ark magazine (3.2006) ran an editorial and some essays with an overview of Estonian Architecture. So I thought I would do the same, particularly as one of the most important buildings in independant Estonia,The KUMU art gallery, was designed by a Finnish Architect. Also Estonia and Finland are an interesting contrast in terms of Architecture [...]
For the Taivallahti Residential Area competition in Helsinki Stephen Holl beat Jo-Coenen, Dominique Perrault, and Cino Zucchi to win. This is Stephen Holl’s second success in Helsinki after Kiasma (some slides here) and actually I don’t know of any other project by a foreign Architect completed in Finland other than this one! The winning entry [...]
The Priest of Evil by Matti Joensuu The third of my reads from my Finnish reading list. This is classed as a crime thriller or maybe more accurately a police procedural. Set in Helsinki and written by Matti Joensuu who was actually a policeman with Helsinki Police force until his retirement. A series of [...]
I just read in the Helsingin Sanomat that the Armi Centre in Helsinki is to be cancelled. It would have acted as a focal point, at least for tourists anyway, of Finnish Design Culture right in the centre of Helsinki. Some of the key clients pulled out of the project, and when your clients no [...]
The Kvarken Archipelago is Finlands seventh World Heritage Site just newly inscribed (its shared with Sweden which was inscribed earlier) and Finlands first natural site rather than manmade building to make it onto the list, see this article. It features unusual moraines or stone formations and is part of a feature which in 2000 years [...]
A wonderfull project, showing a clarity of concept between client and building that is really rare, the new Freitag shop in Zurich,(flickr) is made up of 17 modified shipping containers for a company that handmakes bags from truck tapaulins. Its run by two brothers and interview with one of the brothers is at wmmna. Architects [...]
A few interesting Russian links follow, Andrew Moore a great photographer with a lovely photoset of Russia. Check out archi.ru which has an english section with good articles,a good place from which to explore further. Moscow Museum of Architecture (I think its the oldest museum dedicated to architecture in the world- but correct me if [...]
