Myyrmäki Church

Myyrmäki Church (Finnish: Myyrmäen kirkko, Swedish: Myrbacka kyrka), is a Lutheran church in the Myyrmäki neighborhood in the city of Vantaa. It is located near Louhela commuter train station. The church was designed by architect Juha Leiviskä and it was opened in 1984. It is also known as the Church of Light.[1] In Leiviskä's own words: "To me, a building as such, 'as a piece of architecture', is nothing. Its real significance is revealed in counterpoint with its surroundings, with life and with light."[2]

Myyrmäki Church Myyrmäen kirkko, (in Finnish) Myrbacka kyrka, (in Swedish)
Myyrmäki Church
Religion
Affiliation	Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland
District	Diocese of Helsinki
Location
Location	Vantaa, Finland
Geographic coordinates	60°16.28′N 24°51.242′E
Architecture
Architect(s)	Juha Leiviskä
Completed	1984
Specifications
Capacity	seats 450
Materials	facade: mainly brick
Website
www.vantaanseurakunnat.fi

In addition to the actual sanctuary, the building houses a separate chapel, two meeting halls, the parish offices, and facilities for children’s and young people’s ministries. The sanctuary seats 450, but with the adjoining meeting halls the capacity is over 700.[3]

Vantaankoski Parish is one of seven Evangelical-Lutheran parishes in Vantaa with a membership of c. 30,000. Myyrmäki Church is the main church of the parish.[4]

The organ of Myyrmäki Church was built by Kangasalan urkurakentamo in 1986. The sound of the organ is mainly Baroque in style.[5]

Leiviskä has stated that when designing the church the ideal he had in mind was the Neresheim Abbey in Bavaria, southern Germany, the late Baroque church designed by architect Balthasar Neumann.[6] The British architecture historian Kenneth Frampton has discussed this aspect of Leiviskä's church architecture, stating: "The Baroque churches of Southern Germany are the conscious inspiration for these (church) works, as Leiviskä openly concedes, even if the syntax could hardly be more removed from the plasticity of Balthasar Neumann. An indirect, hypersensitive play of light on a set of highly susceptible layered lattices and planes is patently the aesthetic modus operandi in these churches. And to this ludic game we must add the equally playful layering of lights miraculously floating at the ends of imperceptible cords..."[7]