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The Archaeology of Finnish Architectural CriticismCharlotte AshbyDepartment of History of Art, Birkbeck, University of LondonThis paper will explore the origins of Finnish-language architectural criticism in the late-nineteenth century and traces the range of territories that fed into this tradition. Architectural criticism emerged within the pages of the Finnish Industry Gazette, the paper of the Finnish Engineers Union, in the 1890s, primarily from the pen of the architect Vilho Penttilä. Penttilä took over editorship of the whole paper in 1895, increasing the focus on architecture within its pages and going on in 1901 to launch a special supplement dedicated to architecture.These origins are reflected in one strand of the content, that is the focus on technological innovations in the building field. However, Penttilä’s education at the Helsinki Technical University had been a classical one and he strove to introduce to his Finnish-speaking readers the principles of aesthetics (sometimes anachronistic by the 1890s) he had learned. The period of the 1890s and 1900s was one of rapid development and the contents of STL reflect a palimpsest of different written traditions and modes, from the German architectural theorists of early nineteenth century to the influence of contemporary art and design criticism in the European periodical press an a curiosity about different cultures.Penttilä’s person preoccupation with the issue of a ‘Finnish style’ also brings in a further strand that reveals an interesting overlap with mid-nineteenth century Finnish linguists and ethnographic writing. Parallels were drawn between the ‘mother-tongue’ of the Finnish peoples, traced eastward through the Karelian isthmus and into Russia, and the ‘language of style’ traced along a similar route through the material culture of the same peoples.The cultural hegemony of Swedish-speakers meant that Finnish-language criticism was an ideological issue for a group who strove to serve and demonstrate the intellectual vitality of Finnish-speaking people.&#160;Charlotte Ashby is a lecturer in Art and Design History at Birkbeck, University College London, and Oxford University. She was awarded her PhD in 2007 by the University of St Andrews, with a thesis exploring national identity and modernity in Finnish architecture. She specialises in the art, architecture and design of Northern and Central Europe at the fin-de-siècle. Her book, Modernism in Scandinavia, is out now with Bloomsbury Academic.