menin Satakunnan

Last week I took my first trip outside of the Helsinki metropolitan area. At Auli Puhakka's invitation, I joined some students from TKK on a trip to Satakunta. En route we took a coffee break in Humppila. The complex where we stopped contains a glass workshop and we were fortunate to see a team blowing one of the lovely birds designed by Oiva Toikka. The glass is blown into an oval, decoration is applied in a spiral wrap, the head is attached, and finally the bird is cut off the blowpipe and placed in an annealing oven to cool. The pipe is attached at the bird's neck, and the scar of the pipe is covered with a blob of glass which forms the head.
Our first stop was at the Villa Mairea in Noormarkku, one of Alvar Aalto's masterpieces. Renovations, including work on the windows, precluded our seeing the interior. We will return once the work is complete, but for the mean time, here are a few photos of the exterior.

The approach to the house runs through a birch allée.
The house is surrounded by a forest of widely-spaced trees - a landscape referenced by many of the building's details. Here is the iconic view from the driveway. Although quite large (some 800 square meters), the building's irregular composition and diverse materials reduce its apparent scale.
The exterior fireplace between the house and the sauna.
Railing detail.
We stopped in Pori for just a few minutes to get a bite to eat, then drove south to Rauma. The heart of Rauma is the old wood town, which is listed in the UNESCO world heritage registry.

Architect Jukka Koivula, who was instrumental in getting the town protected and who continues to be involved with its preservation, gave us a walking tour of the town. He suggests that historicist facades should be applied to several buildings that were designed a few decades ago without regard for the historic context. This proposal led to a discussion about authenticity in architecture. Which is the lesser evil: applying a pastiche veneer, or retaining buildings that disrupt the character of the place?


Jukka Koivula lives in the old town; this is the corner of his house. The decoration on the window trim is indicative of his profession: it consists of pencils, with erasers between them!