Tag Archives: Finland

Lakeside sauna a modern invention

There is nothing more traditional in Finland than a lakeside Sauna right? Well researchers for the Central Finland in Jyväskylä who prepared an exhibition on the sauna have identified the lakeside sauna as a relatively modern trend beginning with urban Finns starting it when they bought second homes beside the lakes.

In the countryside, the family sauna was usually to be found close to the farmhouse and close to the well. But, as increasing numbers of urban residents began acquiring villas and cottages as summer holiday retreats during the latter half of the 19th century, saunas began appearing on lakeshores….

It was during the war period that lakeside saunas became much more widespread. Soon, they began to take over from the bathhouses of the genteel folk, becoming so common that few people today even consider that they have not always been a central feature, and a delight, of the Finnish way of life. – YLE article

This is all consistent with the Sauna moving from being an integral part of life to a leisure activity.

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 distilleries are Panimoravintola Beer Hunter’s and Teerenpeli Distillery.

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 the corridors. Pupils are being arrested for throwing paper planes and failing to pick up crumbs from the canteen floor. Why is the state criminalising normal childhood behaviour?

Having two kids in the Finnish system I’m not sure I agree completely with the ideological thrust of the Atlantic article or that the introduction of Police into some US schools is a cause rather than a symptom of US educational problems but I can say I’m nothing but impressed by what I’ve seen for my own children so far.

Timber Construction

Certainly Housing Construction in Finland has a few characteristics that most definitely don’t set it apart from other countries. It is conservative, standardised and utilises prefabrication and concrete to a large degree. Some things are harder to change than others but one thing that just might be changing for the better is in the replacement with much of the concrete with timber.

I already wrote something about the new found ability of Finnish builders to build hi-rise timber framed buildings. But now we could make major updates to our existing building stock and develop new forms of prefabricated and highly insulated timber panel system also.

The student residence building of Pohjalankaleva in Oulu was the first project in Finland to be renovated with a Timber Based Element System or TES for short ( part of the International TES project). Already a second building renovation taking place following the pilot project is in Peltosaari, Riihimäki and hopefully should pave the way for this method of renovation to be taken up more widely which should in turn bring further time and cost benefits.

The best thing about this system is that it promises not just to bring your old building up to current building standards but far beyond. Passive House standards are being aimed for which in Finland that means the following;

In the project PEP – Promotion of European Passive houses, VTT suggested a definition for Finnish passive houses, where the requirements are:
Heating energy demand max. 20 – 30 kWh/m2
(depending on the location)
Air tightness of the building envelope n50 max. 0.6 1/h
Total primary energy consumption 130 – 140 kWh/m2 (via)

Maybe we can start to lead the building industry in the use of timber based construction methods to not only improve new builds but update our existing buildings without sacrificing cutting edge building standards.

  • TES report (pdf) from the Helsinki University of Technology (HUT)
  • TES manual (pdf) in English. Pretty definitive and probably good for insomnia too.

Finnish Education

Finland rightly deserves attention today as a nation that treats its children as a precious resource and that honors the adults who make education their passion and their career. – Diane Ravitch in Ed Week

A good article with interesting comments ranging from the excellent to the downright racist. For the record as a father of two bringing up kids in Finland I have nothing but praise for the education system here at least in the early years.

 

Solar Power in Finland

…if a detached house here in Finland wanted to produce all of its electricity using solar power, an investment of some 6,000-7,000 euros would grant cost-free electricity usage for the entire household from that point onwards - Peter Lund from the Aalto University

So it may not be unreasonable here in Finland after all to have some significant solar power use.

Finnish Wine

Temola Winery

The most northerly wine in the world is produced in Olkiluoto in Finland1 with the help of nuclear powered waste water. But what I find more interesting is that Finland actually has a small network of farms making their own wine from Finnish berries (Blackcurrent, Blueberry, Whitecurrent, Cloudberry). Who’d have guessed that there is a nascent wine industry here.

There are signs of a kind of underground renaissance in Finnish food but it’s two faced with the basic food industry mainly monopolised and industrialised. I wish we could get back to producing, and eating in a more natural and direct way.

  1. according to wikipedia [↩]

Serlachius Competition Results

The art gallery Serlachius has just announced the reults of it’s international competition for a new gallery wing. MX_SI studio from Spain won with a really beautiful and tasteful entry. The results pdf is worth reading as there were quite a few good entries. I knew a few people who entered and they both put their buildings on the harder and more interesting side of the site but only one of the top entries is on that side.

Finland in Stereo

Here are two links to I think very differing reports into the state of Finland now and its’ prospects for the future. They are both book size and I haven’t read them yet, but for now I’ll post about them with a quote from each preface and come back with a review of both a little later.

Negative

Quasi-Democracy by Katja Boxberg & Taneli Heikka. The book is available free in pdf format.

How was a once prosperous, even innovative, Nordic democracy
reduced into a warning example of econo-political
stagnation?

Positive

Mission for Finland by Demos group with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Go to the website to download the full pdf report also.

Finland is already the best country in the world. Considering its small size,
Finland has an unbelievable array of strengths and opportunities to solve some
of the world’s most wicked global problems. If Finland did not exist, it would
have to be invented. We have a mission.

It should be interesting to read these two together in parallel seeing as they appear to arrive at so different conclusions.

Libeskind in Tampere

click on image for slideshow

Daniel Libeskind has been chosen to design the new Tampere central arena, this follows on from his masterplanning of the arena and business park and commercial deck for the centre of Tampere which he had already made. Foreign Architects have really not had an easy time of building in Finland although some competitions have been won and schemes designed this will be the first foreign designed building of any sort of note in Finland since Stephen Holl’s Kiasma over ten years ago.

Its built over the railway and seems like a good piece of urban design with a twist of the style Libeskind is by now world famous for. Because the stadium is needed for the World Ice Hockey Championships in 2013 it is in everyone’s interests to get this built fast.

This also shows there is  a great deal of civic pride and ambition outside of the capitol also.

All photos form Daniel Libeskind Architects.

Finnish Architecture 0809

Finnish Architecture stages a Biennial Exhibition of the best in Finnish Architecture and this year 0809 starts its tour in Helsinki before going around the globe. It’s a good chance to look at some great projects, photos and models, step back and survey the progress made and the potential going forward. The exhibition catalogue this year also includes an essay from Peter MacKeith an American who was director of Architecture studies in Helsinki University during the mid to late 90′s summarising his views on the state of Finnish Architecture. He is a great writer and makes a thoughtful contribution here.

The Exhibition

Firstly unlike the previous three biennial exhibitions this one contains many housing projects, and some of them are actually quite good (slight irony intended). Churches and Schools which previously supplied the best projects are missing here. There is also a feeling that the judges consciously spread their net a lot wider this time. There is an electrical substation, some master plans and renovations so there is a wider cross section from the built environment, as a result it’s more relevant and larger in conceptual scope than before so thanks to the jurors for this.

Meklin Villa one of my favourites from the show

All this hasn’t brought the quality of the projects down, there are of course some outstanding projects here also which stand out from the crowd. Also the Architecture feels a bit more colourful and experimental. Overall this is a lovely exhibition.

Some notable examples are The Huvitus Housing Terrace, the Anttolanhovi  Villas, or Villa Meklin which is a notable addition to the many Archiapelago type summer houses which have often showcased the best of Scandinavian design over the years. Also The Swedish school and the Vellamo centre would not look out of place on any best of list over the last couple of years. So there is strength in breadth and depth here but some missed opportunities too.

Vellamo Boat museum photo by Jussi Tianen

Look at the Salmisaari masterplan and you will see the Architects really thought about opening up the development to its coastline and the public access running through. But if you visit the reality it comes up a little short. But missed opportunities are for the next time and even in Salmisaari so far a high standard has been achieved.

Looking Forward

I don’t want to get too much into the debate about how these exhibitions like the Sterling Prize for example can become divorced from the reality of building, that Architects congratulate each other on their fantastic work when their contribution is a only a part of the whole building and design process. Clearly here the line gets crossed a little but doesn’t invalidate the endeavour.  It also brings me to this wider issue of stepping back a moment and then looking forward to the future.  So what do these buildings tell us about the time and place we live in now? That the distance Finland has to travel to be comfortable in the multicultural and international stage is still a little way off but getting closer. A coherent approach to the environmental issues of today is also clearly lacking, the building industry as a whole here seems to be entirely devoid any approach at all to our times most pressing problem. A symptom I think of the general attitude to this problem as being an infrastructural issue and not having an Architectural remit, we will have to see how this continues to plays out.

The many strands of thinking ,attitudes,styles and new directions that continually inform and run through Architectural practice do not always reveal themselves in a small countries best work even over two years but there is much here to give us hope for an inventive future.

Below you will find a full list of the projects included in the exhibition and a KML file showing all the projects on a map.

  • Pasila Machine Workshop Area Blocks of Flats, Helsinki. Architects NRT Ltd
  • Blocks of Flats in Myllypuro, Helsinki. A6 Architects
  • Oscar Block of Flats, Helsinki. Tuomo Siitonen Architects
  • Terraced Housing in Vuosaari, Helsinki. Kirsi Korhonen and Mika Penttinen Architects
  • Villa Laulumaa, Oulainen. Anna and Lauri Louekari Architects
  • Anttolanhovi Lakeside Villas and Hillside Villas, Mikkeli. Emma Johansson Architects; Timo Leiviskä Architects
  • Villa Mecklin, Naantali. Huttunen–Lipasti–Pakkanen Architects
  • Loft G, Helsinki. ALA Architects Ltd
  • Kyly Sauna, Raseborg. Avanto Architects Ltd
  • Ajurinmäki Day-Care Centre, Espoo. AFKS
  • Tuomarila Day-Care Centre, Espoo. Auer & Sandås Architects ltd
  • Swedish School of Social Science, Conversion and New Building, Helsinki. Juha Leiviskä, Jari Heikkinen
  • Maritime Centre Vellamo, Kotka. Lahdelma & Mahlamäki Architects
  • Helsinki Seafarers’ Centre. Ark-House Architects ltd
  • Provincial Archives, Hämeenlinna. Heikkinen–Komonen Architects
  • Oulu City Offices. Sarc Architects Ltd
  • Salmisaari Detail Plan and Cityscape Plan, Helsinki. Helsinki City Plannig Department; B & M Architects Ltd and WSP Finland
  • Varma Offices, Helsinki. Tuomo Siitonen Architects
  • Salmisaarenaukio 1 Offices, Helsinki. Helin & Co Architects
  • National Board of Education, Renovation, Helsinki. Sarc Architects Ltd
  • Pori City Hall Restoration. Vilhelm Helander, Tytti Valto
  • Paulig Roastery, Helsinki. Tommila Architects Ltd
  • Finnish Wooden Boat Centre, Kotka. Lahdelma & Mahlamäki Architects
  • Open-Air Museum Conservation Centre, Helsinki. Häkli Architects
  • 110 kV Switching Substation, Helsinki. K2S Architects Ltd
  • Ekenäs Harbour Area, Raseborg. B&M Architects Ltd; WSP Finland Ltd

Previous exhibitions 0607

KML of all the projects 0809.