Finlandia-talo

Most photographs of Finlandia Hall (Alvar Aalto, 1975) don't show the basket-weave effect produced through a slight curvature of each marble panel. Perhaps Aalto had woven birch-bark shoes in mind when he designed the cladding. (See for example the shoes in Albert Edelfelt's 1890 painting of Jesus meeting Mary Madalene in Finland.) In any event the texture relates the large planar surfaces to human scale.Unfortunately the Italian Carrara marble that Aalto used is inappropriate for this climate. Behind the building, a series of large wire baskets filled with fragments of rubble attests to the fact that the panels need to be renewed every decade. I couldn't figure out the purpose of the baskets; it turns out they're an art installation.

Interior view.The line of the mezzanine is inflected so as to engage the structural columns. The resultant occupiable spaces do not fulfill any functional requirements; they allow for serendipitous use. Providing spaces that are not specifically programmed allows occupants to use a building in ways that the architect might not have anticipated.Accommodating individual responses thus requires the architect to sacrifice a degree of control but allows for a richer range of experiences. It's an approach that is more common in landscape architecture and poetry than in architecture. (W. B. Yeats wrote, "a poet who interprets his own poem limits its suggestibility.")

A change in handrail texture gives a tactile cue that the staircase has ended.
Detail of handrail attachment.Exterior handrails, although not leather-wrapped, are attached using the same detail. However, weathering has resulted in the metal staining the marble. While weathering can enhance the appearance of materials and surfaces, it is most likely to be successful when anticipated by the architect. At Finlandia Hall, the irregular greenish stains are incongruous against the carefully finished marble.

I went to see a concert at Finlandia Hall: Gustav Mahler's Seventh Symphony. Mahler was a contemporary of my favorite composer, Jean Sibelius. However, Mahler seems to have lacked the restraint that characterizes Sibelius' work. Mahler's Seventh Symphony consists of five wide-ranging movements; the orchestration includes two harps, a mandolin, a guitar, cowbells, gongs, and an enormous brass section.

Fortunately for me, this wasn't the Swan of Tuonela, but here are two images of a "kyhmyjoutsen" on its nest. The Pornaistenniemi reserve is near the old city power station in Arabia, just 6 km from downtown Helsinki!