Spring 2014 | Sneha Patel

MUSIC STATION HELSINKI, a public space composed for Kaija Saariaho, combines a recording studio with a public transportation hub to create a more efficient, dynamic, and attractive metro station. Kaija Saariaho is a Helsinki-born composer currently living and working out of Paris. The concept for this project comes from Saariaho’s music, specifically her opera Adriana Mater and a quote about this piece; she described the music and the lyrics working together as “two hearts beating in the same chest”. Music Station Helsinki evolves out of these words, spatially merging spaces for sound and transport within a shared architectural envelope.

The city of Helsinki has the world’s northern-most subway line running underneath it. Helsinki Metro (HKL) currently only consists of 17 stations that spread over a span of 21.1 km. However, the proposed lines for this subway system indicate the promise of exponential expansion. This project not only assumes completion of one of those proposed lines but also adds another subway connection, from the main train station of Helsinki to the project site, a distance of 1.2 km. Recognizing the importance of the project site at Helsinki’s South Harbor and by providing a hub for public transport, Music Station Helsinki becomes a gateway between the city’s edge, its central district, and the rest of the world. 

The design of the station is situated at the intersection of the two subway lines and extends towards the waterfront to define a space for public performances and private recording studios. The professional recordings developed in the studios are leaked into the space of the subway station, allowing those waiting for their train to “eavesdrop” on the latest development of local music. In addition, microphones installed at strategic locations record all sounds in the station. These samplings of everyday sounds, lacking a recognizable melody or lyric, are amplified through the architecture in specific areas of the station, such as the entries and exits, linking the auditory to wayfinding. The variety of songs and sounds experienced at Music Station Helsinki honors Kaija Saariaho’s musical style, which is a combination of classical and technological sounds, mixing genres as a means of innovation. Within the architecture, live performance, professional recordings, and everyday sounds shape unique spaces and capture the collectivity of an urban transport hub as a place for exchange and transition. Music Station Helsinki is an alternative museum of sound that transforms a subway station, a place of temporary pause, into a celebration of sonic experience.