Aqua
Aurum will be built in the center of Turku, the old capital of Finland. Map of the area by: Aihio Arkkitehdit Oy.
In the spring of 2019, the Finnish State Art Commission organized an art competition to commission a new work for the new multiuse university building - AURUM - in Turku, Finland. The main users of the new building would be the Faculty of Science and Engineering of the Åbo Akademi University, and the Department of Chemistry of the University of Turku. Other users will be, among others, the Biodiversity Unit of the University of Turku and the university library. The new building connects these two universities and their related departments together.
From the competition brief: “AURUM is latin and means gold. In alchemy, it also refers to the sought after philosophers stone, that was said to turn any metal into gold. Additionally, AURUM refers to Aurajoki River that flows through Turku, as well as to the swedish word rum, meaning a room. The building will have facades made of wood, the “gold” of Finland’s vast forests.
More information of the competition, in Finnish and Swedish, can be found here.
Aurum is designed by Aihio Arkkitehdit Oy.
My proposal Aqua centers in the main hall of the building. The work is inspired by the joint emphasis of the two universities in multidisciplinary research and teaching on the Archipelago Sea and Baltic Sea, and also the long history in the field chemistry in both the universities.
Water and gold have historically been seen as elemental substances - as undividable, primary elements. In Chinese mythology, also wood was seen as an elemental substance. Where as wood has historically been thought of as the gold of forests in Finland, (forests being plentiful in the country) our thousands of lakes might in the future be even more valuable to us. This future will be international, and the form of the work refers to writing as the means of sharing scientific knowledge, inside the international scientific community that transcends language barriers.
The words hang freely from the ceiling, moving slightly as air moves in the space.
“The work consists of the meaning of water in different languages and contexts.”
There are as many words for water as there are local cultures. The word water also often refers to the closest or most important body of water for that specific community. The work consists of the hundreds of different words for water in different cultures around the world. The words, together, form a kind of rain or fog, taking its place in the narrow space created by the architecture.
“The work brings light down from the ceiling, replacing separaten lighting structures.”
The work would be built from aluminum, following the techniques familiar in my works Important things and Heard by the rapids. Connected by thin steel wires, the words form kind of ribbons, that dance in the sunlight flowing from the glass ceiling.
The words will be duplicated in shadows that form on different surfaces of the space at different times of day and year.
This building works as a place connecting two international universities, and one of the core themes of the work is the connections between cultures. Water, as well as being at the center of many disciplines of studies in these universities, is also, in a very basic sense the connecting element of life everywhere.
Section, sketch
There are about 6000 languages known in the world. In more detailed planning, it is possible to decide, if the work would consist of the word water in as many languages as it is possible to find. Alternatively, the words might be different water related words in, say, 200 most common languages, allowing for more nuanced local meanings for water to be part of the work.
Responding to the competition bref, I suggested that the laboratories opening to the main hall could be identified with chosen words from the work, creating each of them a recognizable, memorable identity. T
This was an open competition, resulting in 121 proposals. Mine was included with a mention in the top 12. The winning proposal was bu lovely and talented Noora Schroderus. Congratulations! <3