Gunnar Taucher

Who was Gunnar Taucher?

Jarl Gunnar Taucher, known as Gunnar Taucher, was a Finnish architect who first came to prominence in the first decades of the 20th century for his architecture designed in the style of Nordic Classicism, though later he turned to the Functionalist modernist style.

Taucher studied architecture at Helsinki University of Technology from 1904 to 1908. Among his first works, designed with colleagues Gösta Kajanus and Rafael Blomstedt during the 1910s, were modest single-family houses designed in the Helsinki suburb of Kulosaari. In 1913 Taucher began his career working for the City of Helsinki, reaching the position of City Architect in 1923. Helsinki had been suffering from a severe shortage of affordable housing and Taucher specialised in low-cost housing. He designed the first block of flats for tuberculosis sufferers, on Loviisankatu street. Taucher's most well-known achievement in municipal housing is at Makelankatu street 37-43; the buildings are regarded as one of the best examples of Nordic Classicism. The tripartite, three- and four-storey building of 160 metres long, dominates the centre of the working-class district of Vallila, and is concerned not only with housing provision but also with cityscape.