Berlin

After finishing up the term in Helsinki, Anna and I traveled through Stockholm, Malmo, and ended up in Berlin for a few days. This photo shows the the Einstein Tower by Eric Mendelsohn (1920's). The Einstein tower houses a giant telescope that is actually viewed from the basement. The telescope is part of an astrophysics and lately, climate change institute in Potsdam, just outside of Berlin.

The school I go to, TKK, was designed by Alvar Aalto for a competition. The architecture building is at the center of campus and features a characteristically unique expression of the stairs. I had to talk Anna into indulging me for this photo-op.

Studio done

whew, sorry the blog has been down for awhile. I had my end of the term push going. Anna and I worked on a design project together for the first time this summer. We just finished it today and mailed it in. The project was a design for a school in Finland and it was a real design competition. It is pretty exciting to study in a foreign country and take part in a foreign design competition.

This last weekend Anna and I went to Tallinn, Estonia with a group of friends from our school. Tallinn is the capital of Estonia and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is a very old walled city with a great medieval character. Most of the walls are still intact. There are also a number of guard towers along the walls. Like many beautiful historic towns, it is pretty touristy, but there is plenty of Tallinn to go around. We also enjoyed a brewery that had a beer tap mounted at each table.



Tallirama



Tallinn by Night



Midget Door



More great stairs

My new (to me) faithful cruiser bike.

Today was our (I often abuse the first-person plural, but usually I am with Anna for these adventures, so give me the benefit of the doubt, at least I'm not referring to myself in the third person.) first big adventure into Helsinki from our school. It was supposed to be about 20-30 minutes, but our trip took more like two hours. We did get to see some of Helsinki's nicer suburbs and at least one urban thong. We also enjoyed some pretty cool pedestrian, bicycle, and car intersections. The first was this cool, tech bridge that spans the highway below. We saw a lot of folks enjoying the walk over and the view. There is great viewing platform at the center that juts out.

Later we found this cool tunnel/underpass. Again, its much more tech that necessary, but the extra effort and money spent give this small event a little something extra. It definitely has that international style feel that is generally lacking in Finland.



Espoo Pedestrian Bridge



The bridge is employs universal design principles to accomodate razor-scooter traffic as well.



Glass and steel boxes are not just for faceless corporations, everyone can enjoy them.



It's pretty cool how the rectangle on top is the same size and shape as the one on the bottom. It looks as if the box was on top and suddenly sunk below.



We finally made it to the Design Museum. There was a retrospective of a well-known Finnish ceramicist named Rut Bryk. Her work was very interesting and unique. She gets my award for best stage name by a woman artist.

July 3

We spent this afternoon studying the many buildings on our campus (Helsinki University of Technology, TKK) that were designed by Alvar Aalto. Aalto is probably the most well-known Finnish architect. He is a master of daylighting among many other talents. These are photos of the campus library. Aalto is also an alumnus of TKK. You can visit a great example of his work at the Mt. Angel Abby. He designed the library there. There is also a house nearby designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. I think it might me the only one in Oregon.



Anna sketching the main entrance and facade.



Great light in the library.

Sunday in Helsinki

Yesterday we explored more of Helsinki. After a stroll down the Esplanade and a stop at the market, we went over to the Suomenlinna Island. It used to be a sea fortress, but now it has a very nice parkish atmosphere and lost of historic fabric to check out. We spent a good part of the afternoon doing watercolors.



Anna at the market getting fresh strawberries and sweet peas.



A view of the island.

Great Stairs

As promised before, I will post as many stair photos as possible. Stairs always look cool and it is impossible to believe that stair photos could ever be considered cliche.





Stair/Ramp at the Kiasma - Steven Holl - Helsinki



Stair/Ramp at the Kiasma - Steven Holl - Helsinki



Steel Stairs in the Castelvecchio - Carlo Scarpa



Steel Stairs in the Castelvecchio - Carlo Scarpa



Spiral Stair at the Banco Populaire di Verona - Carlo Scarpa



Torre Mangia - Siena



Crypt Elliptical Stair - San Carlo alle Quatro Fontane - Borromini



Crypt Elliptical Stair - San Carlo alle Quatro Fontane - Borromini

Beatiful Day in Helsinki

After several days of general cold and rain, Anna and I spent a truly glorious day today exploring Helsinki. We started out by checking out the Kiasma contemporary art museum by Steven Holl. It was pretty great. We spent the rest of the day walking around and riding free green bicycles. The streets were packed and everyone seemed be excited about the sun after a long, dark winter. As you may know it doesn't get dark here really. It's kind of hard to know what time it is, but the light allows you to do as much sightseeing as you can take (or in my case, as Anna can take).