Archive for 2012
Central Library Competition Judging Begins
There were 530 entries in the Helsinki Central Library Competition (via). Proposals will be shown in the Autumn and final winning proposal next summer.
Guggenheim Rejected…this time
The City Board Voted on Wednesday to reject the Guggenheim Helsinki proposal by 8 votes to 7. But there will be new elections and a new board by the autumn. (via)
If you think you can do a thing…
If you think you can do a thing or think you can’t do a thing, you’re right. Henry Ford
Finnish Whiskey
Living in Finland and having previously written about Finnish Wine I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to write about Finnish Whiskey. You heard it right there may be a nascent Whiskey Industry hiding in the Finnish woods. Check out the Wikipedia page on Finnish Whiskey and you’ll see there are currently two producing Whiskeys. The two [...]
Wiki-House
WikiHouse is an open source construction set. It’s aim is to allow anyone to design, download, and ‘print’ CNC- milled houses and components, which can be assembled with minimal formal skill or training. – WikiHouse
Guggenheim Revisited
Since I wrote last about the proposition of the Guggenheim Museum coming to Helsinki a lot has happened. I had a good look at the background of the Guggenheim ventures since Bilbao, the type of museum envisaged and didn’t like what I saw. But also I didn’t really think it would happen, at a time [...]
Kilden by ALA
Kilden is a concert hall and theatre by ALA Architects. It has just been finished and hit the newsstands and blogs. It is a major work for Finnish Architecture, and it looks amazing. Ark magazine features it in their first edition of 2012, along with an interview of the ALA partners with Bjarke Ingels with which [...]
Robin Hood Gardens to be Demolished
Robin Hood Gardens by Peter and Alison Smithson has been approved for Demolition. A real shame, it is one of those seminal but unloved works of that period it is the same age as I am. Perhaps it’s fate though was sealed because the cost of saving them would have been ’prohibitive’ . (via)
The Baana
Over two years ago I made a quick photo journal of my walk through a closed and disused piece of railway line going through the center of Helsinki which was due to be turned into a new cycle and pedestrian route. Well it will be opened this year (delayed or held back for WDC2012!) during [...]
Leap
I really love this prefabricated, multi-modular Alpine lodge designed by Leapfactory. Dezeen has all the simply stunning photos.
Espoo Venice!
With a lot less exposure than the Central Library competition but with much potential the city of Espoo has launched a competition for a masterplan of Finnoo-Kaitaa for 20,000 people. There has just previously been a masterplan report made (download pdf here ) by WSP Finland who won the Helsinki 2050 competition a few years [...]
Against Censorship
SOPA & PIPA are the sort of Bullshit censorship models we can do without on the internet. That’s why I went dark on the 18th January and thankfully they were defeated this time. Have a read of some background to the well thought out arguments as why we need to oppose these types of measures [...]
The Kindle as the Endless book
So my first ebook reader a basic Kindle 4 came in the post just as the first Kindle fire was being launched in the States. I had been thinking of getting one for a while but with the recent revised lineup bringing a nice design simplification and price drop of the basic model I [...]
Schooling from two perspectives
A couple of links first about the Finnish School system in the Atlantic. The answers Finland provides seem to run counter to just about everything America’s school reformers are trying to do. Compare this with an article in the Guardian today US Schools with their own police. More and more US schools have police patrolling [...]