Glass artwork

Glass work IRIS for the 8th floor of Stockmann’s department store

Industrial designer and Master of Arts Brita Flander has designed the glass work of art that will be located under the glass roof. The work will decorate the ceiling of the café in F8, Fazer’s new restaurant world. On starting the work, she researched the building’s architect, Sigurd Frosterus (1876–1956), a pioneer of his time who considered light and shade as important for giving shape to space. Brita Flander considers Sigurd Frosterus’ plan of Stockmann’s department store as a completely controlled and extremely composed monument. Brita Flander, who has lived most of her life in Helsinki, also says that she knows the significance of the café in Stockmann’s department store in the heart of Helsinki residents.

The artist’s aim was to create a work suitable for the building but which also expresses the current age, the 21st century. She considered it natural that the material of the work to be placed underneath the glass roof of the department store’s top floor would be glass. The starting point was the idea of a crystal chandelier that would combine solemnity, happiness and a certain insouciance in a positive way. It feels good to smile in the glitter of crystals. They give the room an atmosphere that customers enjoy.

The name of the work, IRIS, comes from Greek mythology, where Iris is the personification of a rainbow and a messenger of the gods. Just as a rainbow connects the Earth and the sky, Iris connects the people and the gods.

The artist characterises the work as a megaformat, 20 x 8 m-sized, simplified equivalent of a modern crystal chandelier. The work is made up of a rectangular area where glass sheets of various tones have been hung. The opaque white glass roof is the background. The varying distances of the glass sheets create a random rhythm. The work’s louvres create the impression of a horizontal surface even though it is not. The glass sheets that are spaced widely apart form a spacious work that creates tones in the space. The edges of field of opaque glass have small areas of clear glass that allow in sunbeams, and the daylight sparks the work’s glass sheets into a lively game. The hues of the glass sheets change with the light conditions and the polished edges and corners glimmer in the various colours of the spectrum depending on the light and reflect into their surroundings, walls and the lower levels through the shaft. The tones of the glass sheets are clear, white satin and blue-grey, in addition a matt surface has been etched on the other side. The patinated brass supports of the glass sheets, which aim to connect the work in its design language to Frosterus’ building, deepen and limit the form that in other respects is visually horizontal.

The glass sheets form a sea-like rhythmic element that always transforms with the light. A dynamic state of light is created, as though in the shadow of the trees or the sparkle of waves, where customers can, in the real meaning of the word, be ‘restored’, revived. If people looking at the work want to see the ceiling's structures, they are in view. The devices installed in between the glass sheets, sprinklers, are visible to the eye when standing underneath them, but when looking from further away, the large number of glass parts obscures them from view. For the sake of comparison, the artist encourages people to think about a tree, which when looking at it the trunk can be measured or the leaves admired. However, a tree is generally viewed as a whole and as part of a greater entity: a forest. The glass sheets also contribute to controlling the acoustics in the room. The work and space are illuminated from the outside, through the glass roof.

Safety has been a particular area of focus in the manufacture and hanging of the work. The glass sheets have been hardened and laminated with automotive film. The edges of the glass sheets have been ground smooth not just for aesthetic reasons but also to remove surface bulges that could give rise to breakages. The ‘heat soak’ treatment of the glass sheets was performed to remove the tensions in the material. The lead in the casing of the brass supports prevents point loading caused by possible bulges, which could shatter the glass. The characteristics of lead do not change with time or external conditions, and lead has excellent friction characteristics. Lead has traditionally been a material used in glass works.