Open (House) Helsinki 2011

Apart from the fact that they can't decide if the event has the word 'house' in it or not, and there are also places in Espoo and Vantaa (well I suppose that is 'greater' Helsinki ) as you might guess this week was this year's opportunity to get into public and private buildings that you often can't. And ships.

Now we have a proper internet connection at last, I can finally upload a decent number of photographs with out waiting for Godot. Be afraid...


(Click on Picasa album links below for more pictures)

Open House Helsinki - saunalahden lastentalo

Open House Helsinki - Urho ja Sisu

Open House - Musikkitalo, WG Lofts, Stora Enso

Open House - Pyhän Laurin kappeli

Non-Angry Birds

Sorsa X Tööllönlahden lähellä sunnuntaina: 'En ole vihainen lintu'

If you live in Finland or read any 'tech'/games media (or own an iPhone) you probably don't need me to tell you about Angry Birds (Vihaiset Linnut) the hit game developed in Finland by Rovio (and no. 1 downloaded paid app just about everywhere).  Over Christmas Konna and I discovered the phenomenon and quickly became addicted. I even had to get the Mac version for her to play while I was away so she would let me take my iPod with me... I'm convinced that even though the birds and green pigs (don't ask) only make nonsense noises, you can tell they have Finnish accents. And just to rub it in on one level the linnut are attacking a 'tank' manned (pigged?) by said vihreät siät flying a ruotsalainen lippu (thats the blue and yellow flag of the country just to the left of us in case you were wondering).

On Sunday we went for a four hour walk around across Hakaniemenlahti and Töölönlahti (just getting used to taking winter short cuts after three years).  The sky was gloriously clear and blue, though the wind was fierce, so ideal for a few (dozen) about a hundred photos.  Stopping to look at the ducks and snow sculptures, we then headed past the Olympic stadium, where traditionally clad skaters were flocking for the first ever public access to the temporary ice rink, and then through Sibeliuksenpuisto to the my favourite, the fantastically unorthodox Cafe Regatta - only to discover we had the sum total of eight euros* between us for a lunch. We settled for freshly baked korvupuustia and a shared coffee...  and luckily coffee refills get a five cent refund making it a bottomless cup. As I said - unorthodox.

Crossing Töölönlahti

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* Not enough for two drinks and two pullaa, let alone lunch. And Regatta isn't particularly expensive.

Same old same old

Not the view from my window: From Favourites

Like the UK, we are also having an early cold and snowy winter in Finland and looking to last another week at least... -33°C in Lapland last night and -16 forecast here for the weekend. Even in Helsinki we have about 10cm of snow on the ground, which we've had for a couple of weeks now. Our newly purchased thermometer tells me it has warmed up a few degrees and now is only -10.6°C outside. After last winter it all seems pretty common place now (not having a picturesque view from my window, makes it all seem a bit wasted somehow) but good news for all those enthusiasts who got excited and bought new skis last year I guess!

I really must buy a proper winter coat this year...

Hanging around with Havis

Mind your head Amanda...

For the life of me I can't understand why they have installed the worlds most impractical ski lift at the end of the Esplanade... and the queues are terrible

Overheard in Helsinki, Vappuaattona. Or not.

Sausage houses, Thunderbirds and Ego

Toronto City Hall via Erindesignr/Flkr

I thought it was worth putting a few more words about Viljo Revell (with two L's please note Ms. Kilpikonna) as his work still has a big impact on Helsinki at least, and you can't help thinking he would have gone on to do a lot more if he hadn't have died at only 54, before his best know work, the Thunderbirds style (optimist-futurist-expressionist-modernist) Toronto City Hall, was completed in 1966. Whether it would have been popular is a different question. The 'City-Center' Makkaratalo ('sausage house') is pretty much universally reviled (I also struggle to find much positive to say, except the concrete brute with car ramps trumping pedestrian access is 'of it's time'. On the other hand 'Lasipalatsi' the 1935 'Crystal palace' is certainly still a gem of white functionalism.

Anyway how many internationally successful architects can you think of who said anything like 'It was was teamwork you see' when asked how they designed a competition winning scheme? No - I thought not.

Teamwork

Architect Viljo Revel's exhibition 'It was team work, you see' at Didrichsen Art Museum in Helsinki exhibits architect's life work in a proper setting, in a building designed by him. Worth a visit if you are nearby before mid May 2010...

