Georg Hilding Ekelund (18 November 1893, in

Kangasniemi Kangasniemi is a municipality in the Southern Savonia region, Finland. The municipality has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The population density is . Kangasniemi is located on the Finnish national road 13, nort ...

– 30 January 1984, in

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

) was a Finnish

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

, from 1950 to 1958 a professor of housing design at Helsinki University of Technology and from 1931 to 1934 editor-in-chief of the Finnish architects' journal Arkkitehti (Finnish Architectural Review). His career as an architect spans the change in styles in Finland from the Nordic Classicism of the 1920s to the

Modernism Modernism is both a philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new forms of art, philosophy, ...

of the 1970s.

Career

Ekeleund studied architecture at

Helsinki University of Technology Helsinki University of Technology (TKK; fi, Teknillinen korkeakoulu; sv, Tekniska högskolan) was a technical university in Finland. It was located in Otaniemi, Espoo in the metropolitan area of Greater Helsinki. The university was founded in ...

, qualifying as an architect in 1916. His wide career in architecture spanned from the design of public housing areas and town planning to public buildings, factories and churches. Following a classical education in architecture, where the predominant style was Nordic Classicism, Ekelund like others Finnish architects of his generation, such as

Alvar Aalto Hugo Alvar Henrik Aalto (; 3 February 1898 – 11 May 1976) was a Finnish architect and designer. His work includes architecture, furniture, textiles and glassware, as well as sculptures and paintings. He never regarded himself as an artist, s ...

, made the switch to Modernism – known in Finland as "Functionalism" – partly in response to the greater urbanisation of the country during the 1920s and 1930s.Museum of Finnish Architecture web site
/ref> Ekelund designed a significant number of buildings in the town of Karis, already during the 1930s. The town plan for the town, drawn up in the 1930s by architect Carolus Lindberg was soon regarded as over-dimensioned, and Ekelund was given the task of redesigning it. His "modern" design was influenced by ideas from the

Garden city movement The garden city movement was a 20th century urban planning movement promoting satellite communities surrounding the central city and separated with greenbelts. These Garden Cities would contain proportionate areas of residences, industry, a ...

, as interpreted in Finland by

Otto-Iivari Meurman Otto-Iivari Meurman (4 June 1890, in Ilmajoki – 19 August 1994, in Helsinki) was a Finnish architect. He did city plans for Kauniainen and Tapiola. Garden city Tapiola was based on town planning of Meurman. Meurman resigned the Tapiola pr ...

and its modern interpretation by

Le Corbusier Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , , ), was a Swiss-French architect, designer, painter, urban planner, writer, and one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture. He was ...

, with a particular emphasis on open spaces and parks. In the town Ekelund designed a

dispensing chemist A pharmacist, also known as a chemist (Commonwealth English) or a druggist (North American and, archaically, Commonwealth English), is a healthcare professional who prepares, controls and distributes medicines and provides advice and instructi ...

, the town hall, cemetery chapel, water tower, trade college and several schools and old-people's homes. Architectural competitions have been a common method in Finland for choosing designs for key public buildings, and Ekelund entered several of them over the length of his career. For instance, he won the competition for the choice of the site of the Finnish Parliament building - though the final site was later changed and the final architect of the building, following a second competition, was chosen as

J.S. Sirén JS or js may refer to: Computing * JavaScript, a high-level, just-in-time compiled, object-oriented programming language * JScript, Microsoft's dialect of the ECMAScript standard used in Internet Explorer Businesses and organizations * Jonge Soc ...

. Among Ekelund's more notable buildings are the Taidehalli Art Gallery (together with Jarl Eklund) in Helsinki, Töölö Church in Helsinki, the Finnish Embassy in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

, and a number of buildings for the 1952 Summer Olympics held in Helsinki, including the Olympic Rowing Stadium, the Olympic Velodrome, and the Olympic Games village.Docomomo Suomi Finland
/ref> Hilding Ekelund's brother was the author and painter Ragnar Ekelund. His wife,

Eva Kuhlefelt-Ekelund Eva Kuhlefelt-Ekelund (5 September 1892, in Loviisa, Finland – 7 August 1984, in Helsinki, Finland) was a pioneering Finnish woman architect and spouse of another famous Finnish architect Hilding Ekelund. Eva Kuhlefelt-Ekelund matriculated fr ...

, was also an architect, and they formed a joint office in 1927.

Major works by Hilding Ekelund

* Kunsthalle Helsinki (1928), Helsinki * Töölö Church (1930), Helsinki *Lutheran Church (1931), Helsinki * Finnish Embassy in the Soviet Union (1938),

* Olympic Velodrome (1938–40), Helsinki *Olympic Village (1939–40), Helsinki *Helsinki street kiosks (1940s–50s), Helsinki *Karis water tower (1949–1951), Karis *Maunula social housing: terraced housing and apartment blocks (1953), Helsinki *Salmisaari power station (1951), Helsinki *Swedish-speaking Finnish teachers’ house, Roihuvuori (c. 1957), Helsinki *Nelimarkka Museum (1964), Alajärvi *Sahanmäki area regional planning, Maunula, Helsinki Punahilkantie12

References

* (In Italian and English) * *

Notes

External links

Hilding Ekelund at the Museum of Finnish Architecture
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ekelund, Hilding 1893 births 1984 deaths People from Kangasniemi People from Mikkeli Province (Grand Duchy of Finland) Finnish architects Modernist architects International style architects Aalto University alumni