3 week vacation Part 1 (Sweden and Finland)

My three week vacation started on a Study Tour to Sweden and Finland. There were about 43 of us and 3 of them were the adult over seers. One of them with the luck of the draw (because there were about 5 other study tour groups going other places) was my Urban Design Professor, Dominic Balmforth. It turned out will after all spending time with him outside of studio…he even lead me and a few friends to a good concert in Helsinki…


This is the group shot and yes including me because our tour guide from one of the sites we visited took this shot.



Sweden: Not a member of the European Union. Population- 8,873,052 ( July 2000 est.), Stockholm (capital)- 700,000



Area- 449,964 sq km (roughly the size of California)

In the older city side of Stockholm

Tunnel we found when exploring the city with our free time. That's my friend Casey Berg's

silhouette. She studying photography at RIT and here she is studying pre-Architecture...and yes she said she will look up my cousin Billy when she gets back to RIT next semester.

Just chillin in a park with my friends Casey, Katie Gilfoy studying arhcitecture at Cal Poly, and Ben Koczwarski studying engineering at Princeton.

Swedish subway

The view of Stockholm looking from the Moderna Museet cafeteria.

We got to Stockholm, Sweden by bus from Copenhagen, Denmark on Saturday, October 11th. The next day we visited many things but one of the most interesting sites to me was Stadsbibloteket, designed by architect Erik Gunnar Asphund. We also saw the Moderna Museet, designed by architect Rafael Moneo and many other sites but those were the most interesting to me and worth mentioning.

Stadsbibloteket, a library in Stockholm

Stadsbibloteket

October 13th we visited Woodland Cemetery designed by E. Gunnar Asplund and Sigurd Lewerentz. We also saw Hammarby Sjostad, a sustainable city plan, which is very influencatl to Urban Design (what I am studying here in Denmark). Here is a website of the city:

http://74.125.93.104/translate_c?hl=en&sl=sv&u=http://www.hammarbysjostad.se/&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dhammarby%2Bsjostad%26hl%3Den&usg=ALkJrhjDeaUwoDHj0ms8Z6A8P4rV3S8j3g

Resurrection Chapel within Woodland Cemetary, Stockholm.

Woodland Cemetary, Stockholm

A part of Hammarby Sjostad. I find these tree gards interesting. They are used as bike racks too.

Hammarby Sjostad, interesting dock feature... were we took our group shot.

Hammarby Sjostad, I thought this highway sound pollution blocker interesting.

Hammarby Sjostad, trash and multi recycling receptacles. They are sent down through tunnels to the dump or recycling plant. They also recycle human slug and create gas used for the public bus system and to power the stoves of the residents. Crazy awesome that's what I have to say about that.

Hammarby Sjostad

That night we took a ferry over to Finland.

Finland: Member of European Union. Population- 5.2 million, Helsinki (capital) - 551,123

Area- 338,145 sq km (roughly Montana)

Helsinki

A common scene found in the Finish landscape. Lots of Birch and Pine tree (especially the orange toped Scotch Pine).

October 14th we first visited Alvar Aalto’s Villa Mairea, a summer home for a well off family that liked modernism a lot. That night we stayed at a hostel that rented out sauna’s to groups. It was a really cool experience. We bought food at a grocery store and roasted it over a fire inside the same building where the saunas were located. Right outside the building was a lake and a dock that we could jump off after spending time in the sauna.

The road to Villa Mairea.

Back side of Villa Mairea.

Front side of Villa Mairea.

October 15th the two most interesting sites visited were Sibeliustalo concert hall that is located on Lahti’s harbor and was designed by Hannu Tikka and Kimmo Lintula in 2000. There was also Alvar Aalto’s Jyvaskyla University built in 1952-1957.

Random cafe found on Lahti’s harbor front.

Lahti’s harbor front

Sibeliustalo, inside looking up at the

ceiling.

Sibeliustalo, front that faces the harbor.

Sibeliustalo

Sibeliustalo

Sibeliustalo

Jyvaskyla University, the wooden screen is a reference to the woods outside the doors and the rug reflecting the color of the counter is a reference to the lake down the hill from the University. This is what Dominic used as an example for an assignment he gave us.

Jyvaskyla University, hall to stairs

Jyvaskyla University, looking more closely to the skylight above stairs.

On October 16th we were introduced to Hvittrask, designed by Herma Geselius, Armaus Lindgren, Eliel Saarinen. I thought it interesting that Saarinen had moved to Michigan, USA because he felt he would get more work. He was right.

Hvittrask, Eliel Saarinen seemed to really like patterns to me.

This is the Flame, the most famous rug in Europe.

Eliel Saarinen, this was the view that inspired me to design what I did for Dominic's assignment.

Then there was Chapel of the Sesurrection, designed by Erick Bryggman in 1940 and the last site we saw was TB sanatorium designed by Alvar Aalto in 1929-1933. After visiting that site we were off to Helsinki.

Chapel of the Sesurrection

Chapel of the Sesurrection

My finished product for the assignment. We had to create a view space that framed the landscape and highlighted it the way Aalto did. My idea was to use what I saw the most and that was Scotch Pine and Birch so the window is a silhouette of a scotch pine and the curtin over the window has little holes in it the size of birch leaves.

TB Sanatorium, secretary post...Aalto likes to use a lot of curves I find...

October 17th we were taken to Myyrmaki Church, built in 1984 and designed by Juha Leiviska and Pekka Kivisalo. Then were visited Kiasma, Museum of Modern Art, http://www.kiasma.fi/ designed by Architect Steven Holl in 1998. I didn’t really like most of the art but I did like the building that the art was placed within.

Myyrmaki Church

Myyrmaki Church

Museum of Modern Art.

This is a review of all the work we did in our journal for the past week.

Museum of Modern Art

That night we left Helsinki for Sweden on our way home to Denmark on a Viking Ship/ferry again. These were some crazy rides because there were dance floors and a buffet with unlimited beer within the time limit.

Viking Ship

We arrived back in Frue Plads, Copenhagen on October 18th at 21:00 (9pm). The next day I left for Italy. I still hadn’t set my absentee ballet yet and I had over a 1000 photos to look through from Sweden and Finland so that’s what I worried about the most before I departed for my next adventure.