Our visit was a quick one on Easter Monday morning, before cooking a lamb feast with a few Yorkshire puddings... I know I know - not a usual combination - but because of a great demand the chef had to live up to his audience. I guess the word 'his' gave up the BIG secret (?) who cooks the fantastic feasts in this house :)

Night shift

"The Hour of the Wolf" is the hour between night and dawn. It is the hour when most people die. It is the hour when the sleepless are haunted by their deepest fear, when ghosts and demons are most powerful."

... It is also the hour when the flipping snow ploughs have a gathering underneath the bedroom window in order to take away the snow pushed aside the streets during the day.

Please let us know who has designed the piiping device activated by reversing - can it not be turned off during the hour of the wolf?

A shadowy flight into the dangerous world...

DH paperdoll via

What has DH got to do with Dipoli's concrete days that MD blogged about a few weeks ago?

You might think nothing - think again...

The first time I visited this congress centre designed by Pietiläs I had a longer queue in front of me and much more eager fellow visitors than on the day of the concrete. I was also much younger... This was in the 80's when Michael Knight - The Night Rider (DH) visited Dipoli & Jäähalli here in Helsinki.

I remember it like it was yesterday (parents to be warned: kids do remember things, so do not take them to see DH if he visits Finland again...).

DH had a black pilot jacket, small soft pink panther attached to his jacket lapel & his hairy chest was showing... Sadly I have to admit I haven't liked hairy men after that... Oh well...

I have lost the autograph I got too... hmmm...

Sumu ja jää

lumi polku: From More snow days

Saturday was a bright, clear day, with almost no wind, although still -14ºC. Almost perfect for walking in the snow and maybe venturing on the ice to take some photos. This of course meant we woke late, then spent the rest of the five short daylight hours in supermarkets and shopping centres. So looking at similar sää enuste (weather forecast) for the next day we decided we would go out before 10am to enjoy some hyvää ilmaa.

Sunday was white. Not from snow, but from fog; and from the covering of white stuff, a hoare frost on steroids, on all the trees left by the freezing fog. Like tiny leaves or blossom, a thick covering of delicate feathery white ice crystals had grown on the skeletal winter trees, so that even our view of Citymarket car park and the Shell bensiiniasema became almost magical. We took our walk anyway, and instead of low sun, glittering snow and impossibly long shadows, we had a sugar frosted world in shades of white disappearing into the dim mist, and where a gust of wind in the tree tops brought down a shower of frozen powder.

On ice, in fog: From More snow days

feathery ice crystals blossom: From More snow days

From More snow days

More photos here

Deja vu

Balcony sunrise

Like this, but better...

How to use a camera in mittens...

From Senaatintori lightshow

As you know I don't like to go on about the weather and length/shortness of days in Finland too much, particularly the cold, snow and darkness...* (kö).

Erm, anyway here are some pictures of the lightshow and projections Senaatintorilla tiistaina. It was about minus 17°C with a biting wind and pitch dark (being after 4pm) so I played an interesting game of 'can-I-hold-my-camera-still-enough-without-a-tripod-and-operate-it-with-gloves-and-woolly-mittens' while Konna hopped up and down (cold, not the other). Thank goodness for the 3200 ISO setting is all I can say (although actually pushing the little button and turning the selector with a digit encased in nylon, neoprene and sheep fuzz was another story...). After watching the final angel fade from Engel's architecture we retreated fittingly to Cafe Engel for lohikeittoa, kähvia ja pullaa, and sweated in our thermals.

Did I mention the 35cm of snow yet?

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* Well as I don't drink tea or like football or cricket particularly I have to do something stereotypically English, don't I? And heck, it was a record -35.5°C in Lappeenranta on Monday which is down here in the sub-tropical south not up in arctic Lappi...

Hot water bottle

Plasticiens Volants at Taiteiden Yö (Night of the arts) 21.8.09 in Helsinki

It was advertised in the papers that during the arts' night on Friday the fairy tales become true... and they did - in the form of the hot water bottles. Perhaps I should explain...

A few years ago we were driving around the country side with Emmdee and I happened to see a group of colourful hot air balloons in the sky - and I scared the driver by yelling loudly (as I often do): 'Look - lots of hot water bottles over there!' Of course the driver couldn't see them immediately, but wondered probably in his mind that now she has lost it big time.

He might have rubbed his eyes twice on friday too, if he saw the hot water bottles, which were shaped differently; there was a whale, a helpful lobster who let the pearl out from its shell (& eventually put it back where it belongs), an evil octopus & small sea horses & crabs - but he didn't as he was sleeping home...

That brings to my mind that I was supposed to book a hot water bottle ride for this September - yes the one we were suppose to take already a year ago :0 Perhaps we are lucky with the weather this time around?

Architecture Corner 04/09 [updated]

Otaneimi Kapeli: From helsinki architecture tour 04/09

We haven't had an Architectural Corner for a while (Konna keeps threatening to write about various things, but...) but we are still (re)discovering new & old buildings around Finland and Helsinki in particular. The other week we combined our new found love of free-loading activities with architecture and took advantage of an architectural tour of Helsinki (and Espoo) organised by Suomen Rakennustaiteen Museo and ??? in conjunction with their lecture series. (See here for a map and album)

Starting at the museum we stowed away joined a coach load of foreign students and miscellaneous hangers-on on what was a glorious (if chilly) spring day. First stop was Puu-Käpylä  - an area of model worker's housing built in the early 20's, constructed from timber - hence the puu - (in this case solid squared-off logs and timber weather boarding with 'classical' details) this is an example of the Garden City approach to sub-urban housing, and one which is now much desired. We then strayed into the adjacent so-called 'other olympic village' (housing built for the abortive 1940 summer games), popped into the local church and back on the bus.

Next was Viikki - an area we have visited before (and I said I would write about... never mind), although this time we skipped JKMM's Viikin Kirkko (see Sept'08) and looked instead at the award winning 90's timber housing area (by Arkkitehtuuritoimisto Mäki-Marttunen KY) and the Infokeskus Korona (which as far as I can work out is the university campus library) which we hadn't seen, and is by ARK-house who also designed the nearby Viikin Normaalikoulu school.

From there we headed to the airport for lunch. No not Vantaa , but Malmi.  Now used for private and light aircraft this was the original Helsinki International airport, (previously flying to Helsinki meant coming by flying-boat or float-plane) built in 1936 but replaced in 1952 by Vantaa in time for the Olympics. The buildings are still evocative of their era and have been recognised by the DoCoMoMo workgroup.

We then swung back west. Stopping off at Myyrmäen Kirkko - and an ideal day to see Leiviskä's church, which could be described as a poem in buff brick about light. Then the Peitilä designed expressive-modernist housing at Suvikumpu, which could easily be from the last decade rather than the 60's. From there we headed into Tapiola - another (more recent) example of Garden City planning and development, were we look briefly at the central ice rink 'reflecting pool', swimming pool, walked past the hotel that Konna's office had been working on, then a quick peek into the a delicate 'brutalist' modernist concrete church by Ruusuruori (who also originally designed the WeeGee-talo building for the Weilin & Göös Print Works

Now we headed towards TKK (Helsinki University of Technology) with it's Aalto masterplan and main buildings, including the well known auditorium complexe.  Again this is somewhere I have seen before (actually I think it was the first Aalto building I ever went inside, back in 2004), but is well worth a second look with the benefit of having visited, studied and even blogged some of his other buildings.

Staying on campus, we finished with a very simple, but rather lovely building. Otaneimi Chapel, by Heikki & Kaija Siren, creating an entrance courtyard from unworked timber screens, and using the backdrop of the forest and an external crucifix to bring nature into the building through it's picture windows. The chapel space is reached through a low vestibule, and to one side where no direct view out is possible, so keeping the effect of light, height and view as a surprise on entry into the timber, mono-pitched volume. An old trick - but one that works. I had to double check that this was really built in 1957, as it still seems very 'modern' and fresh today.

Ice, ice, baby

Ice fishing/Pilki: From Helsinki/Porvoo January 09

In the last couple of weeks (yes I know it's a bit late, but hey - this a blog not a news service) Helsinki has finally had enough snow (10-25 cm) and a cold enough period (-10 to -15°C for several days) for the lakes/sea inlets to freeze properly/thick enough to be walked on (I heard it's about 15 cm). With the cold temperatures came a few days of clear skies and the sun skimming over the roof-tops and tree line, bringing out skiers, skaters and ice-hole fishers to enjoy the ice and snow.

Unlike the UK, Finland hasn't run out of salt and grit yet, and life just carries on in these conditions (which of course are normal/mild winter here), but at a cost in resources and equipment which I imagine would be difficult to justify when only used a few days a year, or every 4 or 5 years on the recent scale:

Local councils [in UK] spent £138m last year on clearing snow and ice. The Highways Agency spends another £30m on average.
But Finland, which has a similar sized road network to the UK, spends more than £400m. [source BBC]

In fact there has been some debate here that in Helsinki (particularly younger people) are getting used to milder, less cold/snowy winters and aren't so prepared for harsher weather (there was a recent case reported of child dying in -20°C in a sledge while parents were skiing); and that drivers (particularly bus drivers) are less used to driving in snow here now. 

There is also the cost to individual drivers, as by law you have to fit winter tyres which are going to set you back several hundred £/€ at least (probably more as most people by a whole second set of wheels).  This also means that snow ploughs and diggers start clearing the snow at 4am so that everyone can get to work... not a quiet operation outside your bedroom window I can assure you!

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The snow and ice is just as slippery here as anywhere else, and despite best efforts to grit and sand (not much salt though, Finland is cutting back as it pollutes it's many lakes as well as hardening your arteries) every square centimetre of Helsinki, while out walking on Sunday I still managed to slip and land on my knee, while simultaneously straining my calf (how is that even physically possible?) - so have been limping around ever since. Maybe I will have to get spiky winter over shoes like the grannies wear...

Top tip: learn to ski

Well at least their wipers aren't frozen to the windscreen today: Around Helsinki Winter 08/09

As I write this I can see out my triple-glazed window various snowploughs, diggers, mini-tractors, bobcats and quadbikes with mr.plough attachments that are beavering away clearing snow from roads, paths bus stops and apartment building car parks. Somewhere (I imagine) someone is digging their car out, as the snow plough pushes a metre high wall of snow between the road and the drive. The postlady cycles past on her bike. Mothers pull toddlers along on pulkkat (sledges) on their way to nursery, bundled up in near identical romper suits. Life goes on.

Fake snow artists need not apply: From Around Helsinki Winter 08/09

Yesterday morning Hiiri and Konna could tell by the trackless snow that they were the first to leave the house.  The paths had not yet been cleared by the little machines so they had to trek through the 20-25cm snow to the Metro in the snowbright morning darkness- which was running as normal of course. I decided to go for a walk instead of blogging about yesterday's myrsky - who knows how long this will last or when the next lot will be, and good practice for Lappi in the new year.

Over-equipped as usual: From Around Helsinki Winter 08/09

As we live right on the eastern edge of Helsinki, in a couple of minutes I was out next to open fields and drifts half a metre deep.  Luckily I had dressed for the weather (in fact probably over dressed as the wind had completely gone), and had my nordic walking sticks and a flask of hot soup in my pack.  I keep having to stop to take photos, which is a procedure involving: take off stick straps from wrists, prop sticks in snow, remove right ski glove (try not to drop in snow), put on thin glove instead (drop ski glove in snow), take off backpack waist and chest strops, (knock over sticks) find camera, fumble in gloves, take pictures; then reverse process before walking another 10m and wanting to take another picture.  Eventually I work out my camera will fit in my coat pocket, considerably simplyfing this process.

Across the fields: From Around Helsinki Winter 08/09

Back into the woods and immediately see my first skier of the day - and I feel an inadequate ulkomalainen  trying to wade through the snow instead of having skis (although all the falling over would be more embarrassing of course).  The trees are coated in snow, just like those unfeasibly foam coated ones from bad tv snow scenes, and I have a few comedy moments as I brush under low branches sagging with snow which slides off on to me.  I decide it is probably bad manners to trample the fresh ski tracks (as these are easier for following skiers) and plow my own furrow alongside. Looking through the trees I can see foamy, pearly snow grottoes.  It starts to snow again. 

Snow foam and grottoes: From Around Helsinki Winter 08/09

I come across a strange concrete structure - maybe part of the wartime city defences - snow clinging to the grain of the boardmarked concrete.  I am now at the foot of the roskismäkki, the hill of the old rubbish dump (now environmentally beautified) which overlooks the new Vuosaari harbour complexe, but it is time to turn back. I stop for now cold soup and hard bread before I trudge back towards civilization, and as I hit the main, lit track a tractor goes past flattening and compressing the snow and creating two narrow grooves, ready-made ski tracks; and is soon followed by several afternoon skiers. Back home and it is already 3:30 and getting dark - just time for hot shower, hot food and off to the Metro to get to school - level four starts tonight... 

On concrete: From Around Helsinki Winter 08/09