page_title: Uno Ullberg
section_title: From Classicism to Functionalism
hierarchical_section_title: Uno Ullberg / From Classicism to Functionalism
caption_attribution_description: English: Former Viipurin Panttilaitos Oy building in Vyborg, Russia. Built in 1931. Architect: Uno Ullberg. Suomi: Entinen Viipurin Panttilaitos Oy:n toimitalo Viipurissa. Rakennettu 1931. Akkitehti: Uno Ullberg.
context_page_description: Uno Werner Ullberg was a famous Finnish architect.
context_section_description: The most important period in Ullberg's architect career is connected with the "White Era" of Functionalist architecture. However, some of his important works can be considered as marking a transition from Nordic Classicism to Functionalism during the 1920s and early 1930s.
  Ullberg found his own unique conception and interpretation of functionalistic architecture. The main aspect of his philosophy is the connection between the functional and the classical. In his early works Ullberg used as his basis Nordic Classicism, emphasizing reductive common elements from Classicism. The most important works of the era became Ullberg's reply to the serious social needs of the city. Among these works are the Viipuri Art Museum and Drawing School (1930), the Viipuri Panttilaitos Oy Building (1931), the Viipuri Provincial Archives (1933), and the Viipuri Maternity Hospital (1937).
  The most important of Ullberg's works is the combined Viipuri Art Museum and Drawing School. Completed in October 1930, the building is situated near the 16th Century Pantsarlahti Bastion at the southern end of the city. Contrasting with its fortress surroundings, the white-stuccoed building commands the view over the South Harbour and the approach from the sea. The massing of the building comprises two wings (the Art Museum on the east wing, and the Drawing School on the west) placed at an angle to each other, with a wedge-shaped, paved courtyard separating the two. The wider part of the courtyard faces south-west, towards the harbour, and there is an imposing twin-row of Classical columns with a rectangular cross-section supporting an equally stylistic curving architrave, doubling as a corridor that connects the two buildings. The approach to the museum from the city is through a series of flights of steps leading to an opening, set at an angle, between the windowless north walls of the wings. The walls facing south are almost as austere, with the central colonnade acting as the focal point.
  The four-storey building of the Viipuri Panttilaitos Oy was the first completed example of Functionalist movement in the city. It has as many rows of distinct, very simplified bands of windows, or rather, more like four very wide windows with very thin mullions. The first floor fenestration consists of a double row of windows, 22 in a row (that are hinged from the bottom, opening downwards), while the upper three only have one. The bold fenestration is enabled by the use of a solid reinforced concrete girderless framework with "mushroom form" columns that free the brick facade of its load-bearing function. The cross-section of columns on the last stage is much smaller than on the first one, it's because of the increase of mechanical tension down from the roof the basement.
  Ullberg was very successful in designing medical facilities. During the White Era he built a number of hospitals in Viipuri. In 1936 Ullberg moved to Helsinki where he became the head of the architectural bureau of the Finnish National Board of Health, and among his tasks was the planning of the Meilahti Hospital area, including the Children's Hospital, completed in 1946 after his death.
  Ullberg's most notable architectural design in Helsinki is Bensow House on Eteläesplaadi, completed for the Bensow trading company. While on the outside the seven-storey building is typically Functionalist in its expression, in the interior it has numerous features typical of Art Deco, such as the use of chrome, brick tiles and neon signs.
  After the Winter War with the Soviet Union, and following a short period in 1941 when Vyborg was occupied by the Soviet Union, Vyborg was handed back to Finland, Ullberg quickly drew up a plan for the reconstruction for his native town, but there was no opportunity to implement the plan because the entire city was annexed to the Soviet Union in 1944.
  Ullberg died in Helsinki in 1944 at the age of 65. His gravestone at Hietaniemi Cemetery in Helsinki was designed by Finnish architect and designer Alvar Aalto.
  An exhibition of the life and works of Uno Ullberg, titled UNO ULLBERG – AN
caption: Viipuri Panttilaitos Oy (1931) in Vyborg, Russia
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