Mmm, Basil Ice Cream

Yesterday we finished the first portion of my summer program - "Documentation and Representation."  The group  worked fiercely these last few days to get everything finished, and somehow we managed to pull it all together for the presentation.

After some much needed sleep last night, and several loads of neglected laundry this morning, Kay and I ventured around town.  I dragged him to see Aalto's House of Culture (as I have to write a paper on it tomorrow), but since it was so nice outside we decided to leisurely walk back to the city centre.  Today was probably the best weather we've had this summer in Helsinki, and it was apparent the Finns felt the same as they were out in droves.  We stumbled upon several groups - out celebrating various events but all soaking up the sun.  It's already tempting me to procrastinate some more with aforementioned paper and go to a park tomorrow and get some sun...

The highlight of my day, however, had to be the basil ice cream I had this afternoon.  A-MAZ-ING!  Not quite sweet or dessert tasting, but with nuts (almonds?) and more savory, probably one of the most unique and delicious ice creams I've ever had.  I guess it shouldn't be too surprising as Finland is Europe's biggest consumer of ice cream - on average the annual consumption is 13.7 liters per person (I stumbled upon this fact one day as my classmates and I were debating the origin of ice cream, and I of course needed to Wikipedia it...).

The first group we encountered - complete with trance music, and dancers (maybe on something...)

Pride Parade Celebration

Aleksenterinkatu (main shopping street)

I keep forgetting tomorrow is the 4th of July - I wonder how big the U.S. population is here in Helsinki, and if there will be anything going on?  We sure don't seem to run into Americans very often (although, I did hear excerpts of a few seemingly American conversations at last week's Arcade Fire concert in Senate Square).  Happy 4th to everyone at home!  Hope you're enjoying your summers!

Midsummer's Eve

The height of the Finnish summer is the holiday of Midsummer - appropriate that a country that spends half the year in darkness would want to celebrate the longest day of the year. Last night we partook in the annual festivities on Seurasaari Island, despite the pouring rain (that apparently is also basically tradition at this point).

We wandered amongst the crowd, eyeing vendors that had set up their shops - blacksmiths, woodworkers - and tons of kids who played tug-of-war, walked on stilts, and watched a puppet show in an open field. The main events surround a newlywed couple, chosen annually to be married that day on the island, who perform the Midsummer bridal waltz, and light the main bonfire on the shore later that night. Despite not understanding a word that was spoken or sung, the celebration was special. Hope for a new year filled with love and happiness, togetherness of family. It definitely made me miss my family thousands of miles away.

Yum!

Trying to capture part of the crowd along the shore - waiting for the main bonfire to be lit.

Winding down around 11.

Temppeliaukio Kirkko

I have quickly come to cherish my weekends here in Helsinki. A time to unwind from the week, sleep in, and explore new areas of the city. Trying to keep my last semester's resolution of Saturday = Funday (which is important as I am in Funland, or so my brother calls it), every Saturday I make an effort to see something new.

Yesterday's cold and rain kept me inside most of the day, but late in the afternoon, Kelley, Amanda and I went to Temppeliaukio Kirkko (The Rock Church), which is a short few blocks from our hostel. When we arrived we found out there was a wedding in progress, and the church would only be open for a few minutes in between events. A hoard of visitors pushed their way in as soon as was allowable, and I quickly followed suite - pushing my way in to glimpse the highly anticipated space. Although our time inside was brief, I was captivated by the various textures inside the church: rock, copper, wood, and glass, underlined by the various forms of light within the space, not wanting to leave as we were virtually kicked out no more than 10 minutes later for the day's next event.

Looking up toward the copper ceiling.

Candlelight flickering along the rock wall.

We Whatever (Smile?) in the Face of Adversity

The group of us left campus today around 6 to get our much anticipated bikes. The ride from Domus (our summer hostel) to school is about six miles, so we all decided to get bikes to take a scenic route along the water - most of us, I think, were envisioning a sort of Von Trapp family scenario, minus the matching drapery uniform (because we sure do sing). Used bikes had been reserved for us, so after much testing and debate, we left the shop in a herd, eager to map out our bike route home.

After triumphantly haggling down my bike's price, about ten minutes from the (now closed) shop, my back tire literally exploded. As bikes are not allowed on buses, Kristin offered to walk with me home. So, we naively trotted along, no biggie.

I should have guessed it was a long walk when we stopped at a dog park to ask a gentlemen directions, and he commented, "Why do you want to go to Helsinki?!" My response, "because we live there," followed by him bewildered and telling us it was 10 kilometers away. Well, turns out, we were more like 10 miles away, and spent the next 3+ hours walking home. Thank goodness the weather was really nice today, there were a lot of interesting buildings to look at, and Kristin decided to keep me company. All in the name of not abandoning my great deal.

Definitely looking forward to the weekend...

Blissfully ignorant about an hour into our walk.

