Finland East: Friday

After three weeks of school in Helsinki, it was time for another school organized excursion!  This time instead of 8 students and one studio prof heading north we had 9 students, a history teacher, her husband, and a driver traveling east in a cross between a van and a bus.  The adventure began on Friday morning: I am so thankful for the increase in light over the last few weeks and that I have been getting plenty rest because my alarm failed to go off yet I still woke at 6:50am.  Sally and I got ready and headed out the door with coffee on the brain.  We stopped by a lovely bakery but they had just opened (7:30am) and didn't appear to having "to go" cups as an option.  Sally had done her research, though, so we knew that Wayne's Coffee in the Kampii center would be open and that we would get half off our coffee purchase because of the time being before 10am.  Power walking with my luggage for the weekend was quite the workout so I ordered a fantastic chilly chai latte!  We made it to the bus just a couple minutes before 8am - not the last ones to arrive.

Essentially our home for three days on the road

After about an hour and a half driving, Sirkkaliisa (our history teacher) said it was time to wake up because we had arrived at our first stop: Sibelius Hall in Lahti, Finland.  The hall used to be some kind of factory (that's the brick), but the renovation and addition were completed in 2000.

This hall is one of the top five concert halls with regard to acoustics in the world.

These red panels are the secret.  They can open (and vary in position based on the type of performance on stage) to a hallway outside of the main space.  This outer layer has a curtain hanging to dampen the reverberation, the wood on the walls is specially treated, and the next layer is sand followed by glass.  Very very cool.

Sibelius

A model of the brilliant wall system 

This turned into a weird self portrait but was meant to be a photo of the plans for the building.

We thought these beam and wires were probably overkill for the wind loads that may exist in this region...but they sure looked neat.

This is the Piano Pavilion.  I asked a classmate why there were only chairs inside and no piano and then learned that the building is named for Renzo Piano who was the first recipient of the International Spirit of Nature Wood Architecture Award.

The snow was actually good packing snow (this is a new development as spring is coming to Finland) so Kenny thought it would be fun to pack a snowball and aim at a target.

He hit a light post 3 out of 4 times while anyone else could not get within five feet.  We've decided as a group that there is nothing Kenny cannot do and do well.

Next in Lahti we drove into the city centre at stopped at the first Aalto building of this trip - the Church of the Cross.  I was not really interested or impressed based on the outside.

But the light and design of the interior was much more appealing to me.

Aalto lights...we've seen this design in other parts of Finland

LOVE the organs in these churches

Although not visually wonderful, I thought the material on the floor of the stairs and upper level was brilliant b/c even in my shoes which clip and clop irritatingly, I could walk silently.  This is perfect for a church, especially in the area where the choir sits and parents with young children are more likely to choose.

Aalto stools in case multitudes come to a service.

I really liked the combination of natural light streaming into the space as yellow artificial light mixed with it.

Our bus/van had something wrong with the tire, so as our driver went to a mechanic to keep everything up and running, we wandered into town for lunch.  Instead of the market or sushi, we chose to eat at a very busy Italian restaurant.  My salad was fantastic and pasta was okay (they really like substantial noodles that are not cooked past al dente in Finland).  As we were leaving, we saw a poster that stated the restaurant was ranked the second best Italian restaurant in Finland on a facebook survey.  We then headed across town to the other landmark of the main axis: town hall.

This building was designed by Eliel Saarinin and had more character than any town hall I have seen before.

Dan wanted to be part of the painting.  This mural reminded me of art done for the Land Grant Universities in the US (I've seen them in the libraries of Purdue and ISU), but I could not remember that artists name.  I asked my classmates...but they hadn't even heard of Land Grant Schools!

Our next, and final town for the night, was Jyävskylä.  rd We started at one of Aalto's first buildings.  It was for some club/organization.  It was probably my least favorite Aalto so far, although I enjoyed some of the light fixtures the overall design felt a lot like a very small scale casino to me.

Next we went to the University where Aalto designed most of the buildings.

An Aalto library!  This is my least favorite that I have seen so far.  It's good that we are going to all of these libraries b/c a library is a central part of our design project for the semester.

Sally found a body building magazine!

Next we went to the Aalto museum which was just about a block from the university.  Aalto was commissioned to design this building knowing full well it would be a museum about him and his work.  I think that's both perfect and a little sickening.  It was very strange, but very neat that about half of the buildings documented in the exhibits are ones we have visited as a class.

Naturally, Aalto's chairs were featured in the exhibit.

How they get those lovely bends in the chair, table, and stool legs.

I'm not a huge fan of the colors, but really like this "woven chair" idea.

After the museum, we went to the hostel.  It was full for the night so we only had 2 rooms (8 beds) for the nine of us.  They had a very clever system of managing costs for the hostel: no keys or front desk, when an individual placed a reservation he or she received a text message with a security code and a room number.  This security code provided admittance into the building, onto the appropriate floor, and into the actual room.  One of the rooms was quite large, so five people stayed there with the lack-of-bed individual getting the mattress topper from two other beds.

We then went downtown for a bit (two blocks away) and hung out until 6:30pm when we walked over to Memphis (a chain but with Aalto designed light fixtures) to meet Sirkaliisa and her husband.  They hung out with us after dinner at the bar where they thought all the college student came but I don't think country music is much of an indication of the happening place.  When they retired, some of us went to another place with more upbeat music, a dance floor, and a fog machine.  I had a few Finns try to talk to me; it took awhile to get them to understand that I could not speak the language.  Once the point got across, I was informed "You don't look American, you look like a Finn" by one boy....I did not know what the appropriate response was..."thank you?"