mind two other works by the Suomalainen brothers: the Temppeliaukio church, Helsinki, completed in 1969, and the Espoonlahti church, completed in 1980. In all three buildings, organic, free-form, sculptural, so-called expressionist architecture is combined with spaces that follow strict rectangular geometry in an original and skilful way.
Free-form architecture was rare in Finland in the 1960s and 1970s, and even since then it has often been viewed with disdain in architectural publications and exhibitions. This negativity hung over many buildings designed by the Suomalainen brothers, including Hotel Mesikämmen, which with its expressive architecture was a pinnacle of hotel construction of its time.
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Hietamäki, Susanna (2019). ”Ähtärin Hotelli Mesikämmen. Merkitysanalyysi vuonna 1976 valmistuneesta matkailuhotellista”. Master’s thesis, University of Jyväskylä.
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