The Poetry of Space

After traveling through "the woods" since May 26th, we finally returned to Helsinki last week and were gifted our first free weekend to settle in and do some much needed laundry. Saturday afternoon, several of the graduate students walked to the Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, designed by Steven Holl. After spending last semester reading a lot of Steven Holl's ideas on Phenomenology, I was anxious to experience a work of his. The experience greatly surpassed my expectations. While I have never thought myself to be a great writer, even the best, I think, would lack sufficient words to describe the poetry of space in Kiasma. Light, shadow, texture, color, materiality, undulating forms and movement - a place I will no doubt return to many times while in Helsinki.

Skateboarder paradise near the cafe entrance.

Entry Hall from second floor.

A stunning exhibit by Denise Grunstein.

Textured concrete made by wood forms - a nod to Finnish culture.

Rear auditorium wall wrapped in cerulean velvet panels, asking to be touched.

Arrival

Sean, Mike, Kay and I arrived in Helsinki Tuesday night to join a group of 12 students from UT. After feeling mildly lost, we finally found Scott Wall (the program's head), who promptly gave us a map of the city, and instructed us to find our way to the hostel. After a long day of traveling, it was nice to finally arrive and meet the group - after dinner we had a "scavenger hunt" to orient ourselves in Helsinki. Our group of course got lost, but it was fun - you'd never know it was so late as at midnight it still looked like a typical night at 8pm. The Finns were out in abundance as well, enjoying the light they missed through the dark winter.

Wednesday morning we had a short orientation to the Otaniemi Campus (where we'll have class for the summer), which is a beautiful campus with amazing facilities. The wood shop alone would make the best carpenter salivate, and the shop itself has a sauna on the ground floor (sauna is that important to the Finnish culture). Then we left for Kiljava, an hour's bus ride away, to become better acquainted with each other and start learning the traditional Finnish measurement skills to document our summer project. The past few days have consisted of good food, company, a lot of dimensioning and drawing, and Jari Jetsonen teaching us important Finnish phrases - from the words "thank you" and "sweat" to "greetings from my ass" (apparently what you'd say if someone's work was not good). It's been a lot of fun - probably not entirely reflective of the work load to come, but fun nonetheless.

We left Kiljava this morning, and are now several hours and bus rides away in Kauttua, where we will be for 4 - 5 days, documenting a terraced house Alvar Aalto designed. We just arrived a few hours ago, and everyone rushed straight away to their rooms, as we finally have internet access again. We are just getting started making dinner together, then will relax before starting the big group project tomorrow morning.

The group - outside the SAFA (Society of Finnish Architects) - our first stop in Kiljava.

Our house in Kiljava - photo taken around 10 pm.

Early drawings at the old sauna to practice measuring/group documentation.

Sauna time before dinner - cooling off in the lake.

My favorite house in Kiljava - of course it's the one with the yellow door.

Experiences of Water

With the first year of school under my belt, I wanted to post my final project for the 502 studio. The first half the semester we did an urban design project (mixed use commercial/residential building on 14th and W Streets NW), and while I liked the project, our second project for the semester really resonated with me. We were given two potential sites on the Potomac River in DC, and were to design a boathouse. One of the sites was just west of the Key Bridge, an urban, compact area with a fast change of grade. I, however, landed the other site, west of Georgetown, with a gradual sloping terrain and more remote location.

This semester for my theory class, I did a ton of research on phenomenology and architecture, which snowballed into a great interest in perception. In fact, over Easter, I went to the Hirshhorn, and saw an exhibit of Josef Albers and Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, and was really inspired by their pure geometric forms and how they manipulated perception of said forms, which eventually would influence my decision to use multiple buildings of simple forms.

My concept began with the movement of water, fast versus slow, which translated itself into active versus restful programmatic areas. Using water to indicate path, my project explored circulation, and crossing thresholds into various levels of rest. The visitor to the boathouse would "enter" through the information center, and have different options along the path: either head straight down to the boathouse along the main path (the "fast" movement), or cross a water channel at various points along the way to experience the dwelling units, spa, community room or cafe (the "slow" experiences).

I spent much of my time working on the dwelling units. From crossing the threshold on the path, one would take a bridge along a pool that all of the units floated on. This larger body of water mimicked the canal and Potomac, indicating a slower, more restful zone of the project. Upon entry into a dwelling unit, the viewer would experience a linear continuation of water which raked down the sloping terrain. This experience of water was underlined by the rain shower created on axis with this flow of water - reiterating the idea of water and path.

My first experience with water color paper and water colors - a lot of fun, but a lot of work. Here is my site plan and a section of the site.

Plan of project. Entry is on the right, and as the visitor walks down the path, experiences the dwelling units, spa, and finally the community room and cafe walking towards the dock.

Various programmatic areas blown up drawn in plan, section, and perspective.

32nd scale massing model of the buildings and how they related to the site.

Quarter scale dwelling unit from river side. Channel of water was to flow from pool down terrain.

Dwelling unit from entry side along bridge.

Interior of dwelling unit. Rain shower was between skylights, along the path of the water channel down the site.