Sibelius Hall

Sibelius Hall is located by the beautiful Lake Vesijärvi. Sibelius Hall is a congress- and concert center that offers diverse services for both consumers and companies. Sibelius Hall was built in 2000 adjacent to an old factory building. The modern wooden architecture is combined with the old industrial history in the most interesting way.

The very spacious Forest Hall and the stunning lake scenery create an incredible atmosphere for big lunches, festivities and events. A view to Lake vesijärvi opens from every room of the Congress Wing. The famous Main Hall acts as an arena for big conferences and as a concert venue. The concert program has options for every taste, also for additional entertainment of conferences and events. The versatile Carpenter’s Hall and -Workshop can be used for conferences, dinner parties and exhibitions. Restaurant services can be arranged to every room and venue of the house, according to the customers’ wishes.

Architecture

The impressive wooden concert- and congress centre rose on the Vesijärvi waterfront in spring 2000. Its architects, Hannu Tikka and Kimmo Lintula, explained that the main source of inspiration in the design was the Finnish forests. The forest had always provided our ancestors with nourishment and raw materials, but it also involves mythical memories and scents – it has a relaxing essence. Another natural starting point in the design came from the industrial history of the site, the uncomplicated aesthetics of the old brick buildings, and the vicinity of water.

Operators in the Finnish forest and wood sector supported the Sibeliustalo project, and it was selected as the main initiative for the Puun vuosi 1996 / Puun aika (‘The Year of Wood 1996 / Time of Wood’) campaign, which aimed at finding innovative wooden construction solutions. During its construction, the house was considered the flagship of wooden construction, which, when completed, was the biggest public wooden building built in Finland for over a hundred years. The Sibelius Hall complex, an area of nearly 90,000 m3, is composed of four elements: the renovated Carpenter’s Factory, the Main Hall building, Forest Hall (linking the previous elements together), and the Congress Wing (which is connected to the complex via a glass passage). Wood is the supporting material in all the new sections.

• Arkkitehtityöhuone Artto Palo Rossi Tikka Oy,
  designers Hannu Tikka and Kimmo Lintula
• Interior design Arkkitehtityöhuone Artto Palo Rossi Tikka Oy,
  designer Markku Liukkonen
• Acoustic design Artec Consultants Inc, New York,
  designer Russel Johnson

Acoustics

US-based Artec Consultants, Inc. was in charge of the acoustic design. The ‘shoebox’ shape of the hall and the oval shape of the auditorium and stage provide optimal acoustics. The acoustic characteristics are further improved through the careful selection of furniture and materials. The acoustics can be adjusted with a canopy and the acoustic doors and banners on the side walls of the hall.

The Main Hall is an acoustic miracle, which creates unforgettable musical memories for concert goers. The auditorium seating and stage are situated in an oval-shaped ‘shoebox’ hall. The adjustable acoustics are formed by a vertically movable canopy which is on top of the stage in order to achieve the maximum acoustic flexibility; the acoustics are also reinforced by 188 acoustic doors located on the sides of the hall that open to form an echo chamber, complemented by 2.7 Km of woolen curtains. The corrugated walls were designed to break up reflected sounds. A place was reserved for an organ behind the loft above the stage. The organ was finished and put in place in 2007.

The sophisticated colouring of the Main Hall is a combination of graphite-grey, natural white, and the warm red of old string instruments. The floor is oil- and heat-treated smoke birch parquet. A glass façade covers the massive wall elements, with sandwich-structured laminated veneer lumber panels, filled with sand (18 cm thick insulation) and mineral wool. All of the Main Hall’s load bearing structures are made of glulam timber.

The start chart of Forest Hall