The spruce dome
Bent wood eleven metres high.
Vadelmavene โ CC BY-SA 4.0 ยท Sinikka Halme โ CC BY-SA 4.0 ยท Sinikka Halme โ CC BY-SA 4.0 ยท FrDr โ CC BY-SA 4.0
It belongs to the Lutheran church but holds no rites; the idea is a place of silence in the city centre for any person, and it has won international architecture awards.
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A wooden vessel of silence in the city's noisiest square: Kamppi Chapel (2012) is an oval dome of bent spruce eleven metres high standing on Narinkka Square between the shopping centre and the bus station โ built for the World Design Capital year as a place anyone may enter, of any faith or none, to be silent for a few minutes. Inside is pale alder wood without windows, light entering from an opening in the ceiling, a few benches and a prayer cushion โ no services, no sermons, only an absolute silence that stuns everyone stepping in from the square's roar. Church and social-service staff are present for anyone who wants to talk. Ten minutes suffice and it lies on the way between the station and the centre: enter, be silent, leave a little changed. Phones on silent, photographs without sound.
Bent wood eleven metres high.
The only light inside.
Simonkatu 7, Helsinki