Celebrating 20 Years of Kärsämäki Shingle Church

This summer marks the 20 year anniversary of the Kärsämäki Shingle Church. On Sunday, July 28 2024, a festive program will be organized to celebrate the special occasion in Kärsämäki.

Completed in 2004, the Kärsämäki Shingle Church was the international breakthrough of the office. As a unique piece of wooden architecture, the church has attracted a lot of interest both in Finland and internationally. It helps make old construction methods and local craftsmanship known to wider audiences.

With several thousand visitors every year, the Kärsämäki Shingle Church is one of the most significant attractions in the municipality. During the summer, the church and the cafe are open daily. During other times of the year the church is open by appointment. It is also possible to rent them for events.

The Kärsämäki Shingle Church won The Best Building Act in Northern Finland award in 2004 and was shortlisted for the 2005 European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture, Mies van der Rohe Award.

• For an introduction to the history of the Kärsämäki Shingle Church in Finnish, see HERE.

A Festive Program to Celebrate the Anniversary

To celebrate the 20 years of the Kärsämäki Shingle Church, a festive program has been organized. The program will start with a special mass with Bishop Emeritus Samuel Salmi in the Shingle Church at 10 am. The mass will be followed by a presentation of the history of the church and the process of the building of the shingle church.

Lunch will be served in the Engel Church at noon followed by fest speeches and a performance by baritone Esa Ruuttunen. The program will conclude around 3 pm with closing words delivered by the bishop.

• For more information on the program of the festivities in Finnish, see HERE.

A Unique Piece of Wood Architecture

The project for creating a new wooden church for Kärsämäki started in 2000. In the exceptional wood construction project, a new modern wooden church was built on the shore of Pyhäjoki in the vicinity of the old wooden church built in 1765 and demolished in 1841. With the intention of keeping alive the traditional methods of building with wood, 18th-century working methods were strictly followed in the construction. The Kärsämäki Shingle Church was completed in 2004. It is owned by the parish of Kärsämäki.

Designed by Anssi Lassila, the church is modern even though it was built in its entirety using old work methods from the 18th century. The building consists of a log “heart” and a black-tarred shingle-surfaced “coat” around it. The two basic parts of the building, the log-built “core” and the tarred and shingle-clad “cloak” generate an atmosphere of archaic simplicity. Simultaneously, they also offer optimal weather resistance. The space between the exterior walls and the church houses the vestibules, vestry and a storeroom. There is no fixed seating in the church and the altar is movable. The area of ​the shingle church is approximately 100 m2.

A Contemporary Sacral Space

The task for the Kärsämäki Church was to design a contemporary sacral space to be constructed with traditional handicraft methods. The aim was achieving a sense of serenity and sacrality, an ecumenical atmosphere that would feel compelling and natural to all people. The sense of material is evoked by a quality of roughness that is characteristic to handcrafted wooden elements.

Although the shingle church is small, the exceptional handmade building method required an extensive amount of study and learning of traditional building techniques. Much adaptation was needed, and new solutions based on age-old traditions were devised. Long hours of discussion and exchange of thoughts with builders and designers in different fields were instrumental to achieve the right solutions.

• For a project presentation of the architecture of the Kärsämäki Shingle Church in English, see HERE.

Preserving the Tradition of Craftsmanship

In addition to the design and construction of the church itself, the project for creating the Kärsämäki wooden church included teaching and the production of teaching material. The construction work was connected to teaching at the University of Oulu. Nine vocational schools and vocational colleges were also involved in the project.

The people of the area were also engaged in the process of making the building. This gave them an invaluable opportunity to learn the use of traditional construction methods by participating in the project hands-on. In this way, the know-how of elderly construction professionals was passed on to future generations.

The project was implemented by Kärsämäki parish in cooperation with the architecture department of the University of Oulu and several donors with the support of funding from the European Union’s regional development fund.

Applying Traditional Methods

The building method employed resulted in a unique atmosphere and finish, very seldom attained in a building today. The logs for the load bearing log frame were felled from forests owned by the parish and partly transported by horsepower. The logs were either hand-sawn or cut at the old sawmill. The notched corner joints were created with traditional hand tools such as axes, saw and chisel. A third of the log frame was erected on a field by the building site.

When the foundations were complete, the frame was moved into place and the rest of the walls were assembled to their full height. The inner and outer surfaces of the log frame were hewn with a broad axe. The roof structures were constructed on-site mainly of 5×5 inch sawn timber. Notched joints secured with row wood dowels were used to join the timbers. The work was partly carried out with old tools or tools fabricated after old models. In order to find the correct working methods, expertise was sought from a wide field of sources.

50 000 shingles were needed for the roofing and cladding of the church. The shingles are made of aspen by splitting and then finished by whittling. Finally, they are dipped in hot tar prior to being fixed in place.

• To learn more about the project for building the Kärsämäki Shingle Church in Finnish, see HERE.

A Place for Community

The Kärsämäki Shingle Church provides a place for the community to gather and for people to come to both for celebrating important moments in life and for enjoying a moment of peace and quiet. It creates an inviting space in which all important social functions of the community, from the more profane to the more sacred, are gathered under one roof that embraces everything under its sheltering cover.

During the summer, church services and other events of the congregation are held there. Coordinated by the Kärsämäki Shingle Church Association, the church can also be rented for weddings, baptisms and events. The Kärsämäki Shingle Church Association and the Kärsämäki parish are responsible for the maintenance and funding for the operations of the Shingle Church. The church has its own hymn dedicated to it, “Carried by the flow of time”. It was composed by the cantor Martti Murtoperä, and the lyrics are by Reverend Teuvo Aho.

• For more information about the schedule for opening time during the summer and for contacts for making an appointment or for renting the space, see HERE.