Salmela,
Architect
by Thomas Fisher; David
Salmela, preface
University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis,
2005
200 pp., illus. 56 bw ,154 col. Paper,
$34.95
ISBN: 0-8166-4257-5.
Reviewed by Stefaan Van Ryssen
Hogeschool Gent
Belgium
stefaan.vanryssen@hogent.be
David Salmelas architecture, evocative
and eclectic, blends in with the rural
environments where he has been building.
As his name suggest, Salmela has a Finnish
background, but has been trained and working
in the United States of America. He has
worked at several bureaus before starting
his own atelier in Duluth, Minnesota.
The most striking aspects of Salmelas
work, at first sight, are his use of materials
and colours, the integration of either
existing structures into new buildings
and, the seamless blending of entirely
new buildings into remote, often wild
natural environments. Wood, both painted
and unpainted is his preferred building
material, and unlike many books about
architects, Salmela explicitly
acknowledges the company of carpenters
he has been working with preferentially
over the years. Wooden structures, panelling,
floors and furniture are brought to life
by the light that falls through often
eccentricallyin both meanings
of the wordplaced windows.
It is as if the buildings enter into a
continuous dialogue with their natural
surroundings. Whether they are a waterfall,
a brook, a hillside, or a patch of practically
pristine wood, they are all much more
than just backdrops for eye-catching and
imposing creations. Mostly residential
buildings, his works seem to hesitate
between disappearance and attitude, forcing
the owners or inhabitants always to be
conscious of their responsibility towards
surrounding nature and building at the
same time. And still, these are not mere
cottages, dug into a hillside and covered
with grass like hobbit holes. Each building
has its own awareness and makes a point
because it doesnt simply follows
a program or performs its preset functions,
but it appears to participate actively
in the life of its inhabitants, its guests,
its co-users of the natural environment.
The most striking example of Salmelas
craft isnot surprisinglya
sauna at the Emerson Residence in Duluth
of which Fisher says: "From the end,
the sauna also looks like a geometrical
abstraction of a house. The gable roof
appears as a triangular prism on its side,
with no end walls or interior trusses
to interrupt the purity of its shape,
a structural feat achieved by engineer
Bruno Franck. Likewise, the semicircular
shower at one end and the windowless brick
box at the other have a geometric clarity
that makes the whole outbuilding look
like a mathematical exercise in Platonic
form" (p. 19). I rather disagree
in this case with Fishers further
reference to Aldo Rossis building
style, but the words clarity
and exercise in form in this
short quotation ought to be stressed,
as they express exactly what makes some
of Salmelas work specific in its
formal aspects.
The book itself contains Thomas Fishers
short essays about some 25 finished buildings
and 16 works in progress, splendidly illustrated
with photographs by Peter Bastianelli-Kerze.