100 Wähäjoulun jatkot

TKK's celebration of 100 years of architecture school saw a gathering at Aalto’s Finlandia concert hall of past and present students of the course. White tie was the theme of the night and traditional dances and waltz had to be learnt. We gathered for a pre drink session in Helsinki to prepare for the evening, unfortunately I left my camera there so most photos are courteous of fellow students. The dances aside there was one surprising thing which everyone forgot to mention to the international students! We had to sing to our partner whilst on one knee handing over a rose, in Finnish! Refund material one could be wanting some compensation! The event was full of crazy Finns and equally as crazy international students and kicked on to sometime on the Sunday afternoon. If the first after party got messy there was time to sober up with a naked swim and sauna from 3am till 6am. Interestingly the event is only available for the architecture guild who can hire the Yrjönkatu public swimming pool for the evening/ morning. I called it a night at 7am with the first trains home for some needed rest and recovery, I was not surprised to here the Finns kept going though Sunday. Fantastic night that I only wish our schools back home would hold.

All photos below by Emma Hannula.
Myself, Andrés & Kim.
The gang.
Myself & Marta.
Peter, Andrés, Trevor Jr and Trevor.

All Photos below by Alex Naeder
Myself & Claire.
Peter, Andrés, Myself & Alex.
It's the beard!
Claire & Trevor Harris.
Manda & Myself.

Helsinki sights part 02

Taking time out from the city central and heading to Eira in the south west of Helsinki where you find a mix of the old industrial, new residential and older residential. This area is on the master plan to be a central hub with new housing to replace the industrial buildings. Grim reality is the new residential blocks reference the older buildings in their surrounds. I will let the public be the judge on the outcome of these buildings.

On the brighter note one of the most impressive buildings in Helsinki for me is the Kiasma museum of Contemporary art designed by Steven Holl. The exterior grew on me once I fully understood it from the inside. Natural light fills most rooms and on every level there is a room with exterior views, not to leave out all the gadgetry used within the building. The public works is also displays fantastic range of Finnish and international contemporary artists. Top of the list of places to see and if art is not your thing just use the café down on entry level.

Helsinki sights part 01

So far I have not really discussed the city in which I am meant to be living, partly because I have been seeing it in small stages and the other being I did not want to start judging the city before I understood it. Well I am glad to say I still really do not understand it! Things like the night life are an expensive investment, the catch being this is when the Finns are most friendly & talkative. I will choose to avoid commenting on the nightlife as I know it’s here and I just need the right people to help me find it. So in these first stages I will discuss sights and activities that have occurred over the past month, unfortunately for some I am about to discuss the architecture and cultural things I have discovered so you can possibly skip though to the picture sections of my blog.

Walking the streets of Helsinki you can see the influences that Russia has had on the development of the city and its buildings. The streets can tend to blend into one another with the pale colour facades before being broken up by a standout building or public park area. Alvar Aalto has left his ink on the city with such buildings like Finlandia Hall with its breath taking marble façade and great horizontal proportions overlooking the lake. One can only marvel in the attention to detail that has been put into the building, marble cladding can even be found on the inner walls of the loading area/ undercover car park. However I feel the presence of the building is undermined by the tarmac car park which is positioned in front of it. Enclosed by a line of trees that obscure a view to an open parkland and baron paved area used as a shortcut to the train station. This famous icon of Helsinki is let down by the space in front of it, one can only suggest that this was not the overall picture Aalto had seen. The addition of the contemporary art museum has bolstered the area but there are vast amounts of nothingness between the iconic links which scream for improvement. The master plan for Helsinki has a lot of promise but my first impressions are clouded by developer style construction.

Another site to check out are the Kansallismeseo or National Museum of Finland has a bear guarding its entry, apparently its cool to have your picture taken in front of it. It has never been open when I have been past but apparently it has Finnish history inside.

New architecture in Tallinn

Residence and comercial building.
Architects: Margit Mutso, Kristie Poldme.

The one thing I really enjoyed while checking out the newer Russian influenced parts of the city was the amount of great new architecture going up. I was lucky to find a place called nu nordik which has heaps of cool stuff & a copy of architektuuriaasta 2007. This book shows the all the newer architecture in the town and most of it is very impressive. It is refreshing to see that a city who has lived under so many rulers has come along way in 17years. Tallinn gets into my top 5 of places I have seen and I could possibly live here… unfortunately the book predicts ‘2007 will go down in the annals of Estonia as the last good year of the construction boom.’ Once again I have more on film due to the digital running flat.Tallinn English College sports building.
Architects: Lembit-Kaur Stoor, Margus Maiste, Andrus Koresaar.

Tallinn Train station & hotel.