Shockingly, it took two posts just to recount the first day in Rovaniemi. Oh, I forgot a part in there too. After checking in but before actually going to the hostel we had the opportunity to tour a construction site. Juhani Pallasmaa worked on an addition and redesign of the Culture House Korundi and we were able to look around. The new spaces are a concert hall (which was lovely in my opinion even though there is some controversy about using teak on floors from a sustainability standpoint), offices, and restaurant. Something unique about Finnish design that I learned is that any building of a certain size or with a certain capacity must have a bomb shelter. Almost everything in Rovaniemi has been built since the 1950s because so much of the town was destroyed by bombings in WWII.
Day two focused a lot on the Design Week activities. Sally, Saori, Philip, and I had breakfast at Hotel Santa Claus before heading across the river for the snow sculpting event. Out of fear of damaging my camera I did not take mine with me so will post pictures once I can grab them from other people's facebook accounts. Kenny and I made a sculpture loosely based on Philip's idea of a set of arches. After that I went into the restaurant to warm up and had some very tasty hot chocolate. Everyone else eventually joined and we ate some lunch. I had some pizza which was far better than my earlier attempt at pizza in Finland. The crust was thin and quite good. Crazily enough, though, when I asked for garlic on my pizza they really put big patches of chopped garlic on there. It got to be too much for even me!
As it was nearing the time for Matti to pick us up I went back out to the snow sculptures and saw there were a lot of blocks of snow that had not been touched. So I grabbed a "sculpting tool" and made a very quick, rectilinear, abstract sculpture. Somehow I got cold much more quickly this second time, but it was a lot of fun. Matti showed up with a bottle of the local drink - it is licorice flavored - and said it was a present for us. Despite my dislike of licorice and the fact that here they salt it to the point of it being almost inedible, I tried it. Not too awful, but not something on which I would spend my own money.
Our next stop was Pilke. We did not have a tour guide so what I know about them I only know from walking around the building and seeing a brochure. Essentially, they are a company which is focused on local products and supports sustainability (I think) and this is the first time they have had an actual building of their own (previously they have rented to somehow keep with their stated mission). The building is wood construction which is nearly unheard of for office buildings.
Next to the Pilke building was the Arktikum (http://www.arktikum.fi/en/) which is a museum dedicated to all thing arctic. There were really interesting displays about the native people of Finland and the variety of Sami tribes. I also enjoyed seeing more about the history of Rovaniemi. It is strange to me to be in a society where WWI and WWI are still such a key part of their national identity, but considering Finland declared their independence in 1917 it makes a little more sense.
Still in all of our snow gear, Matti drove us to the University of Lapland for cocktail hour before Pohjola IN/OUT, the faculty of Art and Design Show produced for the Rovaniemi Design Week 2011. I was thrilled that what looked like the water option at the cocktail hour was actually Sprite (something else I didn't realized I missed until I tasted it). While the appetizers there were quite good, the most impressive part of our time in the University of Lapland to me was the quality of the student studio spaces. So much light filtered into the building and everything felt so open and clean. In the center of the building was a large atrium all set up for a fashion show.
The show was, in my opinion, amazing. I had never seen a fashion show and my only idea of how they work or how to judge them is from movies and tv shows, but I do know that I had a good time. The school did an excellent job of combining multiple fields of design into the show. There was drawing on stage, fabric design, industrial design of electronics, a short film, ice sculpting, and a juggler all as part of the show. While a lot of the show was kind of outlandish, there were some pieces I really liked and one dress that I would gladly own. All of the models were students and many of them did a great job. The cut of some of the clothes exposed even a little more of the models' forms than I think was intended, but otherwise it was very professional and enjoyable to watch!
After the show, we piled into the van again and Matti drove us about 10 minutes north to the top of the ski hill. Everyone was really hopeful we could see the northern lights, but the day was rather cloudy so we couldn't see anything. The view of the city and the heavily snow laden trees, however, was the perfect winter wonderland scene. We returned to the hostel and everyone got cleaned up and ready to go out for dinner and then to the party associated with Design Week.
Dinner was quite good. I had a burger and tried sweet pepper rings. The pepper rings were very good but very strange. As you would guess, they looked similar to onion rings but instead of having a ring of onion, they had chopped up pieces of red, yellow, and green peppers that were then fried. Matti called us as we were finishing up dinner wondering where we were because his father had gone to sleep and he'd decided to join us at the party.
The party was at the student bar in Rovaniemi. It was packed to the point that it took about an hour for a table to clear up after we arrived. An interesting element of the bar is that everything is for sale. A lot of the things may be designed and if you would like to take it home you simply ask, pay, and can walk out of the establishment on the spot. Most of our time was spent in the basement where there was a dance floor. Dancing was fun, but mostly the experience was just hilarious. The DJ kept mixing 70s, 80s, and 90s american music and then through in some Nelly and finally some Reggae. If the auditory collection wasn't amusing enough, there was a projector with clips from early 90s MTV, some films, and a scene from the Lion King kept popping up. To top it all off, there was a smoke machine and Finn's dancing (which makes anyone I have ever met look like an excellent dancer so it makes for both a show and an open invitation for anyone to join b/c you can't be bad). We were there very late, but had a great time. On our walk back to the hostel, we stopped into McDonalds which is apparently the most popular place in the early hours of the morning. Sooo many people were buying excessive amounts of food. I did buy 4 chicken McNuggets and tried the garlic sauce because honey is not an option in Finland. I set an alarm and fell into bed to get some good sleep before being all packed up and ready to leave with Matti at 9:30am Sunday morning.
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