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THE ARCHIVES OF AN ARCHITCT – OLLI KIVINEN


Professor Olli Kivinen (1921–1999) had a remarkable career as a teacher, researcher and land use planner.
The rapid urbanisation of Finland in the 1950s and 60s involved a tremendous need for town planning.
Olli Kivinen developed his "lung scheme", a neighbourhood pattern based on decentralisation, which was
used as a model of housing development all over the country.

Olli Kivinen's heirs donated his entire professional archives to the University of Oulu Department of
Architecture in 2003, as he had wished. This exhibition is based on the material included in those archives.
The aim has been to present Professor Kivinen's wide-ranging work as a practising architect and also to
shed light on the goals and ideals of planning at the time of his active career.

Kivinen became Professor of Community Planning at Helsinki University of Technology in 1960. From 1972
to 1988 he was Director of the Centre for Urban and Regional Studies (YTK), a joint unit of Finnish universities.

His private practice was the leading Finnish architectural office specialised in land use planning,
the commissions often extended to include building design as well. The most extensive projects
were entire neighbourhoods that were created in Kivinen's office from town plan to building details.
As a partner of the firm Devecon Oy, Kivinen started the export of planning to the oil countries
of the Middle East. In connection with this, he also developed teaching in local universities.

During his retirement Olli Kivinen continued planning in his office in Muonio in the far north of Finland, focusing
on issues concerning Lapland. His numerous positions of trust include chairmanship of the Finnish Association
of Architects in 1959–60.

The exhibition has been produced by University of Oulu Department of Architecture.

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CREDITS:
Text and image: Museum of Finnish Architecture