The Lappia House is a theater, concert and congress hall, planned by Alvar Aalto, which was completed in 1975. Lappia House also included the premises of Yleisradio, a music school, a youth center, the provincial museum’s exhibition spaces and the housekeeper’s housing. The building is part of Rovaniemi’s administrative and cultural center designed by Aalto, whose other buildings are the City Hall and Library. The buildings are included in the inventory of nationally valuable built cultural environments (RKY).

Before the repair planning our office mapped the specifications and requirement, which laid the ground for the plans that combined building protection as well as economically meaningful utilization of the building. Over the years the housekeeper, part of Yleisradio, the youth center, the provincial museum and the Lapland Chamber Orchestra had withdrawn from the building. The vacant premises were taken for a variety of new uses through temporary arrangements and various local changes. The lack of space for the theater functions were solved by a variety of improvisations. The floor coverings were widely changed from the original ones.

The Lappia House is a two-piece building. The original first stage of the building consisted of the Lapland Radio, music school and the housekeepers housing. In the renovation, the housekeeper’s apartment and some of the former Yleisradio premises were incorporated into the music schools premises. The music school doubled. The concert, congress and theater house section was now renovated solely for the needs of the theater. The great hall auditorium, the so-called congress hall, was transformed into a separate studio hall. The rather low ceilinged cellar was transformed from the exhibition space of the Provincial Museum, into a theatre restaurant type space by deepening the floor of the stage area to provide space for more convenient theatre functions. A completely new underground space was built outside the building, and the basement connections were re-constructed to allow the theatre props to be transported to the different stages. The entire theater technology was renewed and updated to meet today’s requirements. The air conditioning of the building was completely renewed. The electronic systems were renewed by upgrading the original lamps to meet modern standards. The surface structures and architectural identities were restored according to Alvar Aalto’s original design. Also the furniture was restored.