Shadow and Light: A Daylight Talk by Samuli Miettinen

Samuli Miettinen, architect and founding partner of JKMM Architects, Finland, will present Daylight Talk #21 titled ‘Shadow and Light’ in collaboration with Aalto University, continuing the 2024 series. 

Jenni Reuter, Associate Professor in Architectural Principles and Theory at Aalto University, will present the talk and moderate the Q&A session.  

The talk will be available to watch on the 30 September 2024.  

‘Daylight Talks’ is organised by the VELUX Group in collaboration with individual schools of architecture and they are endorsed by the International Union of Architects (UIA) and the European Association for Architectural Education (EAAE). 

Daylight Talk #21: Shadow and Light

The form of architecture is its will of existence. Architecture manifests itself in the building’s atmosphere and ambience. As music is bound in sheet music, so is architecture in plans. As music is played with instruments, the architecture is released in the light in the building.

In his plan, the architect expresses the essence of the will to exist, the spirit of the matter. In this way, an architect is more than a designer. He builds spaces for human life and doesn’t just implement a matrix pre-defined by the client. The task of the plan is to adapt to the circumstances, to create views and places for being and meeting. The task of the plan is to take into account the requirements of privacy and community in the heights, openings, placements, connections, materials and details of the house. This takes its shape in the structure that light creates. 

 As Louis Kahn says: “You can say the light, the giver of all presences, is the maker of a material, and the material was made to cast a shadow, and the shadow belongs to the light.”

Louis Kahn: Silence and Light 12.2.1969; Robert Twombly: Llouis Kahn, essential texts p.236. W.W. Norton & Company, 2003 ISBN 0-393-73113-8

The light makes the material, but in architecture the material also creates the light. The material gives the light its specific nature. The structure defines the light, its quality, quantity, austerity, intensity, density, hue, color, direction, but also touch, smell, even taste or sound as all the senses are in touch with each other. Light is the witness and the condition of our existence.

Nordic light is soft and often diffuse as well as shadows it casts. In summertime it penetrates everywhere and in wintertime it’s hard to find. It defines our architecture, makes the edges round, breaks the shadows. In this light our architecture exists. That is why it is what it is. 

About Samuli Miettinen

Samuli Miettinen (b. 1967) is a founding partner of JKMM Architects (f. 1998). In his career he has worked especially as a principal designer of public buildings. As the essence of the design, he emphasizes the importance of architecture, the high quality of the environment and humanity. 

Miettinen’s personally most significant completed design works are Viikki wooden church in Helsinki 2005, Joensuu University annex building Aurora II (2006), Saunalahti Children’s Centre in Espoo (2011), Travel Centre in Lahti (2016), Bysa & Sandis residential block in Helsinki (2017), the plan for Pohjola’s old headquarters area and the first residential buildings in Helsinki (2013–2021) and the Tammela Stadium hybrid project (2023). He has also been active in e.g. as an architect designer of Turku library and Hämeenlinna Verkatehdas cultural center.

Now he works e.g. as the principal designer of the expansion project of the National Museum of Finland (2026), Swedish Cultural campus and co-educational school in Pori (2025) and Nordic School in Helsinki (2027).  

Samuli Miettinen has visited as a lecturer and teacher in Finland and abroad and has written for Architectural publications. He has also acted as a judge and member of the award boards of many domestic and foreign architectural competitions. In 2006–2009 he was the chairman of the Association of Finnish Architects’ Offices ATL and in 2007–2009 on the board of the Finnish Architects’ Association SAFA. Miettinen was the vice president of the Finnish Architecture Museum in 2013–2018. Miettinen was awarded the state award for architecture in 2007.

In his career, Miettinen, together with the partners of JKMM Architects, has been successful in more than 100 architectural competitions, of which he won almost 50 first prizes. 

About Jenni Reuter 

Jenni Reuter (b. 1972) is Associate Professor in Architectural Principles and Theory at Aalto University.

She also works as a practicing architect, both in her own office and together with architects Saija Hollmén and Helena Sandman. The group started their collaboration in 1995 with the Women’s Centre project in Rufisque, Senegal. Currently they are designing dormitories for girls in the Iringa region in Southern Tanzania. In 2007 they founded Ukumbi NGO, the mission of which is to offer architectural services to underprivileged communities in need.

Jenni Reuter has been lecturing and teaching in universities and institutions around the world. She carries several positions of trust and has taken part in national and international jury commitments.

About Aalto University – Department of Architecture

The Department of Architecture at Aalto University is an internationally renowned education and research unit. With respect to Finland’s esteemed architectural heritage, we find solutions to the future challenges of construction. For decades, the teaching has maintained strong ties to the practical work undertaken at architecture firms.