Rovaniemi Part Two

We're back in Helsinki!  It's nice to get my clothes from a drawer and to throw away the paper bag I was using to travel which was completely ripped down the side.  Traveling by train is brilliant, but strange because you arrive in the morning so have a full day in the place you were, sleep by train, and still get a full day in the place you are going!  Back to re-couting the weekend....

This is our professor, Matti, sliding down a snow covered set of stairs to get next to the river pictured above.  The river never freezes over because the water is moving so rapidly.

After the *freezing* walking tour outside, we returned to the city hall to have a buffet lunch as guests of Design Week.  The food was probably the best I've gotten off a buffet while in Finland.  A chicken bake with pineapple (they surprisingly seem to really like to through pineapple on things in Finland), rice that was not all clumpy, salad, and fantastic bread.

Next Jorma Korva, a city architect arrived and told us some about the history of the architecture of Rovaniemi and took us through the three Alvar Aalto Designed buildings.  The city hall itself was part of Aalto's city design for Rovaniemi.

While I wasn't a huge fan of every detail in the building, it is impressive how much time and care is taken with the details.  Most of the furniture, the lighting, and even the door handles are Aalto designed.

Reindeer are a big deal in Rovaniemi...this is one of the many sculptures in this area of town.

Next door to the City Hall was the Library.  It was my favorite of the three buildings.  Although Aalto was known for trying to emphasize the human usage of his spaces and even chose to make hallways seem more habitable by placing seating in them at times, I rarely enjoyed these spaces in his structures.  The main reading room in the library, however, is very well done.

These Aalto (I believe) clocks appear everywhere in these buildings and are not uncommon to be found in other parts of Finland...they're kind of really into Aalto.

The most impressive element of Aalto's design, in my opinion, is the usage of natural light.  He had many a light well in the ceiling which, according to my reading for history class this week, was intended to provide multiple dimensions of natural light instead of just a centered bright spot.  It was Aalto's belief that lighting is critical in any building but particularly in a library where an individual ought to be able to see the page without the tiring white glare.  He also thought that reading should be possible with the body in a variety of positions to best provide for the comfort of the reader.

Aalto furniture everywhere!  These chairs could still be purchased today at the Artek store.

Sally found a famous chair design and had to try it out!  I, personally, found the seat too deep to be comfortable.

Apparently having sunk areas for more books and reading spots is a common theme in Aalto designed libraries.

I enjoyed the wooden details on partitions and even basic check-out desks.

Not only were the placement and number of windows important, but also how the light was channeled once it entered the structure.  Here the curved white ceiling softens and brings the light into the reading space.  It almost seems to make more light out of what is available even though that does not make sense to me scientifically.

The final Aalto building on our tour was the Theater Hall.  A challenge with both this an the library is that based on usage, code, storage, and accessibility there is some interest in adding on or modifying the existing design.  Our guide talked about the challenges and role he plays in caring for current needs while honoring and maintaining the Aalto design intents.

Kenny decided a stage meant we needed a show so did a flip for us - insane!  Then he broke out some break dance moves but he was so fast that I didn't catch it on my camera.

After this tour we were able to go back to Hotel Santa Claus and check in to our rooms at the hostel.  With keys in hand, we grabbed our luggage and Matti drove us to the Hostel Rudolf.  I just realized I failed to take any pictures of our room but it was surprisingly nice.  Sally, Saori, and I all roomed together and had our own bathroom in the room!  There wasn't very much light because one of our ceiling lights was burnt out, but we each had a reading light by our bed and we didn't spend very much time there anyway.  Our beds had clean linens on them and a small towel so we each made our beds as we settled in.  There was a tv, but we never turned it on.  Although I have found television shows on the internet, it has been a month since I have turned on a tv - crazy!

Matti told us the address of the woman who organized Design Week, Paivi Tankokallio, because she invited us over to her house for drinks at 6pm.  We all rested a little and then got ready to go out again.  Her apartment is lovely and filled with all kinds of designer elements.  She even had a Mademoiselle chair which was what Sally had studied for our first furniture design assignment.  Paivi was a fantastic hostess.  She offered us sparkling wine (which was the first sparkling anything that wasn't soda that I've actually liked) and three different kinds of appetizers designed to welcome us to the delicacies of Lapland.  The first was a strawberry with reindeer meat - it wasn't a combination I would've predicted but was quite tasty.  Second was the "bread cheese" with melon - the bread cheese is just a squeaky cheese that has been baked but the melon actually made it quite tasty.  The final and my favorite was rye bead with some kind of spread and seafood - it was spectacular.  

After aps we went in search of dinner.  The place we went was just fantastic.  Many people ordered reindeer which could either come as a stew or in little steak things.  I opted for the beef (my first steak in a month) which was wonderful.  It came on top of some sweet potatoes, with an excellent sauce, and with some potato cakes on the side.  The best taste, in my opinion, was the bite of Elk I got to try.  It wasn't that different from a steak, but was so wonderfully flavorful.  

Once we finished eating most of us went to a bar called Hemmingways.  It was very strange to be sitting in Rovaniemi in front of a fake fireplace where typical American radio music was playing and a copy of "The Old Man and the Sea" appeared on the wall.  I went back to the room a little early so I could get a shower (finally) and knit a little before sleeping.  It was strange on our trip to shower in the evenings for me, but our room did not come with a hair dryer and the weather was not the type where messing around with wet hair was a reasonable